CHILDREN as young as 12 are ordering drugs over their mobile telephones.

What parents hand over to youngsters as dinner money is being spent on procuring £1 wraps of heroin.

Tina Williams, of the Teesside based watchdog drugs group, Panic, Parents against narcotics in the community, said: "We now have dial-a-drug. Dealers don't need to go to the schools, the kids are in the streets.

"The kids can dial for any drug over their mobile phones, which they all have. The numbers are passed around," said Mrs Williams.

Detective Superintendent Brian Dunn, of Cleveland Police, said: "There is a problem with the people who are purchasing drugs. They are definitely getting younger. Dealers are quite happy to sell drugs for £1 or £1.50 on occasions.

"Drug dealers don't give a damn about the misery, heart- ache or deaths they cause. Their only motive in life is making money. Their motivation is greed.''

Det supt Dunn said: "I have heard of dealers who have provided drugs for nothing with the intention of getting people hooked.

"They will give people drugs free to get them hooked and once they are, its a £150 to £300 habit."

Mrs Williams said youngsters can order anything from cannabis to speed (amphetamines), Ecstasy to heroin over their mobile.

"Now crack cocaine is on the streets. I would say between 60 and 70 per cent of users who come into our office are now on crack cocaine as well as heroin and methadone. And that is a scary prospect," she said.

Mrs Williams said the drugs culture was not so entrenched in the North-East that it would be too late to set its spread into reverse, but she said communities need to stand together, reinforced by Government help.

She wants a meeting with Health Secretary and Darlington MP Alan Milburn to press for fast, remedial action.

She said: "I want to see more treatments offered to drug addicts to prevent hepatitis, Aids, and kids being taken into care.

"Over 50 per cent of our childcare issues are drugs-related.

"Because drugs are a health hazard he has to recognise the fact that if we don't act now we are storing up problems for the next generation."