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VI.I Dates and facts
There has been a significant increase in cocaine use from 6% of 16-29 year olds having tried the drug in 1998 to 10% of the same age range having tried it in 2000. Studies in 2000 have found that cocaine was preferred more than amphetamine and ecstasy and young people appeared to have a less negative attitude towards cocaine than other drugs because they felt that it was more socially acceptable and easier to control. Furthermore, evidence from the British Crime Survey 2000 showed that use of this drug was as common among those who were employed as unemployed. This Survey also showed that there has been a growth in the use of cocaine in the North of England, but London still had consistently higher rates of \'any\' drug use than other regions.
Heroin use for both sexes and all age ranges remained low in 2000 with no significant changes.
Cannabis was still the most widely consumed illicit drug in the UK in 2000 with 44% of 16-29 year olds having tried it. This was an increase from 42% in 1998.
Ecstasy use continued to be broadly stable with a small increase from 4% in 1998 of 16-59 years olds ever having tried the drug to 5% in 2000. There has been a decline in the use of amphetamines, poppers and LSD. There was some evidence that other drugs such as ketamine and flunitrazepan were being misused.
On an inflation-corrected basis, all drug prices in the UK continued to fall. From 1999 to 2000, the purity of heroin increased whereas the purity of cocaine and amphetamine decreased. The purity of crack in 2000 was the lowest for many years.
VI.II Trends in drug-related problems
The most recent data (1998) showed that Government estimates of the social and economic costs of drug use in the UK amount to £4 billion with most of the money spent on drug-related crime victims. The drug retail market was estimated to be around the value of £6.6 billion.
Drug-related deaths continued to rise across the UK in 2000. Rates for England and Wales appeared to be slowing contrasting with rates for Scotland and Northern Ireland which were increasing. Opiates were one of the most common groups associated with drug-related deaths throughout the UK. In Scotland more than 23 heroin users were killed by necrotising fasciitis.
There was a strong association between problematic drug use such as heroin and/or crack addiction and criminality, with most offenders more likely to be consumers of prohibited drugs than was true of the rest of the general population. From 1996-1999 there were substantially more drug possession offences recorded than drug-trafficking offences for each type of drug; the majority in 1999 being recorded for cannabis-related offences. There was an overall decrease in 1999 in the total number of drug offences compared to previous years (1996-1998).
In the second developmental stage of the New English and Welsh Arrestee Drug Abuse Monitoring (NEW-ADAM) (1999/2000) a statistically significant correlation was found between those arrestees who tested positive for drug use and all four measures of criminal behaviour. Half the arrestees held for burglary in non-dwelling premises tested positive for cocaine (including crack) and more than two-thirds tested positive for opiates (including heroin). A large proportion of arrestees held for shoplifting offences also tested positive for these types of drugs but a small proportion tested positive in arrestees held for offences involving assaults. It was also found that there was a clear progression, with measures of involvement in crime increasing as the measure of drug use increased.
VI.III Trends in strategy and implementations
During the period 1999/2000 in the UK there was a shift of emphasis in the Government in relation to drugs from policy making to policy implementing. Developments in the implementation of the UK drugs strategy in the period under review included the growth of the anti-drugs strategy in Northern Ireland in 1999, the Scottish Executive\'s Drug Action Plan and the Welsh Strategy in May 2000.
Within Scotland, the Executive\'s Effective Intervention Unit was established in June 2000 with the responsibility of co-ordinating drugs research through identifying effective and cost effective practices in prevention, treatment, rehabilitation and availability and addressing the needs of both the individual and the community.
In Northern Ireland in 2000 the strategy for reducing alcohol related harm was produced and proposals were set forward for a Joint Implementation Model to be introduced in 2001 in which the anti-drugs strategy and the strategy for reducing alcohol related harm would proceed together.
A new unit in the Home Office was created in 2000: the Drugs Prevention Advisory Service (DPAS). This service provides support for all Drug Action Teams (DATs) in England.
The Criminal Justice and Court Services Act 2000 included a provision for persons aged 18 or over to be tested for specified Class A drugs, heroin and cocaine/crack. Testing is used in those cases where the person has been charged with a trigger offence such as property crime, robbery and/or Class A drug offences or are offenders under probation service supervision, for example, bail, community sentence or on license from prison. This was to identify those who are misusing drugs and monitor their progress. The Act applies principally to England and Wales only.
In October 2001, the Home Secretary announced that subject to advice to be received from the Advisory Council on the Misuse of Drugs, the Government foresees moving cannabis from Class B to Class C of the Misuse of Drugs Act (1971). Re-classification of cannabis to Class C would not amount to either legalisation or decriminalisation of cannabis. The effect of this is that both possession and supply would remain criminal offences with a maximum penalty of 2 years imprisonment for possession and 5 years for supply. There is no power of arrest for possession of Class C drugs. Although there is a power of arrest for supply and trafficking, this will be discussed further with the police service. Offenders could be dealt with on the spot by the police officer and warned, cautioned or reported for summons.
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