FAILING PUPILS 'TURN TO DRUGS TO FEEL GOOD'

Children are more likely to take drugs if they feel a failure at school, a
teachers' conference heard yesterday.

"For many pupils for whom school has little joy to offer their first
experience of smoking cannabis, crack cocaine or heroin is a wonderful
one," said Jane Lovey, a former head of a unit for disruptive pupils and a
Cambridge education official.

"There is a very strong link between drug use, exclusion from school, or
disaffection within school," she told the Professional Association of
Teachers' conference in Telford, Shropshire.

One bullied boy said his first encounter with cannabis was "great -
suddenly I had no worries, all the pain and fear had gone. I was happy."