The rise of drug abuse in the UK is costing its tax payers ₤15 billion. This figure has arisen in a Home Office study that was published recently. The amount is made up of drug related crimes, health service usage, drug-related deaths and the socio-economic care of addicts.
90 per cent of the amount is due to drug related crime. The report also estimates that there are nearly 375,000 hard core drug addicts in the UK. In addition to this, addicts spent nearly ₤4.5 billion on illegal drugs in England and Wales in 2005.
Among the Class A drugs cocaine and heroine are the ones most widely used. Britain is the largest user of cocaine among the European countries according to an EU report in every age category. The use of cocaine among 15 to 34 year olds stands at 10.5 percent and the percentage for 15 to 24 year olds is 6 percent of the population. The European figures for cocaine use are also grim. 1.5 million people will have used cocaine in the last 30 days while over 10 million people have used it some time in their life.
Cannabis, which was downgraded to a Class C drug a few years back, is now the most popular drug in the UK as well as in Europe. Britain is only second to Denmark in the use of cannabis. A Home Office study estimates that British addicts spend up to ₤1 billion a year on cannabis, which is about 412 tonnes a year. The other cause of concern about the use of this drug is that people in their 30s and 40s are using it and it cannot be written off as something that people try when they are young.
Magistrates in the UK have been calling for cannabis to be put back in the Class B level of drugs. They see a rising trend of crime among really young children to feed their cannabis addiction. Many cite instances of children between the ages of 12 and 15 being brought in for cases of theft, burglary and sometimes murder and citing the addition to cannabis as the motivation for the crime. They are of the opinion that the downgrading of the drug led to the notion among youngsters that it was not a crime to take cannabis or be in possession of it.
Another alarming news is the fall in street price of most drugs in spite of record seizures by the police and custom officials. Cannabis, cocaine and amphetamines have dropped in price by nearly 20 percent across Europe while heroin and ecstasy have gone down by nearly 50 percent.
This has led to the conclusion that the seizures have not affected the market in any way. Experts conclude that 80 percent of drug supplies need to be seized to have an impact on drug use and current seizures amount to only 20 percent.
