WHEN NOSES SUPPOSE

Re: "Teacher is cited in pot possession," Oct. 9 new story.

The Denver Post reported that the Douglas County Sheriff's Department,
participating in a new program at the county's schools, used drug-sniffing
dogs to identify nine vehicles as possibly containing trace amounts of
illegal substances. The real news here is not that a teacher was caught
with a small amount of marijuana, but rather that the eight other targeted
vehicles, after being searched, were found to be clean. This means these
"expert" dogs were wrong 89 percent of the time.

What has become of our country when we are forced to allow a band of
gun-toting strangers (i.e., Douglas County deputies) to paw through our
personal possessions on the say-so of some dogs?

BERND STRUBEN

Evergreen