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Drugs flooding primary schools
03/06/2004 15:29 - (SA)
Durban - Drug dealers are now targeting KwaZulu-Natal primary school children, Durban police said on Thursday.
"The selling of drugs at schools is a big concern, but what is even a bigger concern is that drug pushers are now targeting primary school pupils," said Superintendent Willie Louw, the commander of Operation West, a team that investigates West African drug syndicates.
He said police had raided several schools in the past and conducted searches, but it was very difficult to arrest any pupils with drugs in their possession.
The raids, Louw added, were done at the request of school principals.
He said the mainly Nigerian drug lords recruited runners to infiltrate the schools.
"It's not only in Durban but in the whole province. There isn't a school they do not target."
Louw said teachers and especially parents needed to be alerted to the problem.
"It all starts at home. Parents need to give love and discipline at home."
It was not only at schools that pushers were selling drugs to pupils, but also after hours and at parties, he said.
Louw cited an example of a nine-year-old Durban girl who was presently receiving treatment for a heroin problem.
He said during a recent raid they found girls, as young as 12, involved in sex orgies with older men because they needed to feed their drug habits.
School children were using all types of drugs, but Ecstasy was probably the biggest seller.
'A fashionable thing'
"Drug lords have reduced the price of drugs to make them more affordable to pupils," he said.
Crack cocaine sold from between R80 to R100, Mandrax from R30 to R100 and Ecstasy from R50 to R100, "which is very affordable for school children".
Dr A Jeewa, director of Minds Alive Alcohol and Drug Rehabilitation Centre in Westville, said there had been a definite increase in the number of school children using drugs.
In the past two months he had treated four 14-year-old boys who were addicted to dagga, rohypenol and cocaine.
"It's a fashionable thing and peer pressure. A child will start using drugs to fit in," he said.
Jeewa, who conducted drug awareness programmes at schools nationwide, believed random testing was the only way to beat the problem.
Last year he was approached by a Durban private school which had a serious drug problem and was asked to help. He did tests at the school twice and since then the problem had decreased substantially.
Jeewa said he had advised other schools to introduce random testing, but this had not yet happened.
"Generally, there's an apathy on the part of principals. They are afraid of what the parents will do."
- SAPA
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