New measures help schools in the Western Cape deal with drug problems
NO doubt about it, Jake definitely has a nose for narcotics. In fact the very scent of cocaine, dagga or mandrax sends him into a frenzy. But Jake is no junkie. He belongs to Detector Dogs – a security company using sniffer dogs to detect drugs at schools in the Western Cape.
Police statistics show increased drug abuse by learners in Western Cape schools. And while arrests of drug dealers have decreased by more than 30% in recent years, access to illegal substances is becoming easier. According to Western Cape social workers today’s schoolgoers no longer choose soft drugs like dagga, but cover the entire narcotics spectrum, from mandrax (buttons), ecstacy and Wellcanol (pinks) to the most hard-core drugs such as crack-cocaine and heroin.
The Western Cape Department of Education’s Safety in Schools programme has approved the use of specialised drug dog units to sniff out drugs at schools. This decision is the result of a highly successful pilot programme launched in 1999 by Safety in Schools together with Detector Dogs at eight schools in Mitchells Plain. The programme proved a huge success, with dogs being treated as celebrities by pupils and principals alike.
Due to a lack of departmental funding, schools wishing to use the Detector Dogs programme must pay for it. Inevitably, some schools believe there are more pressing priorities. Others say that they have not yet been informed that the programme even exists.
”We were extremely impressed with the results of the pilot programme last year and are still interested in making use of Detector Dogs throughout schools in the province,” says Eugene Daniels, who heads the Western Cape’s Safety in Schools programme. ”But we also believe in empowering individual schools to decide for themselves whether or not they want to use some of their funds for the this purpose. Only with the permission of the schools’ governing bodies can these programmes take place. It’s a pity if schools do not take up this initiative but we respect their autonomy.”
The use of drug sniffer dogs in schools is not entirely free from controversy. For some the notion of drug detector canines conjures up images of vicious dogs accompanied by militant handlers in uniforms and jack-boots. ””This perception is totally inaccurate,” says Tony Levin who launched the successful Detector Dogs pilot programme last year. ”We use border collies and labradors with gentle, playful temperaments. They associate drug sniiffing with a fun activity in much the same way that they might go in search of a bone.” He adds: ”No force is used on them and the dog handlers do not behave in a chauvinistic, militant manner. The dogs pose no physical threat and the handlers are there to assist in detecting drugs, not performing arrests.
It takes up to 103 days to train the dogs. Levin insists that the dogs never have direct contact with the drugs. ”There is no danger of them becoming drug addicts themselves. If they were to directly ingest a potent narcotic like cocaine, they would die,” he says.
Levin has already linked up with drug counselling bodies in the Western Cape to develop a comprehensive youth drug rehabilitation programme in conjunction with Detector Dogs. This approach is similar to initiatives introduced in the United States, where schools once regarded as notorious drug dens are today drug-free zones, according to visiting sociologist Chris Reeves, a social worker employed by an American sniffer dog unit called Dogs Against Drugs.
— The Teacher/Mail & Guardian, August 31, 2000.
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