The UK has a serious child exploitation crisis. County lines – the term that has come to describe the use of children by drug-dealing gangs – is on the rise. And many believe our drug policies are to blame.

The exact scale of the problem is unknown. In 2018, the Children’s Commissioner for England estimated that 50,000 children nationwide were involved, but that figure is likely to be higher now. While there hasn’t been a study on the same scale since, the Home Office had 589 county lines referrals between April and June 2022 (the latest quarterly data available) – the highest number since records began in 2009.

Both the pandemic – in which more vulnerable children were isolated at home, easily contactable by social media – and the cost of living crisis – where more young people are in need of money for food and clothes – have contributed to the crisis. But the UK’s drugs laws are the biggest factor, says former undercover drugs operative Neil Woods in a new film made for the Transform Drug Policy Foundation (TDPF).

“In a market that doesn’t shrink, organised crime always adapts,” Woods, now an activist for drug policy reform and a board member of Law Enforcement Action Partnership UK, told openDemocracy. The more successful police have become at arresting drug dealers, the more criminals refine their operations, which includes the efficient use of children.

Children are not only easy to manipulate and easily replaced, but they are also much less likely to inform, making them particularly useful to gangs. Whereas a 21-year-old facing five years in prison may give up information to reduce their time, the police can’t bargain with children in the same way because sentencing laws are different. “They're not terrified of five years in prison because they're only 13, 14 or 15,” says Woods.

This is why, in 2021, the Covert Human Intelligence Sources (Criminal Conduct) Act allowed police to use children as intelligence sources, a decision that legal charity Just for Kids Law tried to obstruct, with Woods’ help.

“From sources within policing and within regional intelligence units, I know there is a significant drive to recruit children as informants to tackle county lines,” says Woods. “But children are already at risk, they’ve already been traumatised, to then use them as an informant… is a brutal thing to even contemplate.”

Sean Barker*, 35, was involved in county lines from the age of 12. At 15, he was arrested for possession of drugs, shortly after almost losing his life in a knife attack. Fortunately for him, though, the police who arrested him knew he had been exploited, vouched for him at court and, crucially, he says, “didn’t want any information from me whatsoever, all they cared about was that I was alive and safe”. He was allowed a ‘clean break’ and believes any child escaping criminal exploitation should be helped and safeguarded, not used as spies.

Today, Barker works with young people at risk of exploitation, and while there are overlaps between his experience and theirs, social media has utterly transformed the criminal landscape.

“When I was young, you at least had to walk around to find crime,” he told openDemocracy, “but now you can get groomed via Instagram in your bedroom.” Social media is also commonly used for manipulation, Woods adds, describing the disturbing rise of “sexualised blackmail”: children being threatened with the release of footage of them in compromising positions.

This depravity, says Woods, is again a result of our policing. Whenever there is “police success” in arresting gang leaders, a turf war follows, with the most ruthless rising to the top. And the most ruthless use children as young as seven on the frontline, employing horrific tactics to keep them there.

This is of course deeply traumatic – Barker says he may “never fully heal” from the brutality he experienced and inflicted upon others – but it has a ripple effect also. “Young people are having their personalities changed permanently to survive in this cut-throat world,” says Woods. “And it's changing the whole social system in which these children operate.”

Government action needed

To truly protect more children from exploitation, says Woods, the government must take full control of the drugs market. He points to Switzerland, where heroin has been prescribed since the early 1990s, reducing overdose deaths by 50% and new heroin users by 80%, and where crucially “there are no children dealing”.

Closer to home, Middlesbrough’s heroin-assisted treatment programme, which aimed to treat the 10% most problematic heroin users – who consume 50% of the market value – was hailed a success, before closing in 2022 due to lack of funding. (“Political cowardice,” says Woods.)

For the legalisation of cannabis says Steve Rolles, a senior policy analyst at TDPF, we should look to Malta and Uruguay, both of which have established not-for-profit co-operatives and (in the latter) hold state monopoly of the product. This ensures the market is not “commercially captured”, as per the US, where celebrities such as Seth Rogen and Snoop Dogg have cannabis brands.

And this is significant. For drugs to become a public health issue, rather than a criminal one, public health bodies must be on board. And currently, says Rolles, there are understandable concerns around legalisation due to the ongoing problems with alcohol and tobacco. “But it’s about learning lessons from the mistakes made with those,” he says, a key one being that profit incentive leads to higher consumption.

Legalising stimulants (cocaine, MDMA and amphetamines) is the most difficult to conceptualise, but in its guide as to how it could be done, Transform Drugs suggests an approach involving trained professionals selling limited amounts to adults.

This is complicated and no approach would be perfect, says Rolles, describing, for instance, the ethics of introducing a registration scheme for consumers. But the aim is to moderate high-risk use while reducing the destructive effects of the illegal trade, including child exploitation.

Given that Scotland has been battling with the Home Office for more than a year to pilot safe drug-consumption rooms, it seems unlikely that our current government will make any moves towards a drugs policy overhaul.

Plus, “the police don't want to face up to the fact that so much of their activities are not only futile but actually increase harm,” says Woods.

Despite this, Woods has genuine confidence that some progress may be afoot, as public opinion appears to be changing, with 53% of respondents to a 2019 YouGov poll supporting the legalisation of cannabis. “Our movement is growing within politics and there are many good politicians looking at the evidence on this,” he says. “I'm confident that after the next election, the brave ones will be speaking out.”

*Names have been changed