File this under “waste of police resources and tax dollars”, please. Police in suburban Wareham, MA descended upon the town’s High School, Middle School, and Co-operative School early Friday morning in a massive, coordinated drug-sweep. The result: 3 high school students were found in possession of less than an ounce of marijuana, which has been decriminalized in the state since 2008, and carries a penalty in the form of a $100 citation.
The “Gateway to Cape Cod” lighthouses along Route 28 in front of the Police Station in Wareham
According to a report in the New Bedford Standard Times, around 9:30 a.m. Friday 15 canine officers from the Wareham Police Department, Plymouth County Sheriff’s Department, Massachusetts Department of Correction and several local municipal departments searched Wareham High School, Wareham Middle School and Co-operative School.
During the searches, 14 “indications” of marijuana were hit upon by the canine units, and three juvenile high school students were found in possession of marijuana. No other drugs were discovered in the sweep.
In a written statement, Wareham Police Chief Richard Stanley praised the cooperative effort of the town’s police and school’s departments in the effort to “eradicate illegal drugs from our school system and to prevent drugs from reaching the school-aged children of Wareham.”
Chief Stanley failed to mention that the cost of the drug sweep to tax payers could exceed thousands of dollars, despite the fact that the sweep netted only $300 in revenue for the town, zero arrests, and no hard drugs.
READ MORE: Wareham: Drug Task Forces Invades Schools, Nets 3 Marijuana Citations
The Daily Chronic, Nov. 19, 2011