EDUCATION Minister Estelle Morris wants to shock local schoolchildren into staying away from drugs.

She announced this week she is offering headteachers the chance to show their pupils a video featuring images of the blackened corpse of 21-year-old student Rachel Whitear, who died of a heroin overdose last year.

But experts working in East Lancashire schools have expressed doubts that such shock tactics work.

Back in the Sixties rich pop stars discovered cannabis and LSD, but in 2002 pupils as young as 12 can get hold of drugs in most secondary schools.

The genie is out of the bottle.

John Battersby, a drugs education co-ordinator with Lancashire County Council, said: "It's no good just going in for shock/horror propaganda. We offer schools training, guidance and support. And we are advocating that every school should have a drugs policy."

He also points out that binge drinking is a big problem amongst youngsters alongside illegal drug abuse.

From September, all trainee teachers will be given drugs education training, in a bid to improve the quality of advice pupils get from schools on the issue.

And local authority independent appeals panels --to which parents can apply to have expulsion decisions overturned -- will be asked to back headteachers who exclude pupils for dealing.

Simon Jones, divisional secretary of the Blackburn with Darwen branch of the National Union of Teachers, who represents hundreds of local members in the classroom, said: "I welcome the backing given by the Government to heads when it comes to excluding young people who are drug dealers.

"In a recent NUT survey 10 per cent of schools were challenged by school-gate dealers. But it's not something schools can tackle on their own -- they must have support from the police and social services.

"Shock tactics may have a role in deterring drug use but we must look at eliminating the causes of abuse among young people."