DROPPING YOUR PANTS FOR YOUR OWN GOOD

THIRTY of us stood in a line and when the order came, we dropped our
trousers. Underpants? Yep, they also went down.

We'd just been conscripted into the air force as teenagers and were
being checked for what these days is politely known as a "social
infection."

Not one of us felt humiliated or degraded. We certainly didn't reckon
our human rights had been violated.

But youngsters these days, it seems, are far more emotionally
fragile--if we believe the garbage spouted by some Youth Law twerps.

John Hancock is a lawyer with that curiously prissy outfit. And he
has jumped to the defence of five boys, aged 14 to 17, who were
spotted by police smoking cannabis at Auckland's Long Bay College.

They were then strip-searched one at a time in the office of deputy
principal Mike Jackson. And the copper involved, says Jackson, went
to "great pains" to ensure they were not embarrassed.

Enter the anti-police lynch mob led by lawyer Hancock.

"Degrading!" he yells. "Over the top!" he protests. "Unreasonable!" he adds.

And at least one family, following his lead, is considering legal action.

What a bunch of prats! Don't they give a damn about these kids?

Would they prefer the police to have gambled on their not having more
pot to sell to classmates?

That's exactly what Tony Wootton did as a 13-year-old--within a year
of getting hooked on cannabis at school.

And as he told me recently, his addiction swept him to harder drugs
such as cocaine and heroin and they destroyed his life.

He took to serious crime, to burglary and fraud, in a desperate bid
to fund that addiction. He got so low that he repeatedly attempted
suicide.

Now, at 39, Tony has been clean of drugs and crime for 10 years and
is a drugs and alcohol counsellor in Hamilton.

"Kids may think it's cool and harmless to try cannabis," he says.
"But it can wreck you and before you know it, you're trapped."

Even MP Nandor Tanczos--who talks openly about his pot-smoking--urges
youngsters to keep off the weed.

He accepts it can be harmful. Lungs can be damaged by the heat and tars.

Cannabis can also trigger mental illnesses.

Tanczos told me: "I don't know many who say cannabis is harmless and
users are more likely to have problems if they start young."

Tony Wootton knows he's right. Tony learnt the hard way. And he's
known many youngsters who have not lived long enough to say the same.

So if the blinkered Hancock really cares about kids, he'll do them a
favour and belt up! So will others taking the same stupid stance.