Pubdate: 17 Feb 1999
Source: Daily Telegraph (UK)
Copyright: of Telegraph Group Limited 1999
Contact:  http://www.telegraph.co.uk/
Author: Paul Stokes

GIRL, 3, EATS DEALER'S HAUL OF COCAINE

A THREE-YEAR-OLD girl was taken to hospital after swallowing cocaine she
found in a refrigerator in the garden of her home.

She told her mother she had licked the white powder thinking it was sherbert.

Tests at Newcastle Royal Victoria Infirmary, where the girl was treated,
confirmed the substance to be cocaine.

The girl's 30-year-old mother believes that drug dealers had hidden the
cocaine in the old refrigerator at the family's home in Walker, Newcastle
upon Tyne.

"My child could have died," she said. "It shows how sick these drug dealers
are. I know nothing about drugs and I was horrified when I discovered what
she had found. She came in pulling a face and asking for a drink of water.
She said she needed a drink because the sherbet she had eaten tasted really
nasty."

Tests were carried out to see if her heart, liver and kidneys had been
damaged through ingesting the drug. "Thankfully she didn't suffer any
serious side affects and she was allowed to go home, " her mother said.

A man and a woman, not known to the girl's mother, have since been charged
with possession of a class A drug with intent to supply. 
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