by the age of 12, a National Drug Commission survey has found.

And while some of the students reported smoking marijuana aged as young as ten, by the time children blow out the candles on their 13th birthday cake, more than one in ten will have indulged in the illegal drug.

The figures -- revealed in a 1994 survey of 3,000 private and public students -- may horrify parents, but schools are confident they are doing everything possible to beat what they acknowledge is a serious problem.

Many local educators agree that drug awareness lessons need to start as early as Primary One.

Last month, when another set of impressionable, wide-eyed five-year-olds walked through the school gates for the first time, the fight to combat drug and alcohol abuse started all over again.

Experts agree that the most primary school lessons can do is to build up self esteem and respect for the body in preparation for when children eventually come in to contact with drugs.

As students get older, the information about drugs and alcohol gets much more detailed. When they reach the age of 12 and 13 they are taught about specific narcotics: opiates, stimulants and inhalants.

Schools in Bermuda also operate drug testing policies whereby the parents of children suspected of trying drugs are asked permission for the school to carry out a urine test so suspension or counseling can occur.

The coordinator of Warwick Academy's health education programme, Shelly Grace, said even the journey to school and home again for some students involved temptations to get involved with drugs.

Children try alcohol at early ages "Sometimes a student will say to me `Oh Miss, you don't understand what it's like. I just have to try to walk up my hill and there will be drugs right there.' "When they list their concerns in the community more than half of the students include drugs.

"We are not naive enough to say that no student here is experimenting with drugs, but we have a very comprehensive health education programme which is compulsory for every student from five right up to 17.

"Bermuda has its own serious issues with drugs and alcohol and no school can ever totally escape from that but at this school we are beating it.'' Her cautiously optimistic words are echoed by principals, teachers and Education Minister Tim Smith.

Mr. Smith said public schools had a triple approach: prevention through fostering other interests, education through the health science curriculum and treatment for those already caught in the spiral of drug abuse.

He said all public schools were `most certainly' winning the fight against drugs.

But the National Drug Commission's most recently available figures found about a third of all secondary students regularly indulged in alcohol, while 15 percent smoked marijuana on a regular basis.

NDC Research Officer Julie Dunstan said students who had not used marijuana were asked why they abstained.

Two percent gave the reason they could not get their hands on the drug, eight percent because it was not approved of by parents, teachers and the law, 33 percent wanted to stay healthy and 57 percent said they had other interests.

"It says a lot that only two percent listed their main reason for not using marijuana was that it was unavailable. It seems for the vast majority if they want marijuana, an illegal drug, they know where to get it,'' Dr. Dunstan said.

"We will have results from a new survey next year so we will be able to see if problems are getting worse or if the current programmes in schools have improved things.'' HEALTHY BONES -- Warwick Academy teacher Susan Rickards introduces Primary Three students Che Moniz, 7, and Taylor Steede, 7, to Roxanne; the real skeleton of an Indian woman. The school's compulsory health education classes develop self-esteem and respect for the body -- so children will say no to drugs.

DRUGS DGS