Millburn High School is in the news...

...today and it got my attention because that's where I would have gone to high school if I hadn't gone to the Catholic school. Apparently, Millburn High has come up with a new plan to use dogs to search for drugs on campus this spring. And I have to ask, is this really necessary? The principal wrote in an e-mail, "I willingly risk student trust if it saves a single life." The article doesn't say how many students have died in the last year or so from using drugs but I'll bet it's somewhere in the neighborhood of zero. It does mention that a sampling of the police blotter from this month showed two teenagers were charged with drinking and three others with possessing alcohol. Is this the problem the dogs are supposed to remedy? I doubt it. I'll bet they're there to sniff out marijuana, maybe cocaine. I don't know if dogs can sniff out pills or alcohol, so I'll bet this is mostly about pot. And although it seems like some stupid college kid dies each year from drinking too much booze in too short a time, I've never heard of anyone dying from smoking pot. And then there were the two 16-year-old girls who said that most of the incidents involving drugs or alcohol happened outside of school. Gee, like maybe Friday or Saturday nights? Who woulda thunk it? Oh well, it's the taxpayers' money; they can spend it any way they want. But it sure seems like a waste to me. Instead, how about having an honest conversation about why kids and parents use drugs and alcohol in the first place? You could save a few bucks, leave the dogs to do what they do best (like chasing squirrels), and actually put everyone's time to a better use.