POLICE FEAR DRUGS WAR IS BEING LOST AS PRICES FALL TO RECORD LOW

The cost of "street" drugs is at an unprecedented low, indicating that
Britain is losing the war against dealers and traffickers, a police
intelligence service has revealed.

Its survey of drug prices has found that all of the 11 illegal substances
studied, including heroin, cocaine, ecstasy and cannabis, are cheaper than
at any time in the past six years. The prices do not take into account the
inflation rate, making them, in effect, even cheaper.

The findings of the National Criminal Intelligence Service (NCIS) suggest
that despite the Government's much trumpeted war on drugs a " and despite
additional resources for the police, MI5 and Customs a " the quantities of
drugs available throughout Britain are greater than ever before.

The intelligence service has also found big regional variations in the
prices of various drugs, with Liverpool being among the cheapest places to
obtain narcotics and Cardiff one of the most expensive.

The NCIS survey covers the average cost of drugs in the United Kingdom
bought from dealers on streets, in clubs, and ordered on the telephone,
from July 1995 to December 2000.

It found that all forms of cannabis, including super-strength skunk, have
never been cheaper. The price of cocaine, at UKP 65 a gram, is also at its
lowest, down from UKP 82 in 1995. So too is ecstasy at UKP 9 a pill,
compared with UKP 15 six years ago. The price of amphetamine, at UKP 9 a
gram, has never been lower. LSD, at UKP 3.34 a dose, was cheaper (UKP 3)
only in 1996. The price of heroin was UKP 88 a gram in July 1995. Although
it was UKP 65 in 1999,it began to rise again andhas fallen to the present
level of UKP 70.

The highly addictive crack cocaine is UKP 4 cheaper, at UKP 23 for each
"rock" or hit, than it was in 1995.

The drugs prices were obtained from the police, informers and undercover
operations. David Martins, an NCIS drugs section analyst, said: "The four
'P's a " product, placement, price and promotion a " are the core marketing
factors involved in selling a product or service to customers, and are
regularly and subtly applied in the drugs market.

"The single most important fact is price, partly because it can affect
sales volumes. If the price is too high and the market is competitive,
sales may drop correspondingly."

A senior source at Customs and Excise admitted that the true indicator of
success in cutting off supply would be when drug prices started to go up.
Until that happened, they were easily available.

A comparison of costs of drugs around the country found that, in December
1999, cocaine varied from UKP 20 a gram in Leeds to UKP 30 in Nottingham,
UKP 40 in Liverpool and Brighton, UKP 100 in Sheffield and Belfast and UKP
120 in London.

The cheapest prices for ecstasy were UKP 5.50 a pill in Brighton and UKP 7
in Edinburgh and Liverpool, with the most expensive being UKP 15 in
Belfast, Brighton, Sheffield and London, and and UKP 20 in Manchester.

Cannabis resin was cheapest in Liverpool and Manchester at UKP 70 a gram,
but cost UKP 140 in Cardiff. Mr Martins said the top prices were charged by
dealers who operated in pubs, clubs and on the streets to strangers.

Commenting on recent trends in the market, he said dealers were
increasingly selling cannabis cultivated in secret greenhouses in Britain,
rather than smuggling it from abroad. He added that the popularity of LSD
had continued to decline in favour of ecstasy and "speed" or amphetamine.