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The scene was one of 'controlled chaos': hundreds of students openly smoking drugs, shot-gunning beer and performing lewd dance moves as the first weekend of Spring Break got underway on Fort Lauderdale's Las Olas Beach.
Others could be seen swigging from bottles of vodka and whiskey or guzzling tequila hidden in water pistols while some had to be helped off the sand after becoming too drunk to stand.
All of that in defiance of a 'zero tolerance policy' towards drugs and alcohol on the beach and a heavy police presence that included K-9 and mounted units.
One local cop told DailyMail.com: 'What you're seeing is controlled chaos. This isn't even a particularly busy day.
'Mostly, what we see is misdemeanor stuff, drunk, fighting stuff. One of them will get out a boom box and they all crowd round it.
'There's definitely drugs – you can smell it in the air – so what we do is take a K-9 through every so often.'
Fort Lauderdale is one of the most popular Spring Break destinations in Florida, with a recent survey putting it in second place after Orlando and its theme park resorts and ahead of nearby Miami.