PUPILS SEE DEALS IN PLAYGROUND

SECONDARY school students are witnessing playground drug deals at an
alarming rate.

Insight surveyed 80 Victorian students aged 13-18 about teenage drug
use, and found almost half had seen drugs at school.

Forty-eight per cent said drugs were easy to get on school grounds if
they wanted them.

More than 40 per cent of 14-year-olds had seen drugs at school, while
all the 18-year-olds said drugs were easy to get on campus during
school hours.

Despite their obvious availability, only 34 per cent of the students
admitted to smoking cannabis in the past year, while 13 per cent of
14-year-olds had also tried the drug.

Only 7 per cent of students said they had taken ecstasy, and 6 per
cent had tried speed, including one 17-year-old who said she took both
drugs most weekends.

Some students told Insight they had seen fellow students taking drugs
on school grounds.

Anthony, 16, from Hawthorn, said drugs were popular at his old
Camberwell school.

"I have seen people at school smoking cannabis," he said. "It didn't
bother me really."

Danny, 17, from Traralgon, said he had also seen drugs at
school.

"I don't see them that often, but I have seen people with a bit of
cannabis on them," he said.

Meg, 15, from Coburg North, said she had also seen drugs at
school.

"At my previous school there were lots of drugs going around," Meg
said.

"People were smoking cannabis a bit."

Maggie, 15, from Forest Hill, said she had never seen drugs at her
school.

"I think they would be easy to get from people at school," she
said.

Lauren, 17, from Traralgon, said she had not seen any drugs at her
government school.

"I haven't seen them at school, but I have seen plenty at parties,"
she said. "I think they would be easy to get at school."

The Australian Drug Foundation's director of the Centre for Youth Drug
Studies, Dr Jane Mallick, said the survey results were not surprising.

"Drugs are very available to young people," Dr Mallick
said.

"Whether that is on the school grounds or not, if young people want
them, many will know how to get them."