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CANBERRA - Australian schools have been rocked by new drug revelations following studies showing a high rate of drug use among the country's teenagers.
The new head of education in New South Wales has admitted to a term in prison as a former heroin addict and an exclusive Catholic college in Melbourne is in trouble for expelling a schoolyard cannabis dealer without telling police.
The revelations follow growing concern at the link between drugs and crime - especially among the young - and studies showing a disturbing level of illicit teenage drug use.
The most recent survey by the federal Health Department's drug strategy branch showed that 25 per cent of all high school students had smoked cannabis, rising to almost 40 per cent for 16 to 17-year-olds. Between 3 and 4 per cent had also used hallucinogens, amphetamines, cocaine and opiates such as heroin or morphine.
In Sydney, newly appointed Education Director-General Michael Coutts-Trotter urged the people of NSW to accept that "redemption is possible" and allow him the chance to show his worth after the Daily Telegraph revealed he had spent three years in jail in relation to the distribution of heroin. Coutts-Trotter is a former Labor staffer and is married to federal shadow minister Tanya Plibersek.
He was jailed in 1986, aged 19, but on his release made a new life for himself. He was chief of staff for former NSW Treasurer Michael Egan, became director-general of the Commerce Department, and gained top-level security clearance when he was a member of the Australian Security Intelligence Organisation's counter-terrorism sub-committee.
Yesterday he told ABC radio that he understood public concern at his background.
"To a degree I think it is a perfectly legitimate interest in the facts of my life," he said.
"They have been laid out before. Every time I've applied for a job I've told people about my background, about my drug conviction, as I should - as I must. I just hope I'm given the chance to prove myself by performing rather than being misjudged."
In Melbourne, police are investigating the expulsion of a year 11 student at the exclusive Jesuit school Xavier College for selling cannabis to other students.
Three teenagers who confessed to buying drugs from the student have been suspended.
All were caught after other students alerted teachers to the schoolyard dealing.
The incident has caused additional concern because the school did not inform police.
Xavier deputy principal Dominic Calipari told the Herald Sun that the school had decided on counselling rather than police action.
The school had spoken with the boys' parents and had told other students of the incident.
Police said they were concerned that the confiscated drugs were not handed to them, and that further inquiries would be made.
