The war on drugs has shifted to schools. School authorities have taken unprecedented steps to bring in sniffer dogs to track possession of drugs by kids. Most kids in schools have found this to be quite intimidating. The use of these ‘trained’ dogs has become widespread in the United States, Canada and the United Kingdom, even in the face of recent supreme court rulings against the practice.

No doubt, drug usage is a huge problem and the solution is not easy. But sniffer dogs in schools is like the tail that wags the dog. The real problem is the source of the drugs not the small pushers in schools. Despite the arguments that have been made back and forth, in support and against the practice, the issue is not so much whether the practice violate our constitutional right as as much as it deals with the basic question which has not been really addressed. That is : “Are the authorities focusing on the real issue, the sources of the drugs? Shouldn’t these resources(sniffer dogs, police time, equipment, court resources and related facilities) be directed at the big drug dealers rather the small pushers in schools who are really the victims?” Many believe that the authorities are not really interested in solving the real problem.
What do you think?