IS EVERY CHILD NOW AT RISK?

(Many children today are as casual in their attitude to drugs as their
parents were to alcohol.)

FEW parents realise how widespread illegal drug-taking has become
among young people. Official figures suggest that about half the
pupils doing GCSEs and A-levels this month will have at least
experimented with drugs. By the time they finish school, only a small
minority will have consistently said no.

Few parents realise, either, that many young people are as casual
about drugs as their own generation was about alcohol - and treat the
laws against it with much the same respect as Americans regarded
Prohibition in the 1920s.

Much of the confusion behind this generational gulf stems from using
one word - and one set of attitudes - to cover a phenomenon that
extends from dropping the occasional "E" to full-blown heroin addiction.

The confusion makes it hard for parents, children and teachers to find
common ground - and yet the need to do so is urgent. Since the demise
of the simplistic "Say No" campaign, few schools are clear about what
they are trying to achieve - and few parents know what advice to give.

In a three-part series starting today, we describe the extent and
nature of the problem, and point to a possible way forward. Below, we
start with the experiences of young people at a range of institutions
- - though there is no suggestion that these have a greater or lesser
drug problem than any other educational establishments.