Year 10 students at the school in Melbourne's north-west were asked to design and create packaging for an "illegal drug of their choice". They were asked to research the cost of the drug, the unwanted side-effects, and its "good and bad effects". Mr Rouse said the project had been running for five years without controversy. "The objective was to let them know that things don't come in nice packaging. It was to enforce to students that illegal drugs aren't presented in nice packaging." A concerned parent of a year 10 student at the Niddrie school phoned 3AW on Tuesday morning and said the project "glorified drugs".

"Of course it is promoting drugs – [it asks students] to come up with packaging that is attractive to a user," he said. "By the end of it he was asking, me, 'If I sold it for this much' ... he started doing the maths on it and told me how much money he could make." The parent said the project triggered inappropriate comments at home. His younger daughter asked him, 'So what are magic mushrooms?' "That's when I said this project has to stop," he said. John Ryan, chief executive of drug research and policy advocacy organisation the Penington Institute, said he had no issue with the school assignment, as long as teachers explained to students that drug dealers were using attractive packaging to sell drugs.

"Drug users try to glamorise drug use by putting emojis on their pills," he said. "Attractive packaging is a ruse and a marketing ploy designed to manipulate young people. We can't trust the illegal drug market." He said schools should be starting sensible conversations about drugs. "There is always a risk that talking about drugs will stimulate curiosity, and that is why it is always important to focus on the real risks, because fear-mongering with students doesn't work." He said it was always important to be honest with young people. "This involves talking about toxic ingredients of illegal drugs and the very negative consequences for people who are still in a growing stage, and the impact on their brain."