Inverclyde

Inverclyde

Our charity believes that everyone has the right to feel safe in their community.

We know that it can be difficult to speak up with information or suspicions about crime, so we developed a way for you to tell us what you know 100% anonymously.

This means that

• we can’t trace your phone number or email address
• we can’t trace your IP addresses or location
• we don’t know who you are

You can trust us with what you know, confident that NOBODY will ever know that information came from you. 

Because we will NEVER break our promise of anonymity – we can’t take information from victims of crime. If someone is hurting you or you are worried about crime please speak to a trusted adult (a parent/carer, teacher, youth worker etc) police or you can contact childline.org.uk on 0800 1111

In an emergency ALWAYS dial 999

Anyone can be a victim of drug dealers

School wasn’t a happy place for Amy.  She didn’t have many friends and felt quite isolated. The group of young adults at the skatepark made her feel included and part of something. They made her feel like she was accepted and important but that was all an act.

Criminals will often groom a young person, by giving them gifts or free drugs/alcohol to encourage them to do stuff for them.

They don’t want to get caught carrying or selling drugs so they’d rather make money whilst someone else faced that risk.

Often, criminal gangs will arrange for a young person to be ‘mugged’ of the drugs or money they’re keeping for them so that they build a drug debt, which makes them even more vulnerable to their demands.

This can lead to further exploitation and make the young person feel like they have no other choice.

During his childhood, Ryan’s family life had been chaotic and impacted by domestic abuse. He witnessed violence and would hide weapons to prevent his parent using them. Ryan and one of his parents were rehomed in a different area far from family and friends leaving him isolated. Ryan’s drug use escalated to Class A drugs by the time he was 14 years old. He was exploited both criminally by adults asking him to run drugs to areas unknown to him and sexually by an older woman.

Child criminal exploitation (CCE) happens when a young person is encouraged or forced to take part in criminal activity. 

The child or young person can be pressured into doing things like stealing or carrying drugs or they can be sexually exploited. What often starts as a small request often grows and grows until they feel like they are in too deep to escape or get help.