Drug sniffer dogs could soon be sent into South Australian high schools, Premier Steven Marshall promised this week.

Under the proposed “Stop the Scourge in Schools” policy, which Mr Marshall promised to uphold if he won the state election in March, South Australian police would be allowed into state high schools to inspect locker rooms and classrooms for drugs.

The searches would be compulsory for public schools, while private schools could opt out.

“We will be directing the Police Commissioner to develop a protocol for the ability for the police to go into our schools, where required, to make sure that drugs are not present in the schools,” Mr Marshall said during question time on Tuesday.

We don't think that the concept of sending a police sniffer dog into a school to check whether drugs are present is a massive intrusion. They are not going to be rifling through bags within classrooms. They will be doing it in a reasonable and respectful way.

Police Minister Corey Wingard also said he is in “constant conversations” with the police commissioner as they “develop protocols” for the policy.

Teachers could ask police to come onto campus

Police already have the power to enter any school in the state if they had reasonable suspicion drug dealing was taking place.

What triple j listeners said about sniffer dogs in schools: "Shouldn't we spend all this money beating drug dealing at the direct source - the suppliers? Rather than the odd school kid that might have a joint in their school bags?"

"You have nothing to fear with sniffer dogs if you're not doing anything wrong. Drugs are illegal."

"Sniffer dogs in schools is just turning kids into criminals. Treat drug use as a health problem, not a criminal issue."

"I'm a teacher in Melbourne and I think it's a great idea to have sniffer dogs in schools. Drugs don't belong in schools and it opens another conversation avenue about harm minimisation with students who are at risk."

"If you've got no drugs, you've got nothing to worry about. The whole point is to reduce the risk drugs cause to Australian youth isn't it?"

"Sniffer dogs shouldn't be allowed in schools because it is such a volatile time of growth for young Australians, they don't need any extra pressure, or even any extra reason to bully."

Under the new policy, school leadership - so, the principal and teachers - would be able to ask police to come on campus to carry out a random inspection.

Sniffer dogs would not be allowed to inspect students themselves, unless police had specific information that the student had drugs on them.

The policy caused a lot of backlash when proposed during the state election earlier this year, with some concerned the move would take police resources away from tackling crime on the streets.

Adelaide remains the highest capital city for the use of methamphetamine, following a Federal Government report into national levels of drug use.

Premier Marshall said the government wanted to take action on the state’s drug problem.

“[It is] our absolute resolved position to do everything we can to keep our children at school free from the insidious opportunity that some people take to sell drugs at schools,” he said.

“We want to stamp it out. If it is in schools, we want to identify it. Once we identify it, we want to take action.”