Huge rise in people caught with ecstasy in the county

POLICE are seizing more drugs in Leicestershire - with the numbers fuelled by a huge rise in people caught with ecstasy.

Police in Leicestershire made 2,126 seizures of drugs in 2017/18, according to new Home Office figures.

That was a 16% rise from 1,830 seizures in 2016/17.

The rise is in contrast to a 2% drop in seizures across England and Wales.

Within the total was 70 seizures of New Psychoactive Substances (NPS), with figures published for the first time, all of which were seizures of synthetic cannabinoids, such as Spice.

The total number of seizures works out as a rate of 1,963 seizures per million people living in Leicestershire - less than the England and Wales rate of 2,177 seizures per million people.

The seizure rate for ecstasy was up 47% from 42 per million people in 2016/17 to 62 per million in 2017/18 - the highest rate since records began in 2009/10.

The rate at which police are seizing cocaine has jumped 17% from 207 seizures per million people in 2016/17 to 242 per million people in 2017/18, also the highest rate on record.

There has been an 32% increase in the rate of crack seizures, up to 95 per million peo- ple in 2017/18, again the highest rate on record, while the rate of seizures of cannabis has risen by 21% in a year, up to 1,407 seizures per million people.

Police in Leicestershire are 1.5 times more likely to seize anabolic steroids, with 11 seizures per million people, a 1% fall in a year.

Police forces and Border Force in England and Wales made a total of 135,728 drug seizures in England and Wales in 2017/18, a 2% decrease compared with the previous year (139,019).

This is the sixth consecutive annual fall and the lowest number of seizures since 2004, when there were 107,359 seizures.

Cannabis was the most commonly seized drug, which was involved in 72% of all drug seizures in England and Wales in 2017/18. The second most commonly seized drug was cocaine, which was involved in 11% of all seizures.

Seizures of Class A drugs decreased by 1% between 2016/17 and 2017/18, from 29,807 to 29,441 seizures.

Cocaine was the most commonly seized Class A drug, with 52% of all Class A seizures involving this substance in 2017/18. There were 15,257 seizures of cocaine in 2017/18, up 2% on the previous year (14,892 seizures).

Seizures of Class B drugs also decreased by 2% between 2016/17 and 2017/18, from 104,300 to 102,721 seizures. Cannabis was the most commonly seized Class B drug, with 95% of all Class B seizures involving this substance in 2017/18.

However, seizures of Class C drugs increased by 1% between 2016/17 and 2017/18, from 5,016 to 5,088 seizures.

There were 1,523 seizures of NPS in 2017/18. This is the first time that data on NPS have been released.

The most commonly seized types of NPS were synthetic cannabinoids (858 seizures), other NPS (448), NPS powders (135) and nitrous oxide (96).