The youngsters aged 11 and 12 found the large quantity of cannabis resin - believed to be worth £12,000 - in a popular wooded haunt near New Stevenston, in Lanarkshire.

Police said the children had attended drugs awareness talks at school and knew exactly what they had found in a half-buried box on Thursday evening.

Drug awareness talks at school

They immediately took the container to Bellshill Police Station.

Their action has been praised by Detective Superintendent Barry Dougall, Strathclyde Police Drugs Co-ordinator and Christine Pollock, Deputy Education Director at North Lanarkshire Council

Mr Dougall said: "This is a fine example of responsible behaviour by children and I would encourage anyone who finds anything suspicious to contact the police in the first instance.

"The way these children acted is testament to the fact that Strathclyde Police's anti-drugs message is getting through to children at a young age.

"They saw that the box contained drugs as they had seen different types of drugs when given talks at school. But they could easily have discarded the box and its contents.

"If they had not made the right choice the consequences of finding a large quantity of these drugs could have been devastating."

Police praised the children's actions

Mrs Pollock echoed the police chief's high praise.

She said the anti-drugs awareness message is taken very seriously in both primary and secondary schools in Lanarkshire.

"It is very encouraging to learn that children as young as 11 acted in such a positive way.

"The anti-drugs programme that we use in schools has got a lot of very good material which had been put together by the police and the Scottish Office.

"But the teaching is very much driven by the enthusiasm of the teachers in our schools."