The police seize drugs already in the country, either smuggled, grown or manufactured here. The number and quantity of these seizures are recorded and published yearly by the Home Office in the form of statistical bulletins.
While the bulletins show what drugs are being reported and seized at the ports and on the streets, they reveal more about the activities of customs and the police than they do about what is actually available. For a full discussion of how these statistics should be interpreted see What do the drug statistics say about the availability of drugs?
The tables below show what was seized recently by customs and police. Though the police appear to have made more seizures (hence arrests), these tend to be smaller quantities. Custom seizures, on the other hand, tend to be much larger, hence them finding greater quantities of drugs - except for cannabis plants, which are increasingly being homegrown in the UK.
Figure 1 Total number of seizures made by customs and police 1994 to 2002 in UK
Year | Customs | Police | Total |
2002 | 5,740 | 131,600 | 137,340 |
2001 | 4,980 | 126,210 | 131,190 |
2000 | 4,870 | 120,210 | 125,080 |
1999 | 5,209 | 126,985 | 132,194 |
1998 | 7,753 | 143,966 | 151,719 |
1997 | 6,727 | 132,447 | 139,174 |
1996 | 7,949 | 114,170 | 122,119 |
1995 | 6,844 | 107,695 | 114,539 |
1994 | 7,187 | 100,442 | 107,629 |
Figure 2 Quantity seized (kg or units/doses*) in UK by Customs and police according to drug type in 2002
Drug type | Customs | Police | Total |
Cocaine | 3,355 | 222 | 2,956 |
Crack | 14 | 44 | 16.1 |
Heroin | 1,041 | 1,689 | 2,342 |
LSD* | 12 | 5 | 67,408 |
Ecstasy* | 4,790 | 1,062 | 6,323,469 |
Herbal Cannabis | 31,030 | 3,964 | 15,867 |
Cannabis plants* | 20 | 57,049 | 55,363 |
Cannabis resin | 32,958 | 11,234 | 53,010 |
Amphetamines | 588 | 818 | 2,017 |
For the latest Home Office Statistical Bulletins click here!
