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Cannabis Campaigners' Guide News Database result:
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UK: Schools draft in sniffer dogs
Phil Mills Brighton & Hove Argus
Tuesday 04 Feb 2003 Police sniffer dogs are being sent into schools to hound out drug users. Students will be brought into assemblies where the dogs will sit beside any student in possession of drugs, or who has recently had contact with them. The move aims to raise awareness among pupils following the growing use of soft drugs, mainly cannabis, among young people. Sussex Police has received reports of some pupils in the county rolling joints in school toilets and even in classrooms. To reinforce the anti-drugs message, three schools in Hove - Blatchington Mill, Cardinal Newman and Hove Park - have invited the police and sniffer dogs in as part of their drugs awareness programmes. Other headteachers in the city may follow suit. Letters from David Hawker, the city council's education chief, are being sent to parents of pupils at the three schools. He said: "Once an indication has been made by the dog, the person identified will be kept behind and appropriate action will be taken by the school, subject to individual circumstances. "This action will include parents being notified as soon as possible." Mr Hawker said there was a worrying increase in youngsters taking drugs and one survey showed 27 per cent of all local 14 to 15-year-olds had taken some form of drug. He said: "Many young people do not think cannabis is unsafe and although it is being reclassified from a Class B to C drug it still remains illegal. "There remain considerable health concerns about its usage. For example, research recently found that one cannabis cigarette contains the same amount of cancer-causing chemicals as five cigarettes." Mr Hawker asked parents and carers for their support and said the aim was to ensure students were fully aware of health and legal implications "not the least, the adverse affects on students' learning and their lives outside schools". PC Andy Hart, schools liaison officer, stressed police were not going into schools to persecute but to educate and to reinforce the "zero tolerance" message. He said schools had a duty to enforce discipline and a duty of care to the vast majority of students who were not using drugs. There was no suggestion the three schools had worse or better problems than others in the city and he praised them for stepping up the fight against drugs. He said the message was identical to that concerning alcohol - it was dangerous and would not be tolerated in schools. Some students might be picked out by sniffer dogs simply because they had sat next to a student carrying cannabis. He said: "Parents will be sent letters in such cases explaining what happened and no further action will be taken. "Where this has happened in schools elsewhere, known users have been ostracised - no one wants to sit next to them." Visits by sniffer dogs to the schools will occur through to June but PC Hart said pupils would not be given prior warning of visits.
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