Source: Hobart Mercury (Australia) Contact: http://www.themercury.com.au/ Copyright: News Limited 1998 Pubdate: Tue, 24 Nov 1998 Page: 12 Author: Australian Associated Press TOLERANCE PLEA ON YOUNG DRUG USERS PORTRAYING young people as delinquents and locking them up for experimenting with drugs was naive, a drugs expert told an international conference yesterday. Most young people who tried drugs did not continue using them or develop significant problems, the first International Conference on Drugs and Young People was told in Melbourne. Young people usually experimented and used drugs sporadically before stopping altogether, Macquarie University director of Clinical Drug Dependence Studies John Howard said. "Being told that drugs ruin your life is clearly a contradictory message when young people see ex-users alive, coping and recovering," he said. Dr Howard said young people were going to take drugs because it was a part of their reality and families and communities had to deal with it. "We really don't value our young people in Australia very much at all," Dr Howard said. "I think we need to see them as something that needs be controlled or potential delinquents or these nasty people that need to be kept in these holding patterns called schools and then kept in the social security system until they are 25. "When on earth are we going to allow people to grow up and be young and to have some of the fun of being young and some of the risks that go with that? "I'm not saying that it should be encouraged; I'm saying it is there ... and to love our kids enough to be able to talk to us about what's going on rather than have to hide." - --- Checked-by: Don Beck