BRIGHTEST AND RICHEST AT RISK

Top independent schools no longer trouble to deny that illegal drug-taking
is prevalent among their pupils.

The Headmasters' Conference (HMC), which represents 240 of the most
exclusive boys' and co-educational schools, estimates that one 15-year-old
in 10 regularly uses cannabis - the "classical starter drug" - and that the
proportion rises to one in eight in the sixth form.

"We must recognise that drug taking is no longer limited to a disaffected
and rebellious few," HMC says. "It is part of the culture of teenagers."

Experts estimate that, between the ages of 16 and 24, one in two young
people will experiment with illegal drugs, and one in five will become
regular users.

Underlining the point, Keith Hellawell, the Government's drugs "tsar", told
a recent conference of 500 independent school parents that it was their
children - the able and affluent - who were most at risk.

Although most independent schools automatically expel pupils caught pushing
drugs, they differ in the way they deal with the minority of users who are
caught. Some, such as Glenalmond, a co-educational boarding school in Perth,
still expel for a first offence on principle. Ian Templeton, the head,
believes that the "zero option" is
a deterrent and attractive to parents.

However, a growing number of schools - including Gordonstoun, Marlborough,
Rugby and Sevenoaks - demur. They prefer to deal with a first offence by
requiring the guilty to submit to random drug testing, usually accompanied
by compulsory counselling.

Although HMC acknowledges that the zero option "may well have inhibited even
greater proliferation", it says such a policy will not, by itself, stop or
solve the problem, and that testing has "generally been found helpful".

It also points to the dilemma that schools frequently face. "Most parents
are still quite ignorant about drugs and very, very afraid that their
children may become involved, with terrible consequences. As a result, most
parents want schools to deal severely with offences by other parents'
children but wish the school to be supportive of their own children."

To put the issue in perspective, Patrick Tobin, a former HMC chairman, is
convinced that family breakdown does children far more damage than drugs,
while John Rae, former head of Westminster, believes that alcohol has the
most pernicious effect.