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 drug seizures tell us about availability?
The tables below show what was seized recently by the UK Border Force and police. Though the police appear to have made more seizures (hence arrests), these tend to be smaller quantities. Border Force seizures, on the other hand, tend to be much larger, hence them finding greater quantities of most drugs - the biggest exception being cannabis plants, which are mostly homegrown in the UK.
Figure 1 Number of drug seizures by class, drug type and year, 2007/8-2011/12
Seizures made by police forces
| Drug type | 2007/08 | 2008/9 | 2009/10 | 2010/11 | 2011/12 |
| Cocaine | 20,092 | 23,635 | 20,351 | 16,873 | 16,682 |
| Crack | 7,567 | 6,615 | 5,077 | 5,372 | 4,969 |
| Ecstasy | 7,148 | 5,197 | 3,712 | 2,524 | 3,168 |
| Heroin | 14,118 | 13,131 | 12,728 | 10,711 | 9,033 |
| LSD | 144 | 128 | 101 | 93 | 88 |
| Methadone | 1,008 | 1,065 | 1,028 | 1,067 | 890 |
| All Class A | 46,546 | 46,408 | 40,033 | 33,977 | 32,366 |
| Herbal cannabis | 134,636 | 142,840 | 143,395 | 138,119 | 146,113 |
| Cannabis resin | 30,182 | 35,159 | 24,022 | 18,022 | 13,892 |
| Cannabis plants | 8,539 | 9,380 | 12,920 | 14,423 | 16,386 |
| Amphetamines | 8,820 | 7,698 | 7,263 | 7,143 | 6,644 |
| All Class B | 8,970 | 189,125 | 181,318 | 173,606 | 179,241 |
| Anabolic Steroids | 391 | 546 | 530 | 562 | 573 |
| Benzodiazepines | 1,457 | 1,816 | 2,141 | 2,489 | 2,689 |
| Ketamine | | 1,269 | 1,513 | 1,684 | 1,449 |
| All Class C | 173,019 | 4,573 | 5,198 | 6,439 | 6,053 |
| Police forces total | 221,543 | 233,793 | 220,453 | 208,832 | 212,708 |
Seizures made by the UK Border Force
| Drug type | 2007/08 | 2008/9 | 2009/10 | 2010/11 | 2011/12 |
| Cocaine | 1,254 | 1,024 | 1,026 | 837 | 767 |
| Crack | 11 | 8 | 4 | 13 | 2 |
| Ecstasy | 25 | 21 | 12 | 13 | 13 |
| Heroin | 68 | 171 | 108 | 110 | 117 |
| LSD | 1 | 4 | 1 | 2 | 2 |
| Methadone | 4 | 4 | 8 | | |
| All Class A | 1,508 | 1,319 | 1,235 | 1,287 | 1,115 |
| Herbal cannabis | 2,890 | 2,513 | 1,061 | 1,118 | 1,271 |
| Cannabis resin | 688 | 636 | 317 | 290 | 286 |
| Amphetamines | 43 | 62 | 39 | 42 | 49 |
| All Class B | 160 | 3,536 | 1,470 | 1,637 | 1,770 |
| Anabolic Steroids | 126 | 259 | 341 | 113 | 133 |
| Benzodiazepines | 1,358 | 2,222 | 816 | | |
| Ketamine | - | | 99 | 109 | 91 |
| All Class C | 5,036 | 3,011 | 1,307 | 1,081 | 862 |
| Border Force total | 6,588 | 7,680 | 3,948 | 3,954 | 3,588 |
Figure 2: Quantity of drugs seized by class, drug type and year, 2007/08-2011/12
Quantity seized by police forces
| Drug type and unit | 2007/08 | 2008/09 | 2009/10 | 2010/11 | 2011/12 |
| Cocaine (kg) | 401 | 408 | 646 | 868 | 523 |
| Crack (kg) | 36 | 29 | 59 | 36 | 30 |
| Ecstasy (doses, 000s) | 342 | 299 | 116 | 357 | 151 |
| Heroin (kg) | 364 | 517 | 687 | 311 | 225 |
| LSD (doses, 000s) | 3 | 19 | 2 | 3 | 3 |
| Methadone (doses, 000s) | 106 | 205 | 150 | 172 | 87 |
| Herbal cannabis (kg) | 3,238 | 4,454 | 4,697 | 7,097 | 4,297 |
| Cannabis resin (kg) | 2,774 | 6,083 | 1,410 | 3,315 | 3,907 |
| Cannabis plants (plants) | 535,888 | 643,510 | 758,943 | 729,584 | 612,373 |
| Amphetamines (kg) | 905 | 754 | 794 | 574 | 503 |
| Anabolic steroids (doses, 000s) | 82 | 128 | 85 | 333 | 116 |
| Benzodiazepines (doses, 000s) | 116 | 176 | 687 | 664 | 421 |
| Ketamine (kg) | - | 27 | 211 | 221 | 11 |
Quantity seized by the UK Border Force
| Drug type and unit | 2007/08 | 2008/09 | 2009/10 | 2010/11 | 2011/12 |
| Cocaine (kg) | 3,052 | 2,508 | 1,997 | 1,519 | 2,933 |
| Crack (kg) | 1 | 4 | 0 | 14 | 1 |
| Ecstasy (doses, 000s) | 623 | 247 | 55 | 14 | 505 |
| Heroin (kg) | 695 | 1,035 | 830 | 420 | 1,623 |
| LSD (doses, 000s) | 0 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 |
| Methadone (doses, 000s) | 0 | 0 | 0 | - | - |
| Herbal cannabis (kg) | 16,855 | 28,908 | 13,254 | 13,597 | 17,702 |
| Cannabis resin (kg) | 13,936 | 25,716 | 11,153 | 15,344 | 15,566 |
| Amphetamines (kg) | 906 | 2,185 | 532 | 137 | 540 |
| Anabolic steroids (doses, 000s) | 6,907 | 3,816 | 3,345 | 2,459 | 913 |
| Benzodiazepines (doses, 000s) | 668 | 2,981 | 6,118 | - | - |
| Ketamine (kg) | - | - | 82 | 581 | 68 |
Source: Home Office Statistical Bulletin: Seizures of drugs in England and Wales, 2011/12
Updated August 2013
