10-year-old children charged with drug offences

10-year-old children charged with drug offences

Children as young as 10 are being charged with drug offences in Wales, according to the Western Mail.

The figures, obtained from each of Wales’ police forces under the Freedom of Information Act, show each arrested or charged at least one child aged between 10 and 12 last year. Across Wales, hundreds of 13 to 16-year-olds were charged with possessing cannabis, amphetamine, Ecstasy, cocaine and ketamine.

The situation was yesterday branded “unacceptable” by police while one teaching union warned that drug turf wars sometimes spilled over into schools, saying anyone who believed children in did not have access to drugs was “living in cloud cuckoo land”.

Revealed: Shame of 10-year-olds on drugs (icwales.co.uk, 15 November 2007)