THE NEW PLAYGROUND SCOURGE

For obvious reasons, this schoolkid wants to remain anonymous. He is
17 but three years ago, in year 9 at a Melbourne private school, he
did what his mates did: he smoked a joint.

He liked the feeling. Three years later, he was smoking 75 marijuana
cones a day, and had become an aggressive, sometimes violent, thief
who frightened his parents. His constant companion was a stained bong.

He used cannabis to get through the day and to induce sleep. He
suffered short-term memory loss as a result, kept potentially lethal
weapons under his bed to counter friends who had become his imagined
enemies, suffered sweats, nausea and vomited in the mornings.

He became a lethargic, gaunt truant, immersed in a subculture that had
nothing to do with his middle-class but fractured family background.

His parents allowed him to smoke at home, reasoning it was better to
know what he was doing. He was destined, however, for academic
failure, possibly for a life of crime and more serious drug use.

"He was zonked most of the day..." says Dr Michael Carr-Gregg,
consultant psychologist at the Albert Road Centre for Health.

Dr Carr-Gregg uses the history of his patient - who has stopped using
- - to demonstrate the dangers of cannabis. He supports drug testing in
schools because schools, he says, should help students resist exposure
to drugs. There is no way, he says, parents alone can do so.

"As a father of a nine-year-old, I am going to make sure that the
school he goes to will (help) give him skills to handle that
exposure," says Dr Carr-Gregg.

The cannabis debate rages now around three private Victorian schools,
Melbourne Grammar, Wesley College and Geelong Grammar, that have
introduced or are considering drug-testing. Students who have been
caught taking drugs, rather than facing expulsion, could be required
to take a drug test paid for by their parents.

The aim is to help users, to combat widespread experimentation, and to
tackle the chronic drug use among a small number of students. But
there is opposition to mandatory testing. Opponents fear an erosion of
civil liberties where students will be forced to give urine samples,
where bonds of trust between students and between students and
teachers will be strained and where reputations may suffer because the
identities of those tested may leak.

"You can't do it (mandatory testing) for adults, and children are
entitled to at least the same protection," Liberty Victoria president
Felicity Hampel, QC, said last week.

Melbourne Grammar's proposal to consider testing - already in place at
Geelong Grammar - has sparked considerable public debate. The
headmaster, Mr Paul Sheahan, told parents that selective testing would
not be used to identify users but was considered as a mechanism to
help those who declared an intention to stay off drugs.

"Parents should not be alarmed, therefore, that we will have
vigilante-style squads moving around the school, randomly identifying
students for testing," he wrote.

"I know that there are many aspects that need clarification and
resolution, including confidentiality and what you actually do with
the test results, but I also know that there are many students crying
out for help."

Mr Sheahan told The Sunday Age the school had evidence of chronic use
among some boys. He defined chronic as once-a-day use.

The schools have clear prohibitions on alcohol and tobacco use at
school. But the gloves come off if students are caught trafficking
drugs. Melbourne Grammar has expelled three students for trafficking
in past five years. "That is not to say that we catch everyone," says
Mr Sheahan, adding the school refrains from the extremes of detection,
such as hiding around corners to catch students doing wrong.

Physicians and others are alarmed by the dramatic increase in the
number of young women using cannabis. Studies show 55 per cent of
14-to-17-year-olds try marijuana and some become chronic users. The
National Drug Strategy Household Surveys revealed that in 1995 24.4
per cent of females aged 14-to-19 had ever used cannabis and 19.9 per
cent had used it in the previous 12 months. Those figures jumped to
44.8 per cent and 34.2 per cent in 1998.

The principals at Geelong and Melbourne Grammar and at Wesley College
accept their schools are not immune from trends and that drug abuse
levels in the wider community could be reflected in their schools.

Wesley College principal David Loader says his moves for a selective
drug-testing program in agreed, individual circumstances does not mean
the school has a drugs problem. "I would like to say that we do not
have drugs (use) but I know that would not be true," he says. "I want
to be able to do it (test) because there may be a time when is it
appropriate ... It does not mean that there is a demand for it now."

Mr Loader believes testing might have to be used only four or five
times a year as a last resort and argues the civil rights issue must
be seen also in the context of the obligations of a principal and a
school to the students. Besides, he adds: "We have 320 parents that
say that they are interested in the topic."

But associate professor John Toumbourou, of Melbourne University's
Centre of Adolescent Health, shares concerns about civil rights if the
drug testing goes too far and fears that expulsions of drug-taking
students could plunge them into more serious danger. "The schools need
to be aware that some young people will not be able to give up, even
though they make every attempt to do so," said Professor Toumbourou.

"They may be on the road to recovery but continue to use (drugs) in a
different way, that would still be regarded as progress. And the
schools need to take that on board. The goals of drug treatment are
not these days limited to abstinence."

The testing controversy has attracted the attention of parents and the
education system and there are concerns about the way the issue is
being reported. "Most newspaper reports do not recognise the
subtleties of the drugs problems," says Melbourne High School
principal Mr Ray Willis.

"We have a zero tolerance policy in terms of students selling or using
drugs at school, but we also offer appropriate assistance and this
allows any student to approach us if they find they're in trouble with
drugs."

"The problem is, there seems to a growing acceptance of drugs in the
community and this places schools in a very difficult position of
having to enforce codes that are not accepted by some parts of the
community."

Methodist Ladies College principal Rosa Storelli says they look at
every situation differently. "We take into account the severity of the
offence, the emotional circumstances of the student, their home life,
even their physical circumstances.

"A testing program is not on our agenda and I can't see it ever being
part of our program. Drugs now are very much more accessible and we're
not naive enough to think our students aren't involved, so we focus on
educating the students about the dangers of drug use."

Roger Hayward, principal of StLeonard's College, says drug education
programs at his school start at a very early stage, teaching students
to respect their bodies and telling them about the dangers of drugs.

"We concentrate on building self-esteem," says Mr Hayward.

"When that goes wrong, we take a harm minimisation approach, where
parents are informed and the students are offered counselling.

"It's difficult not to expel a student found selling drugs at school
because the safety of other students is involved.

"You have to remember that the schools involved in mandatory testing
have boarders or residential programs and they must take the best
possible duty of care. If StLeonard's had boarders we'd look at
introducing similar programs."

The principal of Brighton Grammar, Mr John Urwin, adds: "If a student
brings drugs to school or is found to be dealing drugs to students
expulsion is warranted. However, if a boy approaches the school with a
drug problem we will provide counselling assistance and support."

He has no plans for testing but "thinks it's a good idea for
some".

"Schools are hung if they do and hung if they don't," says Mr Urwin.
"In my experience schools work hard to keep students. Testing may be
worthwhile if it gives the student the opportunity to remain in the
school environment."