Pubdate: Fri, 09 Jul 2004
Source: Mercury, The (South Africa)
Copyright: 2004 The Mercury.
Contact:  http://www.themercury.co.za/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/2940
Author: Angela Bolowana
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/heroin.htm (Heroin)
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/youth.htm (Youth)

PUPILS IN DRUG REHAB ON THE RISE

Co-operation between schools and drug rehabilitation centres has
dramatically increased the number of teenagers who have entered drug
rehabilitation over the past five years.

Schools are sending more and more pupils suspected of drug abuse to
rehabilitation centres as a way of dealing with misconduct on school
premises.

Andreas Pluddemann, of the Medical Research Council's Alcohol and Drug
Abuse Research Group, said that one in four patients in rehabilitation
was aged between 13 and 20.

Of the 2 500 youngsters who went to the 50 countrywide centres which
supplied the MRC with data, about 10% had been referred by their schools.

The MRC group works with rehabilitation centres in Durban, Mpumalanga,
Cape Town, Pretoria and Port Elizabeth.

Heroin, mandrax and dagga are the most common drugs of choice, and 60%
of all youth cases involve dagga.

"Six percent of patients in Durban are referred by schools, which is
quite a high number," Pluddemann said. "It is probably higher because
some patients don't specify who referred them."

Pluddemann's organisation receives drug abuse data every six months.
The most recent statistics were supplied last December.

"The rise is because of schools (referring pupils), increased drug use
and because rehab centres are youth-oriented," he said.

Punishable

According to the Schools Act, "very serious misconduct or serious
violations of school codes, or criminal acts which not only violate
school codes but breach the law", are punishable by "referral of the
pupil to an outside agency for counselling, or an application to the
provincial department for limited suspension from school
activities".

As a result, alcohol and drug use at school could lead to a referral
for counselling before a recommendation for expulsion is forwarded to
the Department of Education.

Pluddemann said the longest treatment programme lasted six
weeks.

Clare Savage of the South African National Council on Drug Dependency
and Alcoholism (Sanca) said the organisation had noticed a pattern in
the increase of drug use in Durban.

"It's a combination of two things: schools functioning more
effectively, being more aware and opting for treatment rather than
dismissal. It also means there are more drug problems," said Savage.

She added that schools often become aware of drug problems only at an
advanced stage.

"By the time it is presented at school, it's not new," she
said.

KZN Parents' Association Chairman Sayed Rajack said: "Educators have
realised there's nothing they can do.

They can just refer (pupils), because corporal punishment is a thing
of the past."

Diane Gammie, an attorney and trustee of the Governing Bodies
Foundation, said schools were becoming creative when dealing with
alcohol and drugs.

Gammie said the school she worked with did not often encounter such
problems, but when they did, counsellors were able to detect the
problems and recommend rehabilitation, if it was needed. 
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