The cannabis treasure hunt luring kids via social media
DRUG dealers are organising illegal treasure hunts with cannabis prizes in a brazen bid to drum up business.
Organised via the social media site Instagram, the new game – known as ‘Stash and Dash’ – involves bags of the drug with colourful advertising stickers being hidden at random locations.
Dealers then post photos and videos with clues and encourage followers to seek out the loot – and the first to find it gets to keep the haul.
No attempt is made to hide the fact the packages contain illegal substances and winners are even asked to post their own photos of the prize.
Concerns were raised last night that turning the supply of cannabis into a ‘game’ could encourage more young people to try them – and that the packs
‘Cynical attempt to identify new customers’
could be found by children. An investigation by the Scottish Mail on Sunday found examples of the craze taking place daily.
Last Tuesday evening, when shops were still open, The McWeedHeed Instagram page told its 4,000 followers drugs had been left outside M&S at Glasgow Fort retail park.
Posting a live video, the dealer indicated people might need their ‘climbing shoes’ and panned the camera towards a small tree in the car park.
Within minutes, a teenage boy posted that he had found three small bags of herbal cannabis.
Days earlier, the Clydeside Edables page, which sells high-strength sweets laced with cannabis, held a Stash and Dash at West College Scotland’s Clydebank campus. The ‘stash’ was left in a black shopping bag beside a public bench in the middle of the day.
In Edinburgh, a dealer left a package in plain sight next to the Scottish National Gallery.
The hunts, which originated in the United States, used to be arranged via text message but social media has vastly increased their reach.
Scottish Tory justice spokesman Liam Kerry said: ‘This new game shows a deeply unnerving criminal manipulation of our young people.’
Justina Murray, chief executive of Scottish Families Affected by Alcohol and Drugs, said: ‘This is a cynical attempt to identify new customers and further normalise cannabis use.
‘Young people have a more relaxed attitude to cannabis and are not aware of of the harmful effects.’
Detective Constable Greig Baxter said: ‘Drug supply should not be trivialised. Taking possession of these items constitutes an offence under the Misuse of Drugs Act 1971.’