The Nation - News from Aug. 10, 1989

A group of children in Lebanon, Pa., used a playground as headquarters for a make-believe drug ring, selling neatly packaged bags of sugar and grass clippings that looked like cocaine and marijuana, police said. Authorities speculated that the children--who were believed to be 12 or younger--were either emulating their parents or being trained for the drug business. A tackle box stacked with bogus drugs and colored slips of paper detailing the group’s transactions was turned over to police last week after two children found it in a tree at the dilapidated playground. Police had not interviewed any children in the case.