Mr Walsh said the push to decriminalise smoking marijuana and the apparent relaxing of police strictness on marijuana meant it had become more acceptable to smoke some drugs, despite the strong stand made by schools.
"It seems if a teenager is determined to find marijuana they usually can."
He said Rotorua's secondary schools tried to educate their students about minor drug convictions which make it hard to gain a visa in some countries, to gain some jobs in the future and to enter into certain tertiary education courses.
"It is good for the community to see schools taking a hard line on drugs in schools. It says to the community we need to address this."
He said a bigger problem that acted as a pathway into drugs was binge drinking on weekends, which many high school students were involved with.
Mr Walsh said different schools had different protocols around what to do when a student is found with drugs, but John Paul College held a zero-tolerance drug policy which included automatic suspension and passing the issue on to the youth aid section of the police.
He said some students were allowed back to school only on the condition they would be put forward for random drug testing.
The Te Utuhina Manaakitanga Trust is contracted by the Lakes District Health Board to work in Rotorua secondary schools on a weekly basis, counselling and educating at-risk students and those willing to inquire about drug use.
Trust general manager Donna Blair said on occasion they were requested to work with local intermediate students as well.
"Often we will have students come to us if they are concerned about a friend or family member."
She said the most common drugs in Rotorua were cannabis or alcohol and most students the trust worked with were aged 16 or 17.
Mrs Blair said only in rare cases would a student have grown a dependency on a drug in Rotorua, but in that case students could attend a residential rehabilitation home in Hastings, Hamilton or Auckland.
Rotorua Principals' Association president Deborah Epp said drug-related incidents included substance abuse, which might feature sniffing substances such as fly spray or deodorant.
Mrs Epp said Rotorua schools took drug-related incidents seriously. Inspector Ed Van Den Broek said the Rotorua police youth aid section dealt with any issues with drugs in schools, but they received few calls from Rotorua schools regarding drugs.
"The impact of drugs in communities throughout New Zealand is wide-reaching ... often leading to other crimes such as burglary, stolen cars, serious violence and intimidation."
He said in Rotorua the youth aid section's main focus was to educate children on the risks of drug taking, using programmes such as Drug Abuse Resistance Education (DARE) and sister programmes like Cactus and Keeping Safe.
Youth aid deals with students under 17 by providing diversionary and prosecution services and advice and prevention programmes for child offenders and at-risk students.
Other high stand-down and suspension rates in Rotorua schools came in the way of continual disobedience, verbal assaults on staff and physical assaults on students or teachers.
Overall 233 students were stood down or suspended last year from just under 14,000 students schooling in Rotorua.
A stand-down means the removal of a student from school for no more than five days in any one term.
A suspension, however, is the removal of a student from school until the board of trustees decides an outcome at a suspension meeting, which can include exclusion or expulsion.
The drug-related statistics above do not include cigarettes or alcohol.
