POLICE DRUGS HAULS HIT NEW RECORD

Ministers claimed yesterday that seizures of hard drugs had reached an
all-time high, after figures showed that the amount of crack cocaine
recovered had doubled in a year.

The 2001 police and customs figures published yesterday show that class A
drug seizures, which include heroin and ecstasy, rose by 10% to 38,000
seizures against the figures for 2000.

But the overwhelming bulk of the 131,000 cases in which drugs were recovered
by the police and customs involved either cannabis resin - 59,000kg
(130,000lb) - or herbal cannabis, 26,700kg.

A further 71,000 cannabis plants were seized in 2001, providing more
evidence of the increase in home-grown production in Britain.

The second biggest haul involved heroin, with just under four tonnes seized
- - a 16% increase on the previous year.

Next came crack cocaine, up from 25kg (55lb) in 2000 to 55kg in 2001.

The shift in focus in the government's drugs strategy, towards the class A
drugs that do the most harm, has seen a shift in the pattern of seizures.

A decade ago cannabis accounted for 85% of the annual total of drugs seized
by the police and customs; now it accounts for 71% of the total.

The annual drugs seizure figures also mark the absolute decline in
popularity of LSD, once the staple of the 1960s psychedelic underground
drugs culture. Fewer than 10,000 doses or tablets of LSD were seized in
2001, all by local police forces. This compares with 158,000 LSD doses
recovered in 1997.

By contrast, ecstasy and ecstasy-type drugs appear to be coming on to the
market in increasing numbers, with 7.7m tablets recovered in 2001, a rise of
17% over the previous year.

The drugs minister, Caroline Flint, said the increase in the number of class
A drugs seizures reflected more effective targeting of action by the
enforcement agencies against the most dangerous drugs.

"Customs officers are targeting the class A drug smugglers, cross-regional
police hit squads are breaking up the wholesale middle-class drugs market,
and local police have increased their effort to get rid of street dealers
and shut down premises that are used for dealing," she said.

"I am particularly pleased that the drugs which do most harm to society,
such as crack and heroin are being stopped in greater quantities."