‘New and emerging’ drug trend in schools

Since the reopening of face-to-face classes, school administrators and the police have been bogged down by a myriad of deviant social behaviours with the use of illegal drugs chief among them.

An emerging trade has been hatched within these schools whereby homemade baked products like coconut drops, cakes, cookies are infused with ganja, sweets are laced with alcohol, and a psychoactive drug called molly that acts similar to ecstasy, are being sold to students. The business is run by senior students who sell these items to mostly their younger peers, who are amongst the most naïve.

“These food items are highly potent with ganja. You will find that some of the students will buy them not necessarily knowing that these are ganja products and it will have an effect on them,” said Corporal Damion Hammond of the St Catherine South Police Division.

He was speaking at the police division’s quarterly virtual town hall meeting on April 3.

The police corporal, who wears the tag of school resource officer, is urging parents to be more vigilant, conduct random searches of their child’s school bags and person; and educate their children about the dangers of consuming such products.

“You find also that you have alcohol gummies. What is happening in the schools now is that they’re being infused with alcohol. So they soak the gummies in alcohol and then sell it to the students,” he added.

According to numerous medical literature online, the chemical structure of molly and ecstasy are the same, there difference only in name. Its chemistry is not important to the policy though but rather the effect it has on the minds, as it places the user and those around them at serious risk.

“There is a new and emerging party drug that is known as molly that is very, very new on the market,” Cpl. Hammond told hundreds of residents logged on.

Molly, a recreational drug, is sold to students who then self-administer the pill at illegally staged after-school parties hosted off site at homes where there is no adult supervision or by adults who prey upon the young and impressionable minds. The pills are available for purchase on the black market only and are coated in different colours, making them harder for parents and teachers to differentiate from normal over-the-counter tablets.

“I’m told that there are some in normal pill form and some in capsule form,” he said. “These things are emerging in our schools and these are activities our students are indulging, in not necessarily on the school compound re the pill party, but it is affecting the school community.

“There was an incident with a 14-year-old boy that took one of the molly products and he was behaving very erratic and they have to take him to the doctor.”

The selling and consumption of soft and even hard drugs in schools is an age-old problem in the country’s secondary institutions. But its evolution and growing prevalence is a major concern for officials including the police. What was only an issue confined to schools based in the nation’s tough inner-city communities has now spread over into institutions with better socio-economic structures.

The police said they have been working closely with the school’s deans of discipline and guidance counsellors with the hope of eliminating the practice. He stated however that parents and guardians have a greater role to play in their charge of ridding schools of illicit drugs.

“We are asking parents to pay some attention to that and be very vigilant,” Cpl. Hammond said. “Remember your child at home is not necessarily your child in the school community.”

The St Catherine South Police Division covers the municipality of Portmore, Old Harbour and Central Village.