Child Labour and the Drug Trade

The International Labour Organization (ILO) is a UN agency concerned with child labour based on their interest in promoting healthy, safe and equitable work situations. One of the forms of child labour that the ILO is most concerned with and defines as a Worst Form of Child Labour is the use of children in the drug trade. We recently circulated a brief note on how organized crime used children in New Zealand to purchase cold and flu medicines that are used in making speed.

Earlier in 2002, the ILO published a report prepared by Magdalena Lepiten on the use of children in the drug trade in a Philippine city.
The report is extensive and includes a chapter on the use of drugs by children involved in the drug trade. Among the points made:

	Only 8% of the children did not use drugs;
	Nearly one in four use daily;
	35% started using at 13 or younger; 22% between 14-15 years of age;
	The first drug used by most of the children was shabu - a methamphetamine;
	Peer influence was the reason most often given for first using and for continuing to use;
	Family problems were identified as a reason for use by 14% - some had members of the family involved in the drug trade.

To access the PDF version of the report

For more information on the International Programme on the Elimination of Child Labour (IPEC)

Gary Roberts, Senior Associate
Canadian Centre on Substance Abuse
Phone: 613-235-4048-225 // 613-829-3152 (home)
Fax: 613-235-8101/613-829-3307 (home)