Hello,
I am posting this mainly due to a conversation a few students and I had about drug use in high school students. As almost every teenager these days know, April 20th is National Marijuana Smoking Day. I am wondering if the authorities at schools (Juvenile Intervention Officers, Teachers, Administration) are aware of this? I mean look, if you are really serious about keeping drugs out of schools, would that day not be the perfect day to do a K9 search of the school? I guess the first question would to be to figure out the legality of it, but after that it would be pretty straight forward wouldn’t it?

Now i’m not a police officer (yet), but would the following steps work to make this happen?
-First create a program that teaches the school staff how to recognize the signs of illegal drug use. I’ve heard they have one, but honestly I have never seen it actually put to use in classes.
-Check to see if there are enough K9 units to perform the sweep (6 high schools, 8 middle schools [maybe]).
-Coordinate with administration of each school.
-Perform sweeps through the hallways of each school while class is in session.
-Have K9 units sweep during the exiting of lunch possibly?

I know this is a simplification of how it would have to work, but in general do you think it could?
Reply if anyone has any input or information on this.

it’s been over 25 years since i was in high school, but 4/20 was an “event” then, and i suspect it has been tradition for quite sometime (actually a quick wiki check pins the start of this tradition back to 1971). therefore, i suspect it’s quite well-known by school administration types.

my guess would be that anyone who brings weed to school on 4/20 probably brings weed other times of the year. so, while it is certainly a good idea to do this, it will only take one sweep on 4/20 and then the kids will know forevermore that’s the one day to leave the weed at home. which obviously is the point.

but i’d like to suggest random sweeps four or five times a year would probably be a bit more of a deterrent, if that’s what your goal is.

i have seen studies suggesting that up to 60% of high school students smoke weed on a regular basis (more on an infrequent basis), so i suspect teacher/administrators/counselors are pretty well-versed in knowing how to spot abuse patterns.

Well random sweeps would be the best thing to do by far, but the fact is many students (more than usual) are in possession or under the influence of marijuana on 4/20. As you pointed out in your post, a lot of them are infrequent users. 4/20 is one of the days that a higher percentage are using and possibly possessing. And the teachers may be well-versed in spotting it, but my point is that I, as a student, never see it practiced, even when it is EXTREMELY evident a student is under the influence.

All those things cost money, which no one has.

Marijuana will be legal medically within 3 years and for all other purposes in 10-15 years.
I’d rather they smoke weed than get drunk.

i agree 100% weatherman. however, we’re talking about high school students, and i don’t think any public dialog about the complete failure of the “drug war” includes advocating marijuana use by minors, not to mention in our high schools.

It’s looking like we finally won that drug war!  If you can’t “beat em” “join em”

Wait till they tax the crap when its legal and when many more folks get hooked like cigarette smoking raise the taxes thru the roof.  Their real plan.