THE UKP 6.6BN ILLEGAL TRADE

Statistics On Cannabis In The UK

In the British Crime Survey 2000 cannabis was the most commonly used drug

More than 3m people spend a total of more than UKP 6.6bn a year on illegal
drugs, according to Home Office figures

Cannabis smokers spend an average of UKP 498 a year

Home Office figures suggest that there are 3.1m occasional smokers of
cannabis in Britain

Of the 9.5m people aged 16 to 29 in England and Wales at least 2.3m would
have used a prohibited drug in the last year

Between 30% and 40% of 15 and 16-year-olds report using cannabis, according
to the charity Drugscope

A survey of 20,000 British youngsters last year found that one in nine
16-year-old boys who admitted using drugs said they did so every day

Britain has the toughest drug laws in the whole of Europe and has one of
the highest levels of users

In Amsterdam, where cannabis is decriminalised, 55% of people who say they
have tried cannabis only end up using it a couple of dozen times or less

In the Brixton pilot study 450 warnings were issued in 2001 compared with
324 arrests in 2000

1,350 hours of police time were saved. This is equivalent to the borough
receiving 1.8 extra full-time officers

Arrests for dealing cannabis increased by 11%.