Drug disaster as center class customers suppose this narcotic is ‘innocent’ | Politics | News | EUROtoday

A file variety of cocaine seizures reveals how center class customers deal with it as “harmless and socially acceptable”, a police chief blasted. Officers confiscated powder cocaine on 23,706 events final yr, the best annual quantity since 1973. But greater than 60% of the seizures have been beneath a gram, which demonstrates the “consistent and widespread demand” for medicine. Critics warned Britain’s drug disgrace has been fuelled by mushy approaches to crime regardless of the general public “crying out” for “zero tolerance” policing.

Assistant Chief Constable Paul Court, NPCC deputy lead for medicine, stated: “Powder cocaine is often seen as a harmless and socially acceptable recreational drug.  The vast quantities of lower-weight seizures in the past year demonstrates this consistent and wide-spread demand.”

The high police officer continued: “But cocaine production and supply is fuelled by violence and exploitation, and those consuming it are helping to sustain a multi-million-pound illicit market which destroys lives.

“Policing works tirelessly, alongside different regulation enforcement companies, to focus on felony operations and seize dangerous substances earlier than they’ll attain our communities – that is evidenced by the file variety of seizures of cocaine and medicines through the 2024-25 interval.

“We will be relentless in pursuing the profit-driven ruthless criminals involved in drug production and supply and bringing them to justice in order to protect our communities from harm.”

Home Office figures present police and Border Force seized 18.46 tonnes of cocaine within the yr to March. This was 23% after a variety of file hauls within the earlier 12 months.

But the variety of particular person seizures elevated by 14% to a complete of 24,492. Confiscations by police accounted for 23,706 of those.

And alarming evaluation “63% of powder cocaine seizures were under one gram (g), 34% were between 1g and 500g, and the remaining 3% weighed 500g and over.”

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It comes after the Daily Express revealed evil drug cartels are tightening their grip on Britain by exploiting Labour’s “soft” method to crime.

Police and Border Force seized a staggering 148 tonnes of narcotics value nearly £3billion final yr.

Critics warned communities are “awash with illegal drugs” as a result of drug kingpins are exploiting porous borders, weak sentencing legal guidelines and falling police numbers.

A file 137 tonnes of the class-B drug have been seized within the yr to March 2025, up from 85 tonnes within the earlier yr.

Numerous sources dismissed any suggestion this was a results of regulation enforcement companies profitable the warfare on medicine, as a substitute pointing to a surge in provide of quite a few substances.

David Spencer, Head of Crime and Justice, Policy Exchange, stated: “The prevalence of illegal drugs is fuelling disorder and criminality on our streets.

“This is the inheritance of successive, so-called ‘progressive’, soft on crime and criminals governments over recent decades. The public is crying out for some old-fashioned zero tolerance policing and prison sentences for these criminals.”