MKS ARGUE OVER HOW TO FIGHT DRUGS

(February 16) - Education Minister Yossi Sarid and Knesset Education
Committee chairman Zevulun Orlev, addressing a joint meeting of the Knesset
Committee for the War Against Drugs and the Education Committee yesterday,
agreed that drugs are becoming an epidemic in the nation's schools but
disagreed about how to solve the problem.

"There's been a huge increase in pupils' use of many kinds of drugs over the
last several years,"police deputy commander Suzy Ben-Baruch told the
committees, singling out the psychedelic drug Ecstasy, in which the number
of tablets confiscated by police has increased from 10 to 463,000 since
1992, when the drug was a relative newcomer to Israel.

Reported cases of juvenile crime involving drugs increased 24 percent in
1999, over the previous year, according to a report distributed at the
meeting.

To deal with the situation, Orlev (National Religious Party) called for a
five-year anti-drug education program to be introduced in schools
nationwide, standardizing existing programs to make sure they are available
in every school.

Orlev told Sarid that implementing a national program would not cost much.

Sarid (Meretz) responded that existing programs are doing a good job and
that he has no room in this year's budget to finance new programs, even at
low cost.

Sarid blasted his NRP predecessor, Yitzhak Levy, for substantially cutting
funding for anti-drug programs and said he intends to increase funding next
year for the existing programs.

"There is almost no school in the educational system that does not have some
kind of program to educate pupils about the dangers of drugs," Sarid said,
calling for parents and communities to aid schools in educating children on
the issue.

"When a community takes the responsibility to deal with this subject, it is
successful," Sarid said. "Community involvement is no less important in this
struggle than any funding."