Boy, 11, had heroin at school

AN 11-YEAR-OLD boy has been found with pounds 500-worth of heroin at a primary school in Glasgow, it was revealed yesterday.

The discovery of the 50 heroin "wraps", or packages, comes as a study estimates that 400 children aged 11 and 12 in Scotland have taken the highly addictive drug. About 160 of them are calculated to have used the drug in the past month.

The boy is understood to have been caught with the packages in the playground. They were hidden inside a shoe. The pupil, however, is not believed to have tried to sell the drugs to other children.

A second 11-year-old boy at Craigton Primary School in south Glasgow was taken to hospital after tasting a small amount of the substance, but was released without treatment.

A teacher spotted a boy holding wraps of the drug within the grounds after classes finished on Monday. The police were called and they seized the drugs at the school. The boy and his family were interviewed at a police station. A further 30 pupils were questioned yesterday.

Parents, the police and education officers expressed their shock at the discovery of drugs at the school.

Professor McKeganey, of Glasgow University's Centre for Drug Misuse Research, said that a survey of 1,000 Scottish children aged 11 to 12 showed that 0.6 per cent, or 400, of the age group had taken heroin.

He said: "The overwhelming majority of children had other drug users in their family. This suggests children are not getting the drug at the school gate, but from the home and from people they trust."

Parents shocked, page 7