Someone has posted a tiny bag of white powder through our letterbox!

[UmmWTF]

Me and DH are freaking out a bit. At about 10pm we heard the letterbox go while we were watching TV but didn't immediately check it. We've just got up to head to bed and it's a tiny little ziplock bag (like 50p sized tiny) with white lumpy powder in it

We're going to have to call 111 in the morning arent we? Really freaked and going to struggle to sleep now!

What the actual fuck

Why’s everyone so concerned about if the child found it. Is it instinct for them to rack it up on a mirror and snort it? 6 years old’s don’t do that. And they don’t eat random powder before someone suggests that

To be fair it could be ket or MDMA as suggested upthread, its been many a year since my own misspent youth and I was never overly wild to begin with... regardless, I'm glad the police will be taking it away so I don't have to think about it any more

You've reminded me of an incident back when I lived in a dodgy inner city area in my student days. Some blokes were squatting in the house behind mine and dealing drugs to the local teens (and pre teens ) behind the house. I phoned the police.

"Are you sure it's drugs?"

"No, it could have been football swap cards, but I don't think so."

[chuckle from other end of the line] "No, I don't think so either. We'll send an unmarked car to keep an eye on things for a few nights."

They did, too, I'm glad to report, and the squatters disappeared - whether arrested or scare off - within a matter of weeks.

Sheesh, I’m naïve.

I thought county lines were things criminals couldn’t cross without making their offence a state crime rather than local (meaning prison rather than jail) in the US.

It’s a drugs thing with kids?

That's state lines, @SpiderGwen.

@Notsosnug, maybe it is a small risk but most of us try to avoid potentially fatal risks to our children.

What is bloody tragic, U.K. never had a drugs problem til we changed legal prescription for heroin and cocaine for addicts in the late 1960’s.
It was all prescribed to mainly middle class addicts.

So all OK as long as everyone was well off/nice middle class types? OK then....

@SpiderGwen

Sheesh, I’m naïve.

I thought county lines were things criminals couldn’t cross without making their offence a state crime rather than local (meaning prison rather than jail) in the US.

It’s a drugs thing with kids?

If you're in the UK how have you not heard of this?

I can imagine the buyer give them a ring saying it wasn’t received and they dropped another bag later...

How much is that amount of drugs worth? I would have left it on the doormat. Wouldn’t like to be looking over my shoulder thinking they thought we stole it.

If you cross state lines it’s a federal offence (federal penitentiary instead of state).

@UnityUnited

Absolutely JoeBlack Have you considered the demographic on mumsnet? Very middle-class. Not the usual type of children dealers target. Not vulnerable enough.

When I was at university, I found that it was mainly upper middle class students that dealt and took drugs. The type of students who are only at university for partying. They could get a 3rd class degree and still get an amazing grad job due to their parents’ connections.

Deliveroo for drugs, yes we deliver, direct to door.

What a fantastic country this is. 🤣

Reallyhadenough

Well done op! I called the pcos to come round to talk and remove my underage son's vape a few years ago...they were more than happy to do it. So any concerns they are willing to help

Assume you mean PCSO??

My ex loved cocaine and the dealers he dealt with absolutely did accept cash transfers and post the drugs through the letter box. The other method was for it to be dropped off in a taxi and he paid by debit card on the taxi card reader. (Not just random taxis btw, they had a specific driver).

My mum did drugs in her 60s. Very middle class and respectable with a naice house. Didnt stop her smoking cannabis and doing a little coke now and then. And she had a mobile phone to do it with
My dds posh friend at uni are the biggest cokeheads going

@wowfudge I'll be honest, I've never heard of country lines either. I've done a few lines in the country though, well fields mainly.

@userxx I've never heard of country lines either.

Ahh, cannabis in the 60s/70s - now you've reminded me...

Must have been in the 70s, I was employed as a Companion to a lady with pre-senile dementia for a couple of days a week while her husband worked in his office upstairs. One day something was pushed through her letterbox, her doorbell was rung, but by the time I got to it there was no-one there - just a piece of foil wrapped squashed home made cake type thing on the mat.
Her husband assumed it was hash cake delivered to the wrong address. Why? Well, it had got to be for students who rented a house 3 doors up. Obviously.
So he delivered it to the police and gave them detailed descriptions of the students...
While he was there I answered their phone.

A lady's voice saying that she'd been been baking and she hoped that R (my lady) would enjoy the cake with a cup of tea
And then I had to phone the cop shop....

btw, it's County Lines not Country Lines.
Saw a documentary on BBC about young boys being recruited to take the train up to Manchester or wherever to collect the H.
With the money they earned they could afford to buy the latest status trainers..
Sad, isn't it?

How it works is, dealers in major cities head the operations. So, for example, lets say Bob is a criminal top dog in London.
Bob has a network who recruits kids to sell drugs. They reel in vulnerable kids by grooming. The kids are forced to sell drugs, both in London and by travelling by train to other places to push. It's incredibly dangerous for the kids roped in. I watched a documentary about it, and after the kids do a couple of "drops", the higher ups in the chain arrange to have them robbed of drugs so that they owe they money and can't escape or the higher ups will harm their families. Or the kids will be sold into prostitution or other crime to "pay" their debt off.
It's a vile and horrible industry and the end users are ultimately funding it.

How it works is, dealers in major cities head the operations. So, for example, lets say Bob is a criminal top dog in London.
Bob has a network who recruits kids to sell drugs. They reel in vulnerable kids by grooming. The kids are forced to sell drugs, both in London and by travelling by train to other places to push. It's incredibly dangerous for the kids roped in. I watched a documentary about it, and after the kids do a couple of "drops", the higher ups in the chain arrange to have them robbed of drugs so that they owe they money and can't escape or the higher ups will harm their families. Or the kids will be sold into prostitution or other crime to "pay" their debt off.
It's a vile and horrible industry and the end users are ultimately funding it

And don't forget cuckooing of the homes of vulnerable people - just as abhorrent.

Anyone with children SHOULD know what county lines is. There’s more and more evidence that the gangs are now targeting less traditionally vulnerable children, for instance a number of private schools have had an issue - the kids are more naive and they think they’re in control of the situation. They’re not. County Lines activity happens in all the ‘middle class’ towns, it’s not an inner city based thing.

All the parents on this thread jolly over the fact they don’t know what it is. You could be failing your children.

@UnityUnited I would say is the other way around, higher middle class were more likely to go into drugs when I was in uni and high schools. It was just easier to hide for them and they had more disposable money.

@Notsosnug

Anyone with children SHOULD know what county lines is. There’s more and more evidence that the gangs are now targeting less traditionally vulnerable children, for instance a number of private schools have had an issue - the kids are more naive and they think they’re in control of the situation. They’re not. County Lines activity happens in all the ‘middle class’ towns, it’s not an inner city based thing.

All the parents on this thread jolly over the fact they don’t know what it is. You could be failing your children.

Yep. Even if your children are NOT involved (and I hope they aren't), we should be teaching our children that drug use is not victimless. There are people hurting all over the world, fuelled by the people who choose to have a bit of fun and liven up their Friday night.

@ItsJustARide
I bet you’re a blast at parties

I bet you're not, even though you think you are.

Karma I haven’t said middle-class people don’t take drugs. I have been misquoted.

[quote TibetanTerrier]@ItsJustARide
I bet you’re a blast at parties

I bet you're not, even though you think you are.[/quote]
Can’t recall. I haven’t been to a party since 2006 and the blizzard of white powder is impeding my hindsight