Ali is a highly trained German shepherd that spent eight years on narcotics patrol with the New Jersey police force, hunting down drug smugglers at airports and drug dealers on inner-city streets. Post-retirement, he's working in the private sector, sniffing teenagers' bedrooms.
Ali and his handler are now working for a new company in New Jersey called Sniff Dogs.
The company, which also conducts business in Ohio, rents drug-sniffing canines to parents for $200 an hour. It was started this year by Debra Stone, who says her five trained dogs can detect heroin, cocaine, crystal meth and ecstasy.
The dogs' noses are so sensitive that they can smell a marijuana seed from up to 15 feet away and marijuana residue on clothing from drugs smoked two nights before.
One of the selling points of this service? Avoiding the kind of confrontation that comes with a drug test. [ABC News]
Parenting is hard and teenage drug abuse is almost impossible to handle exactly the right way. But bringing drug sniffing dogs into your house is just totally crazy, it really is. Itâs the sort of approach that only occurs to parents whose over-the-top hysteria about drugs has already eliminated the possibility that their kids would actually tell them anything voluntarily.
Update: In response to this comment, I don't think the point is really to help parents who are already dealing with a drug abuse problem in their home. At that point, you don't need a drug dog to tell you what you already know. If you start doing stuff like that, your kid just won't bring it in the house. One of the mothers quoted in the story is using the dog as an extra precaution even though her kids seem fine. And that's weird. Seriously. If your kids say they're not using drugs and they're happy and doing well in school, etc. and yet you're still marching drug dogs around their rooms...you're the one with a problem.
Dear friends:
Today, the campaign to pass a marijuana decriminalization initiative in Massachusetts began airing two new TV ads.
In the ads, retired police officers urge voters to pass the initiative next month.
In one ad, Sergeant Howard Donahue, a 33-year veteran of the Boston Police Department, says, âTake it from a cop who walked the beat. Please vote yes on Question 2.â
In the other ad, Lieutenant Tom Nolan, a Boston police officer for 27 years, says, âI entered law enforcement to catch bad guys, not to deny someone an education for life just because they made a mistake.â (This is a reference to current law in Massachusetts, where simply getting arrested â not even convicted â for possessing a small amount of marijuana generates a permanent record in a database that employers, landlords, and schools can search and use to preclude offenders from getting jobs, housing, and school loans.)
 
Would you please help the Committee for Sensible Marijuana Policy keep these ads on the air between now and Election Day? Airing TV ads in major markets like Boston is always expensive â but even more so during a presidential campaign. With only 14 days remaining until Election Day, the campaign urgently needs supporters like you to chip in to push the initiative to victory.
Thank you so much for anything you can do to help.
Sincerely,
Rob Kampia
Executive Director
Marijuana Policy Project
Washington, D.C.
P.S. You can opt out of receiving fundraising mentions in the e-mail alerts I send you in 2008 by visiting www.mpp.org/2008optoutpreference at your convenience.