Drug Seizures and Offender Characteristics, 2020-2021 and 2021-2022

Number of seizures and quantities of drugs seized

The quantity of drugs seized can fluctuate considerably each year and does not necessarily move in line with the number of seizures made. Whilst most drug seizures consist of relatively small quantities (usually possession-related crimes), annual quantities of drugs seized can be greatly influenced by a small number of large seizures (usually supply-related crimes).

Drug supply crimes

Intelligence-led operations against known drug dealers tend to result in a low number of seizures, but conversely the quantity of drugs seized and their value will be high. These high profile operations may result in greater disruption to the illicit drugs trade which, whilst having a positive effect, may reduce the number of seizures made. As such, care should be taken when comparing quantities of drugs seized over time.

A significant proportion of drugs seized in terms of quantity come from seizures related to supply crimes, despite making up a relatively small proportion of the overall number of seizures.

This section covers drugs seized where the crime was one of drug supply, drug production or illegal importation of drugs.

Class A drugs seized from drug supply crimes

Table 1b shows that in 2020-21, Police Scotland reported that they seized 110 kilograms (kg) of heroin, 406 kg of cocaine powder and 6.5 kg of crack cocaine from drug supply crimes. In 2021-22, Police Scotland seized 127 kg of heroin, 64 kg of cocaine powder and 11 kg of crack cocaine.

Approximately 7,300 ecstasy-type tablets were seized in 2020-21 and approximately 12,200 were siezed in 2021-22.

1 litre of methadone was seized by Police Scotland in 2020-21, with just over 1 litre seized in 2021-22.

Compared to other types of Class A Drugs, relatively small amounts of LSD and morphine were seized in 2020-21 and 2021-22.

In addition to the information in Table 1a, there were 17 supply-based seizures of 'Other' Class A drugs in 2020-21 and 15 in 2021-22.

Class B drugs seized from drug supply crimes

Table 2b shows the quantities of Class B drugs seized in 2020-21 and 2021-22.

The quantity of cannabis-related drug seizures from drug supply crimes in 2020-21 included 1,128 kg of herbal cannabis, 12.7 kg of cannabis resin and 43,862 cannabis plants. In 2021-22, Police Scotland seized 1,467 kg of herbal cannabis, 86 kg of cannabis resin and 33,813 cannabis plants.

There were 81 kg of amphetamines seized in 2020-21 and 50 kg in 2021-22. There was just under 3 kg of ketamine seized in 2020-21 and 12 kg seized in 2021-22. There was one small mephedrone seizure from drug supply crimes in 2020-21 and none in 2021-22.

In addition to the information in Table 2a, there were 52 supply-based seizures of 'Other' Class B drugs in 2020-21 and 48 in 2021-22.

Class C drugs seized from drug supply crimes

Table 3b shows the quantities of Class C drugs seized from drug supply crimes.

Most Class C seizures were benzodiazepines, with over 3.2 million tablets seized in 2020-21 and over 4.8 million tablets in 2021-22.

It is likely that a significant proportion of those benzodiazepines will be Etizolam. Etizolam is a 'designer' benzodiazepine, which was classified as a Class C drug under a 2017 amendment to the Misuse of Drugs Act 1971.

There were less than 100 anabolic steroid tablets seized from supply crimes in 2020-21 but approximately 3,000 tablets were seized in 2021-22. There were also no temazepam tablets seized from supply crimes in 2020-21, with less than 10 tablets seized in 2021-22.

In addition to the information in Table 3a, there were 37 supply-based seizures of 'Other' Class C drugs in 2020-21 and 41 in 2021-22.

Drug possession crimes

The majority of seizures of controlled drugs are from drug possession crimes (in terms of the number of seizures), however by their nature these incidents involve a relatively small quantity of drugs being seized. As a result, drug possession crimes account for only a small proportion of all drugs seized in terms of quantity, despite accounting for the vast majority of seizures.

The data presented below for drug possession crimes is based on a sample of 400 records per year. As this analysis is drawn from a sample of records, users should treat the following information as a broad indication of the characteristics of drug possession rather than as an exact measure. All figures are presented at a national level as the sample size is too small to provide robust estimates for geographies below this.

Number of drug possession crimes by drug classification

Recorded crime statistics show that in total, there were 23,747 drug possession crimes recorded by the police in 2021-22, compared to 30,344 drug posession crimes in 2020-21 and 30,469 in 2019-20. Further information can be found in Recorded Crime in Scotland, 2021-22.

Table 4a shows the distribution of the classification of drugs seized in the sample for 2014-15 to 2021-22. Table 4b shows the resulting estimate of the total number of possession crimes involving each class of drug.

In both 2020-21 and 2021-22, more than half of all drug possession crimes were estimated to involve Class B drugs (56% in 2020-21 and 62% in 2021-22). A further 17% of all drug possession crimes in 2020-21 were estimated to involve Class A drugs, with an equivalent figure of 16% for 2021-22. Almost a quarter of all drug possession crimes involved Class C drugs in 2020-21 (24%) and a fifth involved Class C drugs in 2021-22 (20%). It should be noted that the changes in proportions between 2020-21 and 2021-22 were not statistically significant.

Between 2014-15 and 2021-22, the proportion of drug possession crimes that were estimated to involve a Class B drug fell from 68.0% to 61.8%. The changes for Class A and Class C possession crimes (between 2014-15 and 2021-22) were not statistically significant.

Quantity of drugs seized from drug possession crimes

In 2020-21, cocaine powder, heroin, herbal cannabis and etizolam accounted for 83% of all drug possession seizures. They accounted for 82% of all drug possession seizures in 2021-22.

In both 2020-21 and 2021-22, herbal cannabis was the most commonly seized drug by a considerable margin, with etizolam the second most commonly seized drug. In 2020-21, 69% of all possession-related seizures involved these two drug types, with the equivalent figure of 68% for 2021-22.

Table 5c provides estimates of the quantity of drugs seized from 2014-15 to 2021-22 for particular drug types. To ensure the value of these estimates, they have only been carried out where there were at least 15 observations of a drug found in the sample. Following decreases between 2014-15 and 2017-18, diazepam has not reach this required level to be reported since 2017-18. Likewise, after year-on-year decreases between 2016-17 and 2019-20, cannabis resin did not reach the required level to be reported in 2020-21 and 2021-22. This suggests that in the latest four and two years respectively, diazepam and cannabis resin accounted for only a very small proportion of seizures for drug possession crimes.

The quantity has been estimated by multiplying the average quantity seized in the sample by the estimated number of drug possession seizures involving that drug.

Overall quantity of drugs seized

Table 6 shows the total quantity of drugs seized for the drug types where an estimate of the quantity seized from possession crimes has been made. The figures shown in the table are the sum of the quantities seized from supply-related crimes and the estimated quantity seized from possession crimes.

For those drug types not shown in Table 6, there were fewer than 15 observations in the sample of possession crimes for each year, and therefore the total quantity seized from possession crimes is likely to be very small. Due to this the quantity seized from supply-related crimes shown in Tables 1b, 2b and 3b should provide a reasonable estimate of the total quantity seized.

For all of these drug types the quantity of drugs seized from possession crimes is relatively small when compared to the quantity seized from supply crimes.

In 2020-21, 411 kg of cocaine powder was seized in total, with 70 kg seized in 2021-22. There were also 115 kg of heroin seized in 2020-21, with 131 kg seized in 2021-22.

In total, 1,270 kg of herbal cannabis was seized in 2020-21, with 1,622 kg seized in 2021-22.

Approximately 3.6 million benzodiazepine tablets were seized in 2020-21, with approximately 5 million seized in 2021-22.