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also question this idea of a drug-free zone. The B.C. Civil Liberties Association (BCCLA) criticized the idea of drug-free zones back in their 2000 Annual Report. They say that the way police and school officials have sold the idea by stating anyone caught in the zone would face double and triple the penalties has no relevance in our legal system. According to the report, there are no such allowances to increase penalties.

Under the section of the BCCLA report entitled Brickbats & Bouquets where they list the best defenders of, and the worst offenders against, civil liberties, high schools around the province received a Brickbat for creating drug-free zones. A constitutional lawyer in Vancouver (who had never heard of drug-free zones until talking with Cannabis Health) also found the concept strange and without merit.

"There is no discretion on the part of an officer to dictate penalties," says Ronald A. Skolrood of Lawson Lundell Lawson & McIntosh. "The sentencing judge has some leniency, but that range is set by the criminal code. They [the police] don’t have unilateral discretion to do that. That is an issue for the legislature and the sentencing judge." But Sgt. Little does not contend that there is any legal validity to the drug-free zone, only that it is an extenuating circumstance that the RCMP hope a judge will take into account. "There is no legal validity," Little says, "What it does is allow the judges to hear about the circumstances. Courts are independent and we respect that. That is the foundation of our democratic system. It is their decision. We don’t say, ‘You have to double the penalty.’ We would like the judges to listen to this." But Mollard of the BCCLA says that this war on drugs mentality simply causes more harm and does nothing to address any real problems. "Where a student does receive criminal charges and is convicted, it can affect their life in a negative way for what might be youthful experimentation and errors that are made," he said. More recently in Grand Forks another student got busted for possession of marijuana seeds found during routine – but randomly timed – drug dog patrols. These random patrols in the Boundary school district and in the Surrey school district are being questioned as invasions of privacy. "I’ll tell you what I think about this," says Mollard, "I think it is a terrible message to youth about the random use of police agents to essentially suspect everyone of having drugs in their possession." Schools have an important role in drug education and this heavy-handed practice of monthly drug-dog patrols is no way to treat young people, according to Mollard. "This sends the wrong message to children and is ultimately an extension

of an american mentality of the war on drugs. I’d like to see schools engaging with students in a mature way in which they have open and frank discussions about drugs and not an authoritarian  police state," he says. But Boundary school district Superintendent Denny Kemprud says there is nothing strange about random police dog checks and they are necessary to "protect" students. Despite incredulity on the part of many adults who find out that an RCMP officer and a German Shepherd routinely patrol the halls at GFSS, Kemprud claims it is nothing new. "We have used drug dogs as long as I’ve been in education," Kemprud says. "That’s 30 years." ß "Absolute bunk," says Mollard. "I was a student 20 years ago and I never heard of it until recently." In terms of the legality of the searches, the school district has got that covered. Even the lockers of students don’t belong to them, nor are they used even in a rental-type arrangement, so the infringement of privacy might not be an issue. "Students are told that the lockers are the property of the school district," GFSS principal Doug Brydon says. "But usually we keep the Lockers private." Whenever Cst. Terry Carter and Bela from the Nelson RCMP dog unit are in the Grand Forks area, Brydon says they invite him in. On Oct. 9th, 2002 they cruised the halls and Bela found something interesting in a locker. A few marijuana seeds were found and the student was immediately put on indefinite suspension as per school policy. Kemprud says that the dogs come into the schools once every month or two, depending on the availability of the drug dog unit, and the procedure is kept random. And they don't like to talk about it. "There are too many ears and too many scanners," he says. "You have to appreciate the public Welfare of the students is paramount and it’s public property, but it’s public property that we have to make sure we look after." Mollard says he is not an apologist for drug use but rather he is stating that marijuana is virtually decriminalized, so it should be treated as such. Kemprud isn’t interested in that argument and says in that way it is the same as a legal drug in the school: alcohol. "Until such time as it is decriminalized we will keep our schools clean," he says, "and even after that we will keep our schools clean. Simply because of the fact that you can’t ask a teacher or an administrator to be running a school with somebody that’s stoned."

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