NEED FOR DRUG EDUCATION IN ACT PRIMARY SCHOOLS, SAYS SUPPORT GROUP

Revelations that secondary school students as young as 12 had injected
heroin or cocaine reinforced the need for drug education in primary
schools, a local support group said.

Directions ACT (Assisting Drug Dependents) executive officer Karen Harmon
said yesterday the Health Department's findings would not surprise drug and
alcohol workers at the coal face.

Anecdotal evidence already suggested children as young as nine experimented
with alcohol, tobacco and marijuana, which she said they obtained from the
family home in most cases.

Chief Minister Jon Stanhope issued the 1999 ACT Secondary Schools Alcohol
and Drug Survey, which involved questioning more than 2000 students aged
between 12 and 17 about tobacco, alcohol, illicit drug use and sun protection.

More than half the participants had tried illicit drugs about one in three
had used marijuana, one in four had tried inhalants and more than 30 per
cent had experimented with other substances, including tranquillisers,
hallucinogens, amphetamines, ecstasy, steroids, cocaine and heroin.

About 5 per cent of students reported using a needle to inject illicit
drugs, and 2 per cent admitted to sharing a syringe.

More than 60 per cent of students wore sunscreen to prevent skin cancer,
but more than half the participants had smoked tobacco, with one-third of
respondents believing smokers were usually more popular.

Nine in 10 secondary students had tried alcohol and about one in two
believed that "occasionally getting drunk is no problem".

Mr Stanhope said the report revealed "disturbing" information about licit
and illicit drug use among secondary school students in the ACT.

"The survey reveals areas of concern, but we will use the information to
tailor our education and prevention programs and make them more relevant to
students," he said.

Liberal education spokesman Steve Pratt described the report as "deeply
disturbing", saying the Opposition, Government and community had to work
together to take immediate action.

"It is a deplorable and frightening situation when we realise what many
educators and parents long suspected that our children are being turned on
by the so-called glamour of drug culture," Mr Pratt said yesterday.

"Our anti-drug education and life-skills education program is simply not
keeping pace," he said.

Junction Youth Health Service coordinator Melanie Greenhalgh said secondary
schools could devise their own drug education programs under the ACT
Government framework.

Children grappling with drug issues were sent mixed messages because of the
tension between zero-tolerance supporters and harm-minimisation advocates.

Anti-drug campaigns based on abstinence and scare tactics had failed.

Ms Harmon said the ACT needed an integrated drug education program, based
on the Government's harm-minimisation policy, to combat substance abuse
starting with primary school students.