Drug Seizures by Scottish Police Forces, 2010-11

2. Number of Drug Seizures (Table 1)

The total number of drug seizures by Scottish police forces in 2010-11 was 27,319. Please see Note 4.4 for further information on how the numbers of seizures are calculated.

2.1 Class A Drugs (Tables 1 and 2)

There were 6,232 seizures involving class A drugs in 2010-11, with 22.8% of all seizures involving at least one class A drug.

Among class A drugs, the highest number of seizures in 2010-11 was for heroin. There were 3,484 seizures of heroin by Scottish police forces in 2010-11. Within each of the eight Scottish police forces, heroin was the most seized class A drug, with the exception of Northern Constabulary. For Northern Constabulary the highest number of class A drug seizures involved cocaine.

After heroin, the class A drug that was seized most often was cocaine, with 2,086 seizures involving cocaine. Of all the seizures that involved class A drugs, 55.9% involved a seizure of heroin and 33.5% involved a seizure of cocaine.

There were very limited numbers of seizures involving LSD, methylamphetamine, morphine and 'other class A drugs', with less than 30 seizures involving any of these particular drug types. The number of seizures involving LSD and methylamphetamine were particularly low, as there were five and one seizures respectively.

2.2 Class B Drugs (Tables 1 and 3)

There were 18,164 seizures involving class B drugs in 2010-11, with 66.5% of all seizures involving at least one class B drug.

Of the 18,164 seizures of class B drugs by Scottish police forces, 16,871 of them involved a seizure of at least one type of cannabis, this was 92.9% of all class B drug seizures. The largest number of cannabis seizures involved cannabis resin, 10,046 seizures, followed by herbal cannabis, 6,777 seizures, and finally there were 970 seizures that involved cannabis plants.

Of the remaining types of class B drugs there were 1,151 seizures of amphetamines, 382 seizures of 'other class B drugs' and only four seizures of barbiturates. All four seizures of barbiturates were made by Central Scotland Police.

2.3 Class C Drugs (Tables 1 and 4)

There were 4,256 seizures involving class C drugs in 2010-11, with 15.6% of all seizures involving at least one class C drug. Of the three different classes of drug seizures, class C drugs made up the smallest proportion of the total number of seizures.

Diazepam was involved in 84.7% of all class C drug seizures, 3,605 seizures in total. From the same family of drugs as diazepam, there were a further 54 seizures of temazepam and 65 seizures of other benzodiazepines. Apart from 'other class C drugs' for which there were 555 seizures, there were limited numbers of seizures for the remaining listed types of class C drugs.