According to a news report on November 13th from the website Clickorlando, the Education Board of Lake County, Florida in the United States is currently considering a vote during their meeting to determine whether or not to allocate funds for a dedicated “K9 program” for e-cigarette detection.
The police canine, named Samba, is a 1.5-year-old yellow Labrador retriever and will be dedicated to investigating the presence of e-cigarettes and THC (the psychoactive compound in cannabis) within schools across Lake County.
According to data from the Lake County Sheriff’s Office, a total of 323 violation notices related to e-cigarettes were issued by 23 schools during the 2022-2023 academic year. As for the current 2023-2024 academic year, as of October 31st, 84 notices related to e-cigarettes have already been issued. The use of e-cigarettes on college campuses is increasingly becoming difficult to detect, and this trend has raised concerns among the public.
Against this backdrop, the Lake County County Education Bureau will vote to decide whether to provide $63,000 in funding for Samba’s handlers. Samba’s training is scheduled to begin on November 27th. District officials state that Samba may undergo training in early 2024.
