Children ‘as young as 14’ used as drug runners

Children as young as 14 are being recruited to help sell drugs in areas of Britain, a charity report has claimed.

The report, by the Joseph Rowntree Foundation, found that the numbers of young people becoming involved in the drugs trade was increasing. The report even warned that they were being used “extensively” as drug runners or lookouts in one unnamed area.

Experts from King’s College London interviewed 68 drug dealers, 800 residents and 120 police and other professionals for the report, which focused on drug dealing activity in four English communities.

The report warned that dealers were not just operating in deprived ‘sink estates’, but also in close-knit communities. It also suggested that some dealers ran their operations like a “family business”, incorporating a large network of relatives and friends.

Children working for dealers could earn an average of around £450 per week, the report found, while dealers who did not use drugs themselves could earn an average of £7,500 per week.

In all the areas, the report found that heroin and ‘crack’ cocaine could be bought seven days a week, 24 hours a day.

However, while drug dealing caused “widespread concern” among residents, the report found that the trade was also bringing money and cheap goods into the neighbourhoods.

Residents’ concerns mainly focused on the negative reputation that the drugs market gave their area, as well as the violence often associated with it.

However, the report found that residents had mixed views on how the police should tackle the problem, with the majority feeling that the wider community had a role to play in helping to combat the problem.

Professor Mike Hough, co-author of the report said that the study showed that while “fragmented neighbourhoods” that were socially disorganised could provide a suitable setting for an active drugs market, it was also clear that “deprived, but cohesive closely-knit neighbourhoods can also provide fertile soil for the development of drug dealing”.

The report concluded that while arresting and punishing dealers was “an essential part of the strategic response to local drug markets”, more community support was needed to help tackle the problem.

(KMcA)