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May 18, 2010· scvtalk.com · WordPress (SCVTalk 3.0) · Wayback capture

Drug Dogs at the Hart District

By Jeff — Jeff Wilson

So when did Randy Cressall, owner of Valencia Auto Spa, become an expert in training drug dogs?

That’s the question I had after reading today’s Signal report and the Hart Board agenda item about Cressall donating his company’s services to the Hart District gratis:

Numerous strategies need to be utilized to establish a drug free campus.  Current strategies being utilized are curricular drug and alcohol education and prevention, referrals to community intervention programs such as DAPEC (Drug and Alcohol Prevention Education Curriculum) at the Child and Family Center, ACTION, and the SCV Youth Project, parent conferencing, student study teams, strict discipline policies, and law enforcement intervention.  In addition, the District has set up a voluntary student drug testing program called CADRE (Comprehensive Alcohol Drug Reduction Education) that includes drug education seminars for parents.  Drug detection dogs are another strategy that can be effective in establishing drug free campuses.

Randy Cressall, of CTR School Drug Dog Detection Services, is present this evening to offer his company’s services to the Hart District at no charge.

No offense to Mr. Cressall, who is something of an expert when it comes to local gas prices, but I’d think twice if I were a parent of a Hart District student before I’d let my kid’s possessions be sniffed by dogs belonging to a company with no track record and no website that I can find anywhere.

Stepping back even further, I’d have a problem with any private business interest offering drug dogs for use on school campuses. Why? Because we’re talking about a student’s rights and liberty versus a business model that will sooner or later have to show results to justify the expense and trouble of bringing the dogs in in the first place.

I realize everyone is frightened and nervous about the black tar heroin stories, but acting without thinking isn’t going to do us any good.

Should be interesting to see how this one plays out.

Comments (19)

  1. navigatorMay 18, 2010 at 11:07 am
    Maybe he trains them to sniff out drugs at the car wash?
  2. Kevin D. KorenthalMay 18, 2010 at 11:26 am
    I think that dogs sniffing possessions is less of a disenfranchisement then physical searches are. Even if you are like me and are indifferent to “THE DRUG WAR”, we have got to limit drug use by teenagers if we expect to raise a generation that is worth a sh**.
  3. mikeMay 18, 2010 at 1:33 pm
    If you use the nose of an ill-trained dog as a pretext for an invasive search of an innocent student for whom they’d have no other reason to suspect wrongdoing, then you’ve got a problem. I don’t mind the schools catching the drugs (though I think the discipline policy is wrong-headed as it stands), but I would bother me if innocent students are searched without proper justification or suspicion.
  4. Kevin D. KorenthalMay 18, 2010 at 11:31 am
    I can’t find the original article online, but Rolling Stone Magazine’s expose called, “How America Lost The Drug War” is a must read. Slate.com has a pretty good primer: http://www.slate.com/id/2178795
  5. Timothy MyersMay 18, 2010 at 12:21 pm
    Fear not Jeff!! I have not met a law enforcement K-9 officer yet who did not believe that these private dogs were poseurs and phonies that could not sniff out cannabis at a “High Times” convention.
  6. cashMay 18, 2010 at 1:15 pm
    And you would expect an officer that makes a living on the K-9 unit to think otherwise? Come on Timmy, broaden that myopic view of which you seem forever stuck.
  7. Timothy MyersMay 18, 2010 at 2:39 pm
    Cash: Let’s compare the private cops to the real cops. Nuff said.
  8. cashMay 18, 2010 at 4:01 pm
    Real cops come from the same community as private cops. Hence I have the same character expectations. More said.
  9. mikecMay 18, 2010 at 1:42 pm
    Jeff, students have a very limited expectation of privacy…you might recall the recent court ruling, inwhich a young lady was stripped search etc. Im sensing a new business prescription marijuana cards…no sir that is not an illegal drug it is my medication or better yet, they get to go the nurse’s office and light up a joint, there not smoking they’re ingesting their medication…tough problem, inwhich the solution has to start with the family…
  10. Timothy MyersMay 18, 2010 at 2:38 pm
    mikec: The UC and CSU systems do not recognize medical marijuana cards. Does the K-12 system?
  11. DamageincMay 19, 2010 at 9:02 am
    They would make them take it in Tea form.
  12. BrianMay 18, 2010 at 2:49 pm
    Since drugs have been in schools forever and despite the doom and gloom about a worthless society, (nice fear mongering Korenthal), I put my money on the kids winning this one too! As adults we can’t even fix the operational and educational aspects of schooling. Go chase a few druggies around if that makes you feel better. You’re wasting our money and will accomplish nothing. It seems grown-ups didn’t get an education and aren’t worth a sh** either. See the definition of insanity!
  13. mikecMay 18, 2010 at 5:29 pm
    Timmy, can you be a bit more specific? For example the clinic won’t disperse or give out a card etc..? Because I know of a few places because of work, where you can get a prescription for about $150!!!! Also, I think it would make for an interesting court case, if a student was denied his access to “medicine.” In the end the CA Supreme court is going to have to rule on this…especially if the ballot measure passes in November….
  14. BrianMay 18, 2010 at 7:11 pm
    About $95 gets you a card good for a year and $50 renews it. As you can see from the slideshow, the driving factor in keeping pot illegal is the pharmaceutical companies. If they can’t profit from something, it must be made illegal. They have killed many patients while you would be hard pressed to find even one who died directly from marijuana. Keep an eye out for the misinformation on this topic.
  15. BrianMay 18, 2010 at 7:36 pm
    http://health.msn.com/health-topics/slideshow.aspx?cp-documentid=100257141&gt1=31535 I forgot the link.
  16. DamageincMay 19, 2010 at 9:03 am
    Yes I had a friend that paid the $100 and got it.
  17. Timothy MyersMay 19, 2010 at 8:12 am
    mikec: A student caught with cannabis or using cannabis on a UC or CSU campus will still be disciplined even if they have a medical marijuana card.
  18. DamageincMay 19, 2010 at 9:04 am
    Sounds like discrimination to me.
  19. OlenkaMay 19, 2010 at 11:01 am
    Don’t get caught! I busted a few freshman with weed at UCI when I was an RA. Weed confiscated. Kids handed over to the cops. Then we all smoked out. JUST KIIDING!

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