YOUNGER KIDS GETTING INVOLVED IN DRUG TRADE

In another sign that kids are knee-high in the drug trade, two
Framingham middle schoolers were busted by police after a 13-year-old
was caught allegedly peddling pot to a younger boy.

"It's probably more common than most of us realize," said Kevin
Norton, head of CAB Health and Recovery Services in Boston. "And the
fact that they caught kids who are selling that means they must have a
market to sell to."

The alarming arrest is one of several recent Bay State cases in which
children have become tangled in the drug trade.

In Norwood, an 11-year-old graduate of a middle school DARE program
was caught last month with pot in her locker. Two weeks earlier, a
14-year-old boy at the school was also busted with pot.

In Lawrence, a middle schooler from New York was found with a big
enough quantity of heroin to be charged with drug trafficking, police
said.

Police say the boy was likely an unwitting mule.

In the Framingham case, two boys, ages 12 and 13, were arrested at the
Cameron Middle School on Wednesday after officials found marijuana on
the younger boy.

The 12-year-old boy told police he bought the drug from a 13-year-old
off school property, said Framingham police Lt. Vincent Alfano. Both
students were charged with possession of marijuana and released to
their parents, police said.

Both were suspended, said Cameron Principal Judith Kelly. "It is a
different day and age than when I was young," she said. "The parents
were very surprised. We were very surprised, and chagrined."

Alfano said the ages of the two pint-sized suspects was
surprising.

"We don't frequently encounter it at that age level," Alfano
said.

But Margo Deane, executive director of the Framingham Coalition
Against Alcohol and Drug Abuse, said: "I do screenings for the drug
court, and many of them (users) say they started at nine."

In Somerville, if police find children with a small amount of
marijuana, they are released to their parents, said Lt. Paul Upton.

"You bring her to the Police Department and our intent is not to lock
all the kids up. We can help them with outreach," said Paul Bishop, a
spokesman for the Norwood Police Department.

Authorities are not yet ready to call the rash of recent cases a
trend, but they are remaining vigilant. "We don't see that too often,"
said State Police Lt. Dennis Brooks, who is assigned to the Middlesex
District Attorney's office.

Police said children that young are usually pulled into the drug trade
by adults as unwitting participants. "You have people who don't care.
They put the children right in the middle," Brooks said.