UK NEWS

1 MILLION ARE USING COCAINE

SHOCKED; The UK is the cocaine capital of Europe, the UN said today

Thursday June 25,2009

By Jo Willey

Comment Speech Bubble Have your say(1)

THE UK is now the cocaine centre of Europe with a million regular users, according to the UN.

There are believed to be 860,000 cocaine users in England and Wales and around 140,000 in Northern Ireland and Scotland combined.

The United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime report also revealed that the quality of cocaine sold has declined dramatically in recent years.

A crackdown on traffickers has pushed prices up and led to dealers mixing the drug to the point where in some seizures substances being passed off as cocaine were only 5 per cent pure.

Data given to the UN by the UK’s Serious Organised Crime Agency shows wholesale prices have risen to record levels.

The cost of a kilogram of cocaine has increased by 50 per cent from £30,000 to £45,000 since 2007.

The report revealed a concentration of “problem drug users” in London, with around one person in 100 having drug difficulties.

Most cocaine is smuggled via the Caribbean or Africa.

1 MILLION COCAINE USERS

25.06.09, 4:24am

You might be interested in a conversation with a PC we had fifteen years ago. We asked him if the police force was ready for the hugh influx of drugs that we could see was about to take place.
His said that the major police chiefs had talked to the various forces about that. They told the officers that ther was no chance that the UK could have a major drug problem. They told the officers that unlike the US the UK was an island which would enable them to interdict any attempts to import drugs.
We looked at each other in astonishment. Did their "stupidity" contribute to the current scope of the problem?

• Posted by: r35 • Report Comment