CUTBACKS HIT DRUG LESSONS

A GIRAFFE puppet and other fun learning tools were in big demand yesterday
as a group of Helena College Year 2 students found the importance of their
lungs and the harm drugs can do to them.

But the school drug education program funded by Rotary, WA businesses and
the State Government could end soon after more than 15 years.

It was one of the services on last week's McGinty hit list.

Life Education WA educator Sal Bellanger said the withdrawal of $175,000 in
government aid - a third of the service's cost - meant it was likely to close.

Ms Bellanger said the Government's commitment to tackling drug use had to
be questioned.

A call for compulsory drug education in schools was one of 45
recommendations from the community drug summit held by the Government six
months after it came to office. But the Government said it cannot
implement this because it is unable to direct schools on what to teach
students.

Ms Bellanger said Life Education worked with the existing school drug
education program but in most of the 200 schools it had visited, it was the
main health education program offered to the students.

Health Minister Jim McGinty said Life Education was important in the 1980s.

"However, it duplicates the School Drug Education Project which provides
comprehensive, measurable school drug education based on nationally
identified and agreed principles of best practice," he said.