London - Schools in Britain, currently excluding up to 20,000 children each year for misusing legal and illegal drugs, should use the measure as "a last resort", according to a critical report published by the Standing Conference on Drug Abuse (SCODA) yesterday, Rachel Donnelly reports.
Presenting the conclusions of a survey of drug-related incidents at more than 1,000 schools carried out by Manchester University at the Secondary Head Association conference in Brighton, SCODA said during the two-year research there were 1,400 temporary exclusions for drug-related incidents - including smoking and alcohol misuse - and 400 permanent exclusions.