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Police seize more Class A drugs
03/06/2008
Scotland's police forces were involved in more seizures of class A drugs in the year to the end of March 2007 than ever before.
However, the total number of drug seizures has gone down compared to the previous year mostly as a result of a 31 per cent decrease in the number of cannabis seizures.
This is in spite of an increase in the number of cannabis plants seized in operations targeting gangs producing cannabis.
The Scottish Government today published Crime and Justice Series: Drug Seizures by Scottish Police Forces, 2005/2006 and 2006/2007.
Justice Secretary Kenny MacAskill commented:
"Drugs and the gangsters who peddle them continue to be a scourge on our communities. That is why this Government set up the Serious Organised Crime Taskforce and is determined to work with our eight police forces, the SCDEA, the Crown Office and other agencies to tackle this menace.
"The increase in the number of Class A drugs seized shows that the police are taking strong enforcement action against those drugs which cause the most harm to our communities.
"At the same time, while the number of seizures of Class C drugs is down, the quantities seized are up with over 20,000 cannabis plants seized last year.
"Tackling the drugs supply chain is only one part of a wide-ranging approach by the forces of law and order to make life difficult for the dealers. The Scottish Police Service is working with national and international agencies to stem the flow of drugs into the country.
"However, the Scottish Government is clear that enforcement alone will not stop the misery that drugs inflict on our communities. Our new drugs strategy, which will be debated by Parliament tomorrow, contains a commitment to strengthen existing powers to seize assets from drug dealers and also maps out a fresh approach to drugs education.
"Contrary to some perceptions, drug use is not glamorous. It severely damages health and, in some cases kills. It undermines family life and relationships. It can lead people into crime and prostitution. It can damage children and young people beyond repair.
"The wider costs to society are enormous. Estimated at some #2.6 billion a year, and mirrored by lost opportunities. Drug use is both a symptom and a cause of the terrible health inequalities that afflict Scotland.
"If we want a more successful Scotland, with opportunities for all to flourish, then tackling problem drug use is not something that we can avoid or ignore. As a society, together, we need to face up to Scotland's drug problem."
Gordon Meldrum, Director General of the Scottish Crime and Drug Enforcement Agency and ACPOS spokesperson on drugs said:
"These annual figures continue to show the scale of the problem we face in tackling drugs in our country - and the very considerable impact the Agency and its partners in the eight police forces are having on the gangs and networks at the heart of this callous trade.
"The intelligence-led operations we carry out against these highly-sophisticated and mercenary organisation do not always fit easily within the constraints of a reporting year, but the quantities of class A drugs we took off the street and the cannabis farms smashed will have benefited every community in the country. In addition, we continue to hit dealers where they like it least - in their pockets - with millions of pounds of ill gotten gains pouring into the public purse from use of the Proceeds of Crime Act.
"In the same way that enforcement alone cannot tackle the problem of drugs, policing relies on an ever-increasing array of partners across the public and private sectors to bite into the dealers' supply chains. Few members of the public would immediately see a utility company as being part of the fight against drug dealers - but that's exactly the kind of innovative partnership we need to keep developing if we are to seize the initiative as well as larger quantities of drugs."