By NICOLA DUTTON

A NEW plan has just emerged from Government, telling head teachers that drug tests should be brought into action in their school.

The amount of drug abuse among young people has drastically risen in the past 10 years and scientists worry that in the future, the number of teenagers using drugs will have reached such a critical level that the number of drug related deaths will have risen by more than 50 per cent.

The Government has plans to test children in high schools for drugs, whether they like it or not.

This new testing scheme is rapidly becoming a heated argument between parents and their children - is it an invasion of privacy or a test that children should not worry about if they have nothing to hide?

Critics say the tests are not likely to be as successful as the Government hopes, with children merely playing truant on the day of the test and hiding their addiction from teachers and parents.

Head teachers will be able to decide on the punishment of anyone who is found to be using drugs, whether it be offering help, excluding them or even reporting them to the police.

Prime Minister Tony Blair said: "If you have a serious problem in your school, there is no point trying to conceal it."

But with a number of famous drug users, such as pop, rock and film stars, there is always going to be a minority that slips through the net and pushes it on to others whether the Government tries to stop them or not.