SHOWS KIDS LEARN TO WEED IN MIDDLE SCHOOL'

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 quantity of heroin
large enough for him 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-size 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 9." For young dealers who sell
dope to their friends, jail time is not a given. The 11-year-old
Norwood girl, for example, was not arrested, but summoned to juvenile court.

In Somerville, if police find children with a small amount of
marijuana, they release them 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. "We don't see that
too often," said State Police Lt. Dennis Brooks, who is assigned to
the Middlesex District Attorney. 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.