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Stella Lee

Thirty-two students arrested on and off campus in the first quarter of the year

Police are worried about a rise in students committing serious drug offences at school, with some youngsters admitting they take ketamine out of boredom.

Twelve students were arrested for serious  drugs offences in schools  up to March, this academic year, including a 13-year-old Primary Six pupil. There were a total of 32 arrests, including students arrested off campus, according to police figures. Most of them were secondary school pupils.

A  drug offence is classified as serious when more than two grams of the substance is involved.

In the previous school year, 39 students were arrested for  such offences, compared with 53 in 2001-02 and 46 in 2000-01. But none of those students had been caught with drugs at  school.

Chief Superintendent Kenny Ip Lau-cheun, head of the Narcotics Bureau, said there had been  arrests of students related to drugs offences in schools during  previous years but they were not classified as serious offences.

'The number [of arrests] this year may be more than last year. Compared with the previous two years, more schools were willing to take the initiative to report cases,'  Mr Ip said.

The 12 students caught on serious drugs offences in   schools this year  included a girl who hid the substance in her hairpin, and a 16-year-old who was caught with 15 grams of ketamine in a changing room. Mr Ip said 15 grams of ketamine could be divided into 50 small packets.

'The student claimed the drug was for self-use. But we believe that it was intended to be shared with or sold to other students.'

Officers looked into the   cases of the arrested students and  found many had taken  drugs because of peer pressure,  Mr Ip said.

'Some said they would take ketamine when the lesson was boring, like mathematics class. This is quite sad.'

Students arrested on serious  drugs charges would usually be given a  caution unless their parents wanted to take the case to the Juvenile Court, Mr Ip said.

While the government's registry showed the number of ketamine abusers younger than 21 had fallen  37 per cent to 1,099 last year, Mr Ip said police intelligence suggested the problem was growing.

He said 32kg of ketamine had already been seized in the first quarter of this year, compared with 51kg for the whole of last year. He said this suggested there was a large supply of ketamine - a psychotropic - in the market, adding that a trafficker who was recently arrested had managed to sell at least 500 grams of the drug every day.

'Five hundred grams of ketamine is enough to supply 2,000 people,' Mr Ip said.

He believed the drop in the central registry record of  drugs arrests was related partly to the declining popularity of rave parties, where ketamine and other substances  were commonly used.

The central registry is based on reports from police and social workers.

Mr Ip said the advisory body Action Committee Against Narcotics would conduct a  survey to gauge the extent of student drug use.

STUDENTS ARRESTED FOR SERIOUS NARCOTICS OFFENCES

2000/01 school year: one primary student, 45 secondary students

2001/02: three primary students, 50 secondary students

2002/03: three primary students, 36 secondary students

2003/04 (up to March 2004): one primary student, 31 secondary students. All students were arrested outside school except for 12 arrested this academic year. Serious narcotics offences mean possession of more than two grams of a dangerous drug



Bored pupils take drugs in class, police say