Some 8% of high-school kids come in contact with drugs

Some 8% of Morocco high-school kids come in contact with drugs, says a release of the Moroccan Center for Studies and Research on Drugs and the Environment (CERDE), disclosing findings crowning a joint study with the Moroccan program of education in target schools.

CERDE staged a one-day event for secondary school teaching and management staff to discuss results obtained by the study covering the 1998-99 academic year in target schools involving 10,000 pupils in the Rabat-Sale area.

Works centered on two main topics, namely "furthering knowledge about drugs, sexually transmissible diseases, aids and environment" and the "setting up of an action-program for education and awareness of the problem among the youth in schools."

Early this week, the education minister responded to statements that 82% of school youngsters were using drugs saying the allegation was baseless.