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Cannabis Campaigners' Guide News Database result:
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UK: Police dog sniffs out school's drug secret
Jeevan Vasagar The Guardian
Thursday 17 Jan 2002 The school talk on drugs prevention was nearly over when Bonnie the sniffer dog caught the whiff of something fishy. Or, more precisely, something earthy and slightly sweet. And, despite all the publicity about a relaxation of drug laws, something that is still illegal. The two-year-old German short-haired pointer had accompanied a police officer to a special assembly at Ilfracombe school and community college in North Devon. As the pupils filed out she became excited after detecting the smell of cannabis. Her handler told college principal David Humphries, who agreed to allow the dog to search the lockers. Cannabis was duly discovered. The findings led to two 15-year-old schoolboys and a 16-year-old receiving official reprimands from police. Another 15-year-old will be prosecuted for possession after being found with 1.54g of cannabis resin. All four boys were temporarily excluded from the school following the talk last Friday. Devon and Cornwall police spokesman, Sergeant Alan Mobbs, said the specialist drugs officer took the sniffer dog to the school to show pupils how police detected drugs. "It is ironic that one of the themes of the officer's talk to the pupils was to tell them that, whatever they may have heard to the contrary, possession of cannabis is still illegal. "The dog is the first in our force which has been trained as a passive drugs dog, meaning she does not need to be ordered to search before she starts detecting drugs. "In this case, the dog indicated the presence of cannabis as the pupils filed out of the lesson and as a result a search was made of the lockers and very small amounts of drugs were found in four of them." The excluded boys' return was conditional on them agreeing to take part in a programme of counselling. The spot check, the principal said, had been arranged with police as part of the special assembly.
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