Why am I so shocked . drugs yr7

[wakeupandsmellthecoffee]

Justbamazed really . friends husband told me he has had to caution 2 yr7 students for drug related incidents. this is not in an inner London school it's leafy Surrey. My child doesn't attend this school . just seems so sad that at the tender age of 11 / 12 they have been introduced to to drugs and selling it.

I'd be bloody shocked. DS1 has just gone up to secondary. I wouldn't think it's usual.

I would be shocked to, although I do know of people who have been involved with drugs from a young age.

It shows why we need to teach children (in an age appropriate way) about drugs from a young age

Watch the leafy Surrey attitude. I came from a bit of a crappy bit of London and when I went to University, the worst, most heavy drug users were from posh schools. We all smoked a bit of weed but they were using a lot of class A drugs. They had the money and the Police weren't hassling them.

I thought Surrey was quite a high crime area?

They were only cautioned??

agree with mrsterrys, a lot of kids have a lot of money to splash, and lax parental attitudes.

Y7 does seem very young :(

I can imagine a few who might have tried weed at this age. A very few boundary-less children. Middle class children in all areas take drugs

That seems young to me and I've always believed I was young to be smoking weed at 15 and taking speed at 16, with friends of 14/15.

I grew up in an affluent town in Hertfordshire and as a pp said, kids with money that don't get hassled by the police is precisely why I was able to do drugs young.

Yr 7 does seem very young but perhaps they are exposed at home.

True about the money side of it as in it a posh state secondary school
. (sort of joking but it's what I call some of the parents Private school wannabes )

Our DCs have lessons about drugs in year 6

Am I naive in thinking it would be a child protection issue at that age?

Surrey is just like many other counties, parts of it are rural, middle class but many other parts are just the same as inner city areas..

As for drugs, well it doesnt surprise me to be honest as kids are a lot more streetwise and clued up about them now than they were when I was at school, and we were NOT really taught about them, so I am not sure that giving kids education about drugs really does make any difference.

The drugs most likely came from an older sibling, and they thought they would experiment with it or make some cash out of selling it.

Squeaky toy Good point but yr 7 so early.

There are definitely child protection issues going on there. I know of a 13yr old who disclosed at a school counselling session that she had tried Ketamine and it was automatically referred to social services as they don't have discretionary powers for kids under 14. I would be very surprised if this wasn't referred on to SS (although appreciate that you probably wouldn't know if it had).

The two schools in my city with the biggest reputation for drugs are the two in the poshest areas. The thing about money and not being harassed by the police does seem to be true.

Well, I might be, but not a naive as the people who think that drugs are an inner city problem.

You would be surprised. Often in more affluent areas where kids have access to more money they do "harder" drugs.

Every playground has its dealer - if school tells you it doesn't it's lying.

I started taking drugs when I just turned 12 (thankfully I stopped when I was about 17 or 18, many people I know still haven't and they are in their 30s and 40s now and they have messed their lives up) I thought I was really grown up at the time but now DS is just about to turn 11 it puts the fear of God into me and hits home just how young I was. I lived in a really nice place too, not much crime etc but really in my school drugs were rife, we used to take them in class sometimes and we never got caught.

It worries me so much as drugs are far cheaper and easier to get nowadays. I can only hope I'm educating my kids to the dangers before they are exposed to them in real life. We had no drugs education at all, all we knew about them was what the people who sold them to us said and that was all good (obviously).

They deal outside the vair vair naice CofE primary - the kids aren't buying yet - but their mothers are - my flabber was ghasted when it was pointed out to me (I can be awfully dense at times)

I started smoking at 12, and had smoked a few joints by the time I was 13, but that was the only drug I had heard of, or knew anyone took. Cocaine was just for the rich adults back in the 80's, and even speed was not something that was ever taken by younger teens. Sadly glue sniffing and inhaling lighter gas was the drug of choice for the worst offenders, and something I can happily say I never even wanted to try.

Even in my 20's when ecstacy started to circulate and be used heavily, the casual use of drugs was probably never as bad as it is now.

Coke is easy to buy, kids have a lot more money, and there is a lot more other shit that is readily available to teens like ketamine, mdma, and skunk (the stuff we smoked as teens was nowhere near the strength that is smoked by kids these days at all)..

I live in Surrey and drug use is rife amongst all age groups.

I'm afraid it doesn't shock me at all. I went to a posh school surrounded by several private schools. Drug and alcohol use was rife from 12 onwards.

Though the big difference was we didn't have ecstasy then which IMO and IME quickly leads to cocaine use. So soft drug use was more normal and didn't escalate so much or so fast.

The academic state secondary school in naice area my dc are going to has a drug problem.

Yes I'm worried but not shocked.

X posted with squeaky - absolutely agree and had same experiences

Jumping I am nieve as well .In Spain I didn't realise that the woman standing by the farm gate on a quiet road dressed in minimal clothing was not waiting for a friend to give her a lift but was in fact a (see I told you I was a bit slow on the uptake )

I had a chat with a 9 year old who came to our local needle exchange with her father yesterday. I really wouldn't be surprised.

Going O/T for a moment - little does shock me these days, but I think the openness, which in turn normalises things does shock me. If you want to take drugs, do it well away from where I don't have to see you and acknowledge your sordid little habit, not stroll through the shopping mall with a spliff on. Even sitting in your garden, having a BBQ with friends round - it sure isn't citronella candles I can smell.

Jumping - yes the smell of skunk on the street