Possession of Class A, B and C drugs fell last year, according to updated data published by the Home Office today.
The figures that cover March 2022 to March 2023 illustrate a decline across all of drug categories across England and Wales over the last ten years.
Seizure of drugs as identified by law enforcement officials, ranges from herbal cannabis to crack cocaine and shows a 3% drop in Class A drugs, a 19% drop in Class C drugs and at its highest a 21% drop in Class B drugs.
It indicates a decline despite the lockdowns of the previous year.
The Home Office said:
“Annual totals of the quantity of drugs seized can be greatly influenced by a small number of large seizures.
“Any large quantity of drugs seized should not be taken as an indication of drug use prevalence or availability“.
More information can be found at the Home Office’s data releases
*Note: This data was first published on 18th January. The update referred to is detailed below:
A survey to understand the needs of the users of the 2022/23 drug seizures publication was previously created and has now ended. This has now been removed from the publication.
