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UK: Fettes blasts government's drug stance Jeanette Oldham The Scotsman Thursday 17 Oct 2002 ONE of Scotland's most prestigious public schools, which boasts Tony Blair among its former pupils, has lambasted the government's relaxed stance on cannabis use amid fears it will seriously undermine anti-drugs education. Michael Spens, the headteacher of Fettes College, Edinburgh, said making possession of the drug a non-arrestable offence contradicted his and many other private schools' hard-line attitude towards cannabis smoking. Mr Spens, whose institution has had its own welldocumented drugs problems, even warned that many Scottish public schools may take the unprecedented step of abandoning their long-standing zero-tolerance towards drugs. He said: "I can see a time when any hard-line approach against drugs in schools will have to be watered down because it just won't be compatible with what's happening socially and politically." Mr Spens added that the soft approach towards cannabis left schools in the impossible situation of enforcing anti-drugs campaigns while the government was sending out a different message. "It will be very, very difficult to have a hard-line policy on cannabis and I am disappointed that the government has gone down this route - it makes my job much more difficult," he said. "You can't say that taking cannabis is bad when the law of the land takes a much softer approach. "It is a confusing message for children." The headmaster also accused some young professional parents of an "abdication of parental responsibility", by expecting schools to adopt a tough approach to drug misuse among under-18s when cannabis use is commonplace among their own age group. "The softening of the cannabis laws is a reaction to the fact that it's already acceptable among 20 to 30-year-olds to take cannabis and has been acceptable for some time," Mr Spens said. "But the reality is that parents in that age group will send their children to a private school precisely because they want this hard-line approach. "In that sense, it could be seen by some as almost an abdication of parental responsibility." In February, Fettes expelled three sixth-formers for using cannabis. The same number expelled by the entire state sector in Edinburgh over the previous 18 months. A fourth pupil at Fettes was later excluded for leaking information to the media. David Blunkett, the Home Secretary, reclassified cannabis in July, prompting the resignation of the government's drugs tsar, Keith Hellawell. The softening of the drugs laws, which is due to come into effect next summer, has also been condemned by some state schools. By 2003, all state secondary schools will be required to have an anti-drugs strategy, with £14.5 million in funding promised for this year, rising to £17.5 million next year. Already, all secondary schools provide lessons in drug awareness and warn pupils about the dangers of drugs and alcohol. But such lessons are up against a youth culture in which the use of alcohol and drugs is widespread. A survey of more than 30,000 secondary pupils early this year found that among 16-year-olds, 24.7 per cent of pupils were regular smokers, 40.8 per cent drank alcohol regularly and 7.7 per cent regularly used illegal drugs. The survey, carried out by Adolescent Assessment Services, found that younger pupils were already experimenting. Among 12 year olds, 6.3 per cent smoked, 8.3 per cent drank and 0.8 per cent used drugs. The Edinburgh Academy has also been forced to face up to drug problems, but it has since won praise for allowing pupils who have admitted using drugs to stay at school, provided they agree to random drug tests. John Light, the rector of the Edinburgh Academy, said he fully respected Mr Spen's perspective: "Every school nowadays has to confront this sort of problem and find its way through it. My experience is that schools go to great lengths to be fair in their dealings but they also have to give the right signals otherwise younger pupils are put at risk and that is something we cannot allow." A Scottish Executive spokesman said: "We encourage all schools to have clear procedures in place for responding to drugs misuse and we treat the issue of drug education very seriously. Young people need clear information about drugs and schools have a vital role to play in delivering this. "Drug abuse can have tragic consequences so we must help pupils understand the dangers and focus instead on achieving their potential both in school and the wider community."
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