To wonder what the hell is going on?

[iamnotarobotot]

We live in a small town in Kent, not much happens here. Drugs are everywhere in the country obviously but the area never particularly stuck out for that. It's gorgeous and very quiet. My teenagers (DS 16 DD 14) both go to the local secondary school, and it's fine. They have friends who they meet with in town etc.

DS recently told me that there's a lot of kids from inner London who some of the kids from his group have started hanging around with. The town is quite awkward for them to get to as it doesn't have a train station, so they have to get to our town from the train station in a big town, which takes quite a while. He says it really picked up during the Summer holidays. Apparently they've been coming and selling weed etc and then going home, but are trying to get friendly with certain members of the group. Apparently taking people for takeaways and stuff. DS says he has been added on Snapchat by some of them but he has blocked them as it all feels off to him. They have been sending people messages apparently advertising the fact that they'll have cocaine to sell soon. DS says his friendship group has really been taken in by this group but he doesn't want anything to do with it (we've had bad experiences with drugs in the extended family), so he doesn't know what to do. Why is this happening?

There has been quite a bit more youth violence here in recent months, Dsis works in an A&E in another part of Kent and says she is seeing a
lot more knife wounds etc (stuff that isn't even being reported in the news!) and teenagers who just won't talk. I am starting to feel very frightened for our kids. It's like they are all involved in a completely different world which we are not able to comprehend

What has society become

Wow. I live in central/ inner London, don't have kids and stopped working in drug and alcohol rehab many years ago to take up a totally different profession. So I had absolutely no idea that this was happening. Drugs have always, in my experience, been available. I grew up in a naice town in middle England in the late 80s/ early 90s. Even the kids in the villages outside the town had access to drugs. We all did.

But it was not like this. I was never targeted, I never saw a dealer near my school.

Weirdly, this has been happening a lot in DH's home country for years. It's a pretty deprived country with massive disparity of poor and rich. Kids in small towns being targeted at the gate by scary kids from the bigger towns. DSS and I talked about it a lot when he was a young teen. Thankfully he has grown up relatively unscathed regardless of availability of drugs in his home town.

So you were/are just going to turn a blind eye then, op? Whilst moaning about it on MN but not tell anyone who may actually do something about it..
Ok

I've never heard of county lines before.

Read all the info everyone posted. I genuinely had no idea this was even a thing.

I'm glad your son felt able to speak to you about this op.

I've honestly never heard the term county lines until today and we live in a Home Counties area that you'd think would be a prime target for it.

Bravo to your son for telling you and knowing something was "off" . I hope that you will report this to the police so that your son's friends can be safe. Really scary shit.

Yes, county lines.

You must not be scared to report this. If they are brazenly advertising that they are selling drugs then they are running a huge risk of being reported by anyone. They will not automatically link to your son. Please have an anonymous discussion the the police about it at the very least. They need to be aware that county lines have reached your area. This is very bad.

County lines are everywhere. Don’t be mistaken that your local area has missed this. It is EVERYWHERE. You might not know about it or see it, but it’s there.

Same happens in our north east coastal town with gangs coming from Manchester and Leeds. Tell the police.

Please do report. They target children in naice areas because they are more naive and the parents less watchful. I teach in the Cotswolds and it is fucking rife here. We have the police in all the time to talk to the kids about it.

The police can do nothing without tip offs.

And to anyone who still takes drugs: this is the cost of your dirty habit. Children and being drawn in and destroyed. Maybe think about not buying that coke for your next night out.

Please report to the police. The sooner they know the sooner they can deal with it and hopefully put a stop to it before it gets worse.

Thank goodness your DS is a sensible lad!

Deffo contact police and if you can say which takeaway places are being targetted it might help.

County lines - definitely report; if you want to stay anonymous you can use Crimestoppers - you can even do it as a "2 Way" report where police have the opportunity to ask further questions via Crimestoppers whilst maintaining anonymity for you.

Names, nicknames, phone numbers texts are coming from, takeaways targeted etc would be very useful.

If you report in person the advantage is that the information may be considered as more valuable (any risk to you is always carefully managed - source not identified openly etc).

I'm stunned at the amount of people here who have never heard of County Lines. It's everywhere!

I can't figure out what County Lines means despite reading the thread.. I'm neither British nor live in the UK though. I'll try google

County lines has been all over the news and in the press for months.

The English news and press? We don't all read news from countries we don't live in.

Avocado
County Lines is where drug dealers looking to move out of their traditional territories in large urban areas recruit children and teenagers to traffic the drugs. The children are often vulnerable and initially befriended by the gang. They are then trapped into helping them through debt, violence and intimidation.

Sorry avokado

If you are reluctant to go to the police, please speak to the safeguarding lead at your child’s school. He or she will be able to make contact with the relevant authorities- county lines is an increasingly prominent safeguarding issue.

County lines - let his school know as this is a serious safeguarding topic for schools atm.

I chair an inner City Primary and last time we spent a lot of time with our Year 6s and their parents discussing this and the chicken shop culture.

The boys especially love chips, so they start going and hanging around the older boys who buy them chicken an chips or drinks... then a couple of weeks later they are asked to pay up for the food and give a choice either run a package... or bring in forbidden food and drink items to school.

The package running goes on for a short time and then they are tasked with a larger packet but they will be jumped on their way to deliver... then they will told to pay up a couple of grand for the contents which neither they nor their parents can afford and bingo they are into the organisation.

Report it to the Police and their schools, please.

Apparently taking people for takeaways and stuff
Is this the dealers spending money on the local kids? Classic grooming. The dealers will eventually tell the local kids that they “owe them” and make the local kids sell drugs for them.

Please report to police, school and parents of your children’s friends. Keep your children well away.

I work in a rural secondary school and we have kids involved in county lines. They are the most vulnerable with chaotic home lives. Report to the police and speak to the Safeguarding Lead at your child’s school.