REHAB FOR DRUGGIE SCHOOLKIDS

Student drug addicts are being sent to rehab in Lower Hutt in a pilot
project tackling growing drug abuse in schools.

The project takes secondary school pupils with drug or alcohol problems out
of the classroom and puts them to study at a private centre. A drug and
alcohol counsellor is on-site to help students deal with their addictions,
along with two teachers.

A survey on cannabis use in Wairarapa and Kapiti, released this week, found
that 19 per cent of 16-year-olds were cannabis users.

Many Wellington region schools have started urine-testing students for the
drug in a bid to clean up their playgrounds.

Run by WellTrust, a new trust backed by the Wellington Community Trust
Charities, the rehabilitation project is being piloted among several Hutt
secondary schools. So far 12 students have participated.

Hutt Valley High School principal Sylvia Burch said today the school was
approached last year about the project. "It's filling a need. There is no
question these are good students, they're not stupid. It's a way of stopping
them from throwing it all away."

Four students were trying to return to the school this term. This was the
most difficult part for many students. Staff met yesterday to discuss ways
to help the students stay away from drugs, she said.

Students who recognised and sought help for their addiction were eligible
for the project after interviews and discussions with their parents, Mrs
Burch said.

"They're students who see that they themselves are caught in a bit of a web
and can't get out of it."

Mrs Burch said urine testing had not been ruled out at the school. Parents
were urged to test their children.

Tawa College principal Bruce Murray, who is involved with WellTrust, said
schools had been forced to introduce urine testing to try to get rid of the
cannabis problem.

Mr Murray, whose school began urine testing with the consent of parents
several years ago, said cannabis was more potent than in the 1960s and
1970s.

"It's a serious matter. Every school - I don't care who they are, whether
they are private, integrated, State or whatever - they have kids at their
schools who are involved with marijuana."

Parents were often in anguish seeing the effect cannabis had on their
children and more needed to be done, he said.

Urine testing students was sometimes appropriate but could also be a legal
minefield for schools, said Auckland lawyer Clair Trainor. It was not always
an accurate measure of cannabis use because there could be false negatives
or false positives in results.

Schools had to be careful how they administered the tests. It wasn't fair to
test students in the fourth form and then test them for another three years
till they left school.