DRUG EDUCATION FUNDS CUT

Funding for drug education in Queensland schools has fallen by 80 percent in
three years, prompting accusations the State Government has turned its back
on the problem.

The Alcohol and Drug Foundation said internationally recognised drug
education programmes had been shelved, leaving Queensland the
worst-performing state in school-based prevention. But the Government said
the decentralisation of drug education meant such programmes were no longer
needed or suitable, with the material covered in the health and physical
education syllabus.

Education Minister Dean Wells said drug education also was addressed
through school pastoral care programmes, other school subjects and through
the introduction of nurses into high schools.

A Review of Drug Education in Schools, carried out by Education Queensland
last year, found the state spent less than any other on drug education in
the last financial year, and had just two officers working part-time on
school-based drug programmes. Even small jurisdictions such as Tasmania and
the ACT employed more drug education officers.

The review said Queensland was the only state without a formal consultation
process to allow schools, parents and other government agencies to work
together to reduce drug use.

Alcohol and Drug Foundation chief executive officer Bob Aldred said the
Government had effectively "expelled" drug education from schools.

"What was an internationally acclaimed programme in the 1980s has been
reduced to a policy on drug education without the resources, training or
commitment essential for an effective programme," Mr Aldred said.

State funding for drug education has fallen from $781,000 in 1995-96 to
$166,000 last financial year, despite a promise from Mr Wells that the
Government would spend $282,000.

But Mr Wells said individual state schools answered the need for drug
education in their local communities and contributed money from their
general funding.

"The need for targeted central funds has reduced because Education
Queensland's drug education strategies now put the focus at the school
level and provide schools with discretionary funds to meet local
priorities," he said.

He also said his department had since questioned some of the figures
contained within the report.

Mr Aldred said the Government should outline specific targets for school
drug programmes and pro vide adequate funding for drug- reduction measures.

"At the moment we've only a policy that says they should be doing it," he
said. "But there's no compulsion, no evaluation, no forecast outcomes and
no money to do it."

Mr Wells said individual school districts collected statistics and
monitored local conditions.

Opposition education spokesman Bob Quinn said the Government had failed to
act on a 1996 survey which found more than 50percent of Year 12 students
had used marijuana and 10percent hard drugs.