The most vulnerable children are being recruited into drug dealing. We need to protect them

The National Crime Agency estimates that up to 4,000 children are involved in London county lines drug dealing alone, says Ian Hamilton

Despite a recent news report, the number of unique drug dealing county lines is thought to be growing. (Getty/iStock)

Are fewer children involved in drug gangs during the coronavirus?

There are conflicting reports. This news story reports on a youth worker saying that some young people were reflecting on their involvement in drug dealing activity. The interviewee was specifically referencing county lines dealing, where urban drug dealers use children between 13 and 17 to distribute and sell drugs such as heroin and crack cocaine to smaller towns and villages.

I don’t doubt that young people are thinking again about their involvement in these gangs. Life is far from glamorous or rewarding for them, despite the initial promises they are given.

But despite that recent news report, the number of unique drug dealing county lines is thought to be growing, with a 50 per cent rise between 2018 and 2019, from approximately 2,000 to 3,000. The National Crime Agency estimates that up to 4,000 children are involved in London alone. And that’s why we need to act urgently to protect these young people.

Grooming young people into county lines drug dealing isn’t a random act. Targets are likely to be homeless, have mental health or learning difficulties, living in poverty, excluded from school or experiencing family breakdown. Many of these factors have been exacerbated by Covid-19, such as school closures, reduced youth services and increasing psychological problems such as anxiety.

Grooming these children takes time and skill, patiently seducing them and fostering a sense of belonging, loyalty and friendship that many will be craving. They are often introduced to drugs too, which they then become dependent on.

It’s an inconvenient truth that we’re all complicit in this exploitation of young people. Our society is driven by aspiration and measured in terms of what we have. To stand any chance of participating in this, you need a route or some hope that you too can achieve and become “someone”. For these young people, their only hope of money and status is via a county lines career.

The National Crime Agency provides regular releases about their success in seizing significant quantities of cocaine or heroin, and how they are disrupting the supply side of the drug market. What I see as boasting about large drug seizures to prove the NCA’s prowess not only overstates the impact this has on drug markets, and does nothing to protect young people.

In fact, it puts young people at even more risk as groomers increasingly cast their net wider, using social media and online grooming. A child can be in the same house as their family and unbeknown to their parents are conversing with drug gangs who are gauging whether they can be recruited.

Once recruited, these young people are often exploited in ways beyond dealing drugs, including sexual, psychological and financial abuse. Some police forces are being proactive and view this for what it is – child abuse – but most young people will be too anxious to seek help for fear that they or their families will be hurt. Sadly, they are trapped between these gangs and enforcement agencies, believing they have no option but to continue dealing and being exploited.

While most teenagers live and experience life in the 21st century, these children are cast back to a Victorian time when attitudes and treatment of some children was completely at odds with today’s values. Teenagers in drug gangs are disposable, exploited and trapped. They are not up chimneys, but they are on streets in our leafy suburbs and rural market towns.

For a lot of people, the attitude is, who cares? They’re out of sight and out of mind and weren’t going to achieve much anyway.

This attitude must change. Groomers are recruiting the most vulnerable children in our society, and we must protect them.

Ian Hamilton is an associate professor of addiction at the University of York