DOPEY BEHAVIOUR

It comes as no surprise that cannabis has once again been found at a
Nelson high school, says the Nelson Mail in an editorial.

This drug has been in our community for decades and its use is widely
condoned. It would be naive to think that it hadn't penetrated the
social lives of a great many teenagers. The surprise this time is
twofold: that a group of Nelson College boarders have taken their use
of the drug to the point where they set up their own plantation on
school grounds, and that the school has demonstrated an admirable
maturity in its reaction.

It is of course not good for this old-established and esteemed
school's reputation to have 11 boarders caught for using and growing
cannabis. The find has drawn national publicity.

The audacious Grampians garden will become the stuff of minor legend -
and who is to say that it was a first? But principal Gary O'Shea has
shown a fine sense of perspective in saying that the 15 and
16-year-olds involved have "obviously made some very silly decisions
over the last few months" and refusing to condemn them.

Instead, he has pointed out that the school does not have a "one
strike and you're out policy", preferring to offer counselling. This,
and his willingness to publicly discuss the cannabis find, offer
encouragement that the boys' crimes will receive an appropriate
punishment that won't blight the rest of their lives.

After all, though they won't see it this way, they are barely out of
childhood.

Nelson police, too, have given a suitable response. The area
commander, Inspector Brian McGurk, says that the boys will be dealt
with in "a more educative than punitive" manner by police Youth Aid.
That's good.

In saying that cannabis consumption and sale is so widespread that
there aren't the resources to pursue every dealer, Mr McGurk is doing
no more than acknowledging reality.

Regardless of whether or not decriminalisation of this drug goes
ahead, police are right to concentrate on the more pernicious
influence of harder drugs such as methamphetamine.

As with the other drug that is widely abused, alcohol, the best way to
address the problems caused by cannabis is to educate young people in
the dangers of immoderate use. They need to know that it wasn't dubbed
"dope" for nothing. Believing that it can be stamped out or that they
won't try it is wishful thinking, and heavy punishment of school
pupils will simply create martyrs.