The Times Editorial: If you're a young South African and desperate for money, whatever you do, don't try to smuggle drugs. When you get caught you will be shown no mercy and there's very little, apart from the provision of consular services, that our government will be able to do for you.

This message should be part of the curriculum at every high school.

Scores of South Africans who gave in to the temptation to smuggle narcotics - invariably at the behest of a kingpin who would never put his own future on the line - are rotting in foreign jails, contending daily with inhumane conditions.

Few people could have been left unmoved on Monday when Janice Linden, a young Durbanite, was executed in China for trying to smuggle 3kg of tik into that country.

Yesterday, a heart-rending video circulated on the internet of another young South African, 23-year-old Nolubabalo Nobanda, being paraded in front of the press in Bangkok, Thailand, after being arrested for allegedly trying to smuggle into the country 1.5kg of cocaine hidden in her dreadlocks.

According to reports, the student admitted to Thai officials that she would have received R16000 for smuggling the drugs, which would be worth more than R1-million on the street, if she had managed to evade capture.

Twelve other South Africans are in Thai prisons after being convicted of drug smuggling.

Many drug mules are young, vulnerable women who are preyed on by dealers who promise them relatively large sums of money for ''easy'' work. There is plenty of anecdotal evidence showing that drug lords often ''shop'' a mule arriving on an international flight to allow another mule, carrying a more valuable consignment, to get through customs.

In addition to a concerted education drive highlighting the dangers of drug smuggling, ways have to be found to create decent economic opportunities for our young adults.