STANDING FIRM AGAINST DRUGS IN SCHOOLS

Cannabis seems to bring out the conservative in New Zealand's normally
liberal teaching profession. Have they forgotten what it's like to be young
or is it possible they have a better feel for the pulse of the young than
our politicians?

A whippet-like 14-year-old from Hagley Community College sits shivering in
Cathedral Square delivering his world-weary verdict on the relative merits
of cigarettes, alcohol, and cannabis.

Speaking in the jumpy urban patois of an inner city white boy, he explains
that cannabis has been his drug of choice since he was 13 when a "bad
experience" with alcohol put him off binge drinking. "Tinny" houses in
Barbadoes Street, Lyttelton Street, and Rowley Street provide convenient
points of supply for those afternoons when he and his mates decide to throw
in $5 each for a foil.

Across town the father of one of four 14-year-olds expelled from St Andrew's
College last year for smoking cannabis, describes how a group of fourth
formers would pool their lunch money and send an emissary to a tinny house
in Ilam Road during lunch hour.

Rich kids, poor kids, cannabis it seems is the one thing contemporary New
Zealand youth have in common - and the one problem which their parents
cannot simply buy their way out of by opting for private education.

In fact Barry Maister, the admirably frank rector of St Andrew's, believes
the relatively high price of cannabis may make it more of an issue for
middle class youth. On his return from a drugs conference in the United
States this year Barry Maister hauled in six of his brightest and best and
asked them to paint a picture of the Christchurch "scene".

"I said 'tell me it's not as bad as in the States', but they turned around
and described a scene which was every bit as bad."

Meaning?

"Meaning that in their social environment alcohol, nicotine, and cannabis
are on an even footing in terms of availability. The problem is huge."

This month The Press reported Mr Maister's radical plan to offer students
found using cannabis the option of a private residential treatment programme
at Hanmer's Queen Mary Hospital in lieu of expulsion. Under the scheme
students would be readmitted to the school provided they agreed to a
two-year random drug esting programme.

It is not a proposal that finds much favour with Dr David Fergusson. The
executive director of the Christchurch Medical School's Health and
Development Study, Dr Fergusson argues that if schools are serious about
stamping out drug use they ought to get their priorities right.

"If schools were rational about this zero-tolerance business then the first
thing kids should get kicked out of school for is smoking cigarettes."

Instead, says Dr Fergusson, schools too often turn a blind eye to tobacco.

"Schools are fairly laid back about alcohol and tobacco but they get quite
hysterical about cannabis."

Dr Fergusson, who has spent the last 25 years documenting the life course of
1265 young New Zealanders, bases his advice on the now widely accepted harm
rankings which rate cannabis as a lower health risk than alcohol and
nicotine.

But to many in the teaching profession such "rationalism" is a luxury
reserved for researchers like Dr Fergusson who approach the cannabis debate
from the safe distance of epidemiology. Teachers, on the other hand, spend
their working lives engaged with classrooms of adolescents whose interest in
things academic is often observed to plummet in direct proportion to the
frequency and quantity of cannabis on board.

So while nicotine and alcohol may well produce far more lethal long-term
effects teachers are by and large more concerned with the short-term effects
which, in the case of chronic cannabis use, can produce major obstacles to
student learning.

Christchurch drug specialist Dr Fraser Todd says adolescents using cannabis
on a weekly basis are likely to experience a range of side-effects that can
interfere with their learning, including memory impairment, attention
disorders, and developmental problems.

Which goes some way to explain why the teaching profession has adopted an
uncharacteristically conservative stance on cannabis. While politicians,
police, and medical researchers tentatively tiptoe towards cannabis law
reform, the country's principals are mounting a vociferous campaign against
decriminalisation.

In Christchurch, Barry Maister and Burnside High School's Graham Stoop have
been most vocal on the issue but their opposition to decriminalisation is
strongly supported by Linwood's new principal, Rob Burrough.

"Given the prevalence of cannabis use in the community it's probably both
unrealistic and idealistic for schools to adopt a hard-line drug-free
stance - but that's still our stance.

"Schools are in the business of setting standards and expectations and so we
must re-reinforce the expectation that our students will be drug free," says
Mr Burrough.

Cynics might argue that in the highly competitive education market "zero
tolerance" drug policies make effective marketing tools with panic-stricken
parents who somehow expect schools to exert the sort of control and moral
authority that they themselves have lost.

Whatever their motive, while schools cling valiantly to this moral high
ground, Mr Maister argues the Ministry of Education has already retreated to
the highly equivocal "harm minimisation" territory inhabited by health
professionals.

Mr Maister is enraged by the tone and content of the Ministry of Education's
new policy document, Drug Education: a guide for principals and boards of
trustees, which he says betrays a tacit acceptance that cannabis use among
students is here to stay.

"To me it's scurrilous stuff. Why is our Ministry of Education talking about
harm minimisation when the stuff's illegal?"

Mr Maister says while he is quite willing to accept that in the adult world
the decriminalisation of cannabis may do little or no harm, that is not the
world he and other teachers inhabit.

"My concern is about teenagers because that's the world I live in.

"If people think we can decriminalise cannabis, which effectively gives a
great big adult tick to this stuff, and then turn around, as Nandor Tanczos
has, and say to teenagers, 'Oh, but you can't use this', then they're
dreaming."

Education Minister Trevor Mallard acknowledges that for schools promoting
the zero-tolerance line, talk of decriminalisation can be problematic.

"The trick is having that discussion about how best to deal with an endemic
problem without giving people mixed messages."

Mr Mallard says the fact that about 70 per cent of young New Zealanders have
tried cannabis by the age of 21 is a clear indication the system is not
working.

"I'm supporting further discussion of the issue (decriminalisation) on the
basis that what we've got now isn't working."

Furthermore, Mr Mallard suggests decriminalisation may make drug education
in schools more effective.

"It might make the work in the health and counselling area easier because
the people they're working with aren't branded criminals."

In point of fact most Christchurch schools - including St Andrew's - have
already moved away from treating occasional cannabis users as criminals.

Although the Ministry of Education's policy advice includes an instruction
to notify the police if cannabis is found on the premises, this was news to
Police Youth Aid officer Chris Roper. His personal view was that minor
infringements were best dealt with by the school.

In the past that has often meant instant expulsion for students caught with
cannabis but behind all the tough talk, many schools are moving towards a
less hysterical and more therapeutic approach, in line with the Ministry of
Education's advice: "Keeping a young person in school is likely to have a
positive impact in preventing the development of a more serious drug problem
and enhancing the possibility of that young person's becoming a productive
member of society."

The idea that schools should aim to treat the problem rather than expel it
is supported by Youth Speciality Services consultant psychiatrist Dr Doug
Sellman who says a school's first priority should be to obtain an accurate
assessment.

"It's only at that point the school and caregivers can know whether they are
dealing with a casual user or someone with a quite severe dependence."

Dr Sellman receives about six new referrals a week from 13 to 18-year-olds
in the city suffering more severe alcohol and drug problems and his team
currently has about 150 cases on its books.

Most cases are ably handled by community health professionals - including
family doctors - working alongside the schools' own counselling staff.

Dr Sellman is critical of some drug education programmes which are highly
emotive and exaggerate the risks of drugs such as cannabis.

"Too many kids have been terrorised by these type of programmes and then
when they realise that their legs haven't actually fallen off after one puff
of cannabis they become very cynical about all drug information."

The cannabis debate finishes with the politics of pot on Friday.