CHILDREN 'SELLING DRUGS ON ULSTER STREETS'

SCHOOLCHILDREN are peddling illegal drugs on the streets of Northern
Ireland, police revealed today.

Teenagers, as young as 15, have been supplying cannabis and Ecstasy in
Dunmurry to other children and adults in the area.

Local police chief, Superintendent Paul Hindley, said the drug dealers are
making hundreds of pounds every week.

He said: "They start off dealing when they are about 15. It is an indication
of how the overall problem is developing. A couple of years ago this would
have been unthinkable.

"They are making large sums of money and it is easy money for young people.
They deal in bars, clubs and on the street - anywhere that people gather.

"These dealers are still at school and the people buying the drugs are
teenagers to the middle aged. I know for certain that there are other
teenage drug dealers operating in various parts of Northern Ireland."

He added that the drugs problem in Dunmurry was not as serious as Ballymena
or Antrim but fears it could grow if it is not stamped out.

Last week a major police search uncovered packages of cannabis in the garden
of a house in the Seymour Hill area.

Drugs education group, FT International said it was not surprised Ulster
schoolchildren had started to deal in drugs.

"It's supply and demand. If 15-year-old's are taking drugs then the
likelihood is that one of their group will supply them.

"In England we have had dealers as young as nine-years-old and there have
also been reports of children dealing in the Republic," a spokesman added.

Teenagers as young as 16 were arrested by police two weeks ago at an
all-night party in a flat in the Waveney area of Ballymena where deadly
crack cocaine was found.

A recent Health Promotion Agency report revealed almost a third of 10 to 16-
year-olds can easily get their hands on drugs.

A survey of more than 6,500 young people revealed one in four had been
offered drugs with more than half of that experimenting and a third
continuing to use.