IT'S every parent's nightmare that their child becomes involved in drugs.

Teenagers are prone to experiment, a fact from which no generation is exempt.

The Prince Harry scandal proves that no level of income, upbringing or status provides immunity from that risk or worry either.

Today, Prince Charles is being praised for the speed and sensitivity with which he acted when he found out about his youngest son's problems.

Introducing Harry to someone he could listen to was, perhaps, his smartest move. But he should count his lucky stars, and so must Harry.

Because - as the nation echoes to comments ranging from "well, he did lose his mother...." or "let's see him prosecuted as if he lived on a council estate" - what shouldn't go unsaid is that not everyone enjoys Charles' privileged ability to pay for private attention.

Worse than that, there's a dearth of facilities for the treatment of young drug-users in this country.

While most begin dabbling between the ages of 14 and 17, what facilities there are cater mainly for adults. The two don't mix easily.

Harry's stupidity serves as a wake-up call to all parents, and highlights the fact that - untrained and often uneducated about the world of drugs - they remain the key to ensuring that we don't produce a generation of long-term, drug-dependent people.

And it reinforces this: Much more needs to be done to bring teachers and parents together to spell out the choices open to their children. We have no time to lose.