Just 12 and a drug traficker

That's the way they do things in Alberta Canada.A recent article in the Vancouver Province newspaper says a 12 year old Alberta school girl gave some pot to an eleven year old friend.This happened in a small town 780 klics from Edmonton.A town called High Level,could find no better way to deal with this situation than to involve this child in the criminal justice system.I know that there are people that will say that this is necessary.That this will send a message to her classmates.This is ridiculous and an over reaction to something that could have been handled so much better.This girl and her school friends will now fear the police and the legal system for the rest of their lives.Good move.Bringing the police into any drug situation should be an absolute last resort.They have very little discretion in their reaction to a situation.This will follow this child for the rest of her life.I know records are to be sealed at the age of majority but how many times have we heard of records being opened and old mistakes coming back to haunt someone?Anything would have been preferable to the action taken here.I won't go into the whole marijuana thing because I don't think there's anyone out there that's dumb enough to think a 12 year old should be in possession of pot.Let alone be giving it to others.That's a given.There has to be a better way of handling such a situation than to bring in the police and arrest the child.She's 12 years old for crissakes.Couldn't the parents have handled this themselves?The school probably should have kept this in house but probably had legal issues to think about.The article doesn't say who caught the play and exposed this dastardly crime but I suppose that in High Level any drug deal is a high level drug deal.Pathetic.This is another example of parental neglect.The parents neglected to use their heads and now two kids are criminals for life.This is the drug war at it's very best.Victims all round and no winners in sight .