Heroin seizures by police nearly double in a year

Tories say achievement in taking drugs off street undermined by ‘soft justice’

Drug seizures of the most potent substances have reached record levels leading to calls for the Scottish Government to declare a public health emergency.

Nearly 120kg of heroin was confiscated by police in 2017-18, which is nearly double on the previous year.

There were new seizure highs of crack cocaine and ecstasy, according to the official figures published yesterday.

The Scottish Conservatives said Police Scotland’s achievements in taking drugs off the streets are being undermined by soft justice.

Daniel Johnson, for Scottish Labour, said the scale and impact of drug abuse must be properly looked into.

“The government should treat the scale of the drug crisis in our communities as a public health emergency,” he said.

The amount of heroin seized from dealers last year was more than double the 54.1kg found in 2016, although there were just 11 more recorded cases.

Officers also took possession of 74.4kg of cocaine and a further 6.7kg of crack cocaine in 2017-18, as well as 25,000 ecstasy tablets.

Class C drugs known as “street Valium”, which are implicated in an increasing number of Dundee deaths every year, were also seized in large numbers, including 321,000 diazepam or other benzodiazepine tablets.

There are 7,400 problem drug users in Tayside and Fife, figures published earlier this month revealed.

Deaths in Tayside went up from 56 to 73 in 2017, making it one of the worst parts of western Europe for narcoticsrelated fatalities.

Scottish Conservative Liam Kerr demanded the courts come down on “drug dealers like a ton of bricks”.

“Police officers are expected to do more than ever when it comes to ridding our streets of class A drugs,” the MSP said.

“They now need to be backed up by the rest of the justice system.”

Alex Cole-Hamilton, for the Scottish Liberal Democrats, said the government must look at “humane proposals to establish heroin assisted treatment clinics” amid the “huge upsurge”.

The drugs were seized in the street in almost half of cases, while almost a quarter were discovered in a home.

Justice Secretary Humza Yousaf said: “In the last 10 years we have invested over £784 million to tackle problem alcohol and drug use.

“Our new alcohol and drugs strategy will strengthen existing measures to support those vulnerable to drug and alcohol harm, while applying the full force of the law to hit the dealers who cause misery that blights so many lives.”