Cocaine and other drug seizures at record levels

What quantity of drugs are police seizing in Leicestershire?

THE amount of cannabis seized by police in Leicestershire has rocketed in a year - with a gram now recovered every four minutes on average.

Home Office data has revealed there has been a huge surge in the amount of certain drugs being taken off the streets.

In particular, cannabis, cocaine and crack seizures hit their highest levels since modern records began.

The data shows Leicestershire Police found 148kg of herbal cannabis in 2018/19 - the equivalent of a gram every three minutes and 32 seconds.

The amount seized has increased by two-thirds from 91kg in 2017/18.

It was the biggest annual haul of herbal cannabis since records began in 2009/10.

The amount of cocaine seized has risen by a third in a year, again to record levels - from 5.4kg found in 2017/18 to 7.3kg in 2018/19.

That’s the equivalent of being found every hour.

There was 1.4kg of crack seized in the area in 2018/19, double the 0.7kg seized in 2017/18.

Again, that is the highest amount since at least 2009/10.

Also seeing seizures on the rise was ecstasy (up ninefold to 9kg), cannabis plants (doubling to 7,756 plants), and anabolic steroids (up twelvefold to 108,480 doses).

Not all drugs saw increasing amounts seized in Leicestershire in 2018/19. The amount of methadone and heroin

agram found by police fell year on year, as did the quantity of cannabis resin.

Nonetheless, the figures show that on average across the Leicestershire Police area:

■ A gram of cocaine is found every one hour and 12 minutes

■ A gram of crack is found every six hours

■ A dose of ecstasy is found every 58 minutes

■ A gram of heroin is found every one hour and 58 minutes

■ A dose of methadone is found every 14 hours

■ A dose of morphine is found every 19 hours

■ A gram of herbal cannabis is found every four minutes

■ A gram of cannabis resin is found every 05:47:45

■ A cannabis plant is found every 01:07:46

■ A gram of amphetamines is found every 01:55:54

■ A gram of ketamine is found every 01:43:53

■ A dose of anabolic steroids is found every 00:04:50

Nationally, some drugs were being seized in record quantities last year.

Across England and Wales, 9.6 tonnes of cocaine were seized by the police and Border Force in 2018/19

That was nearly three times the 3.4 tonnes seized in 2017/18.

This is the biggest haul of cocaine seized since records began in 1973.

Most of this total came from seizures by Border Force - 8.9 tonnes in all.

The quantity of ecstasy seized increased from 0.7 million doses in 2017/18 to 2.2 million doses in 2018/19. Again, most of this - 1.9 million doses - was seized by Border Force.

This was the highest quantity seized since 2006/07.

The quantity of crack seized by police forces increased by 73%, from 36 kilograms in 2017/18 to 63 kilograms in 2018/19, the highest amount seized since 2004.

There were 54,070 doses of LSD seized in 2018/19, the highest since 2005 when 1.1million doses were recorded, and a big increase on the previous year (3,351 doses).

The amount of herbal cannabis and cannabis resin both fell lats year, but the number of cannabis plants found was up from 354,540 to 395,843.