CHILDREN WHO SELL DRUGS

Were we really surprised when a 12-year-old student of H.O. Nash Jr.
High School was accused of possession and selling drugs at school?
Not really. We were surprised that he got caught.

The questions to ask are, where did he get his stash? (because I'm
sure he did not have any time to hone his agricultural skills and
grow the drugs himself.) How long has this been going on? Were his
parents aware of what he was doing? What could have led him to this
kind of lifestyle?

The good thing about this whole situation is that when he tried to
make a sale in that school among his peers, who are relatively the
same age, they said NO and reported him to the school's authorities.

Bahamas, please congratulate yourself because this proves that the
Just Say No programme and all of the anti-drug campaigns launched
over the years have worked. Somebody said NO and did not fall prey
to peer pressure. Somebody decided to do the right thing and not
follow the crowd. This scenario at H. O. Nash proves that there is a
different type of crowd that exists - and it said NO.

There was once a time when the drug dealer was the guy in the
neighbourhood who wore thick diamond encrusted gold chains, had at
least seven luxury cars and at least ten girls on his arms. Now they
are appearing as harmless as a dove to prey on the innocent, with
the face of innocence.

This also brings to light the fact that parents must be more
cognizant of their children's friends and whereabouts, while still
putting a certain amount of trust in the values instilled when they
are not in their eyesight. They must trust that their children will
make the right decisions. Someone at H. O. Nash did.

I applaud the students and the administration of that particular
institution for not covering up what seems to be not only a real
problem, but an old problem. And the public needs to know that just
because this incident happened at a public school, doesn't mean that
such similar incidents are not occurring in the
private institutions. It all depends on the upbringing of
that child and how he/she will respond to peer pressure;
how strong-willed your children are and if they have the courage to
say NO. Curiosity has been killing the cat for ages, and it ain't
about to stop now. If the children aren't buying anything, a
12-year-old drug dealer does not have a market to cater to.

But this is not the first time in the history of education in The
Bahamas that a child has been caught selling drugs behind "secure"
school walls.

"That was going on from my days in school," says Deon, 29. "Ain't
nothing changed, and that was fifteen years ago. I never did it, but
I saw it happening and I knew about it and I am surprised that it
has grown on a much larger scale today. I didn't report it because
some of them were my peers. Back then, it was about not being
a tattle tale. It was the 'in' thing. If you told on somebody, the
whole school would ostracise you and you would feel isolated.
Wanting to be popular, we chose the route of not telling on that person."

When I asked 18-year-old John (not his real name) who just graduated
this year from a rather conservative Christian school, if he knew of
any drug trafficking in that particular school, he responded,
"ohhhhhhhh yeah!" John said that "Our class had da biggest drug
smuggling ring. Some of my friends even got expelled for it. The
youngest was 13-years-old. I mean, I never like really sit down and
say well guys let's do drugs, but I tried it before. I'm not gonna
lie. Hangin' on the blocks and smoking......gee, I was the boss.
Everyone, if only for that brief moment accepted me, knew my name.
You know, it was like 'you're one of us nah'; everyone except Jesus
Christ and the real people that already loved me, all of a sudden
didn't seem cool enough for me."

When asked what made him stop doing drugs he answered, "I always
knew it was no good; the fear of God and loss of life; people do
that simply to be cool at times."

He said that he was always known as the "choir boy" who sang in
church and played the piano. "They said I was soft, but hanging
around the big kids and kickin' it with the big boys for that moment
made me feel like a superstar. I was too busy trying to be cool. I
hated it (smoking weed) though. I was like 'what is this
awful taste in my mouth and I choked, cried my eyes out and coughed
myself to death. The drug didn't give me any feeling at all."

This situation is not unique to The Bahamas, but many other
countries suffer the same social problem with children who get in
the game pretty early in life.

According to Greig Box, in a Sept. 16 report for the UK's
Mirror.co.uk., a total of 53,497 children were caught with drugs
from April 2005 to 2006 in that country, which included four
ten-year-olds who were arrested for dealing. Some nine-year olds
were arrested for taking cannabis.

The article stated, "child dealers can earn from UKP450 to UKP4,000
a week" according to the King's College study for the Joseph
Rowntree Foundation found. Which converted equals around $845
dollars to $7,507 US dollars per week.

The article continued that "police caught more than 6,000 kids
selling class A hard drugs and cannabis last year. The numbers of
youngsters dealing in London have shot up from 2,709 to 4,286 in the
past three years. A police drugs liaison officer, who did not want
to be named, said: "It used to be that the children would smoke a
cigarette behind the bike sheds, now it can be a joint."

In a 2002 Thailand report it stated that the "Narcotics Control
Board Office paper that said in 1999 about 190,000 school students,
or 1.4 per cent of students nationwide, were drug addicts. In 1998,
a report stated that 19,967 drug-related cases had been brought to
the justice system, 20 per cent of which concerned children's
involvement in the drug business." Which ultimately meant that the
child labour problem that exists in that country was not resolved
but rather it was moved from the "cruel factories, and into the schools".

A 17-year-old student speaking under the condition of anonymity to
the Guardian, said he has seen the repercussions of drug use in the
youth of this nation and it is not pretty. He misses his
friend.......who is now dead.

"No-one really cares until something hits close to home, whereas a
family member was shot and killed bullied, arrested, or he rob the
bank or store and was killed like my friend who turned to robbery
for no apparent reason and is no longer with us today," he said.
"We all miss him so much. We use to play ball together. But until
that happens it's not your problem but when that happens, it's too
late." His friend attended a most affluent Christian school in Nassau.

When asked if his friend was using drugs he said, "That's just what
young kids do. They do drugs."

For Jan, 24 (not her real name) she also graduated from another
popular Christian School, " Well, I knew it was going on but never
saw it for myself. I heard it was done in the back of the school. I
never reported it because I never saw it myself and also I doubt I
thought it was that serious at the time.....and I still don't.
However, I never did drugs in school but was exposed to it more
after I graduated. It was just for the experience more than
anything. I smoked a few joints, but never got high. So I don't
think I did it right."

She continued, "By the way I'm 24 and don't smoke. In fact I can't
stand the scent of it anymore. But until they get rid of cigarettes,
then I have no problem with ganja."