WESTERN CAPE NEWS - The South African National Council on Alcoholism and Drug Dependence (Sanca) George confirmed that 42 children and youth under 18 were referred to the institution for substance abuse intervention between July and September.
Sanca's office head Denise de Beer said, "Most of the children, from schools across George, have already dropped out or absconded. Out of the 455 new intakes at Sanca during 2016/2017, 166 referrals were from schools, of which 48% were under the age of 18.
"The oldest client admitted last year was 64 and the youngest client was only 10 years of age."
De Beer said the challenge in certain communities is that they only know how to deal with the symptoms of marijuana and Mandrax abuse but not with the problem itself.
"A new difficulty which is proving to be problematic is to identify that irrational behaviour can in many cases be the result of methamphetamine or Tik intake, which we are only now coming to grips with."
Debbie Schäfer, Western Cape MEC for Education, released figures for the first half of 2017 regarding drug tests conducted in various schools in the province where there have been reasonable suspicion that learners were under the influence of illegal substances.
Tests were only conducted on learners who were already suspected of substance abuse.
A total of 360 primary school learners from 36 schools were tested for drugs.
Of these, 229 tested positive.
A total of 605 high school learners from 17 schools were tested for drugs - of these 415 tested positive.
"As primary caregivers, parents play the most important role in identifying drug use by their children.
"Parents are encouraged to be vigilant and to keep the channels of communication with their children open so that they can pick up on the use of illegal substances early."
"Most drug use takes place at home or within the community. A sad reality is that some learners come to school in possession of or under the influence of illegal drugs," said the MEC.
The principal may, if the parent so requests, refer the learner to a rehabilitation institution for drug counselling.
Only the learner and his or her parents may be informed about the outcome of the alcohol or drug test.
The identity of the learner may not be revealed, except to his or her parents.
Learners and parents can call the WCED hotline on 0800 45 46 47 for counselling support and assistance.
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