'Resilient' drugs trade not stopped by police seizures

Published on Wednesday 30 July 2008 10:41

THE illegal drugs trade in Britain is bouncing back against tough action by police and customs, with seizures failing to curb demand or supply at street level.

The UK Drug Policy Commission report found the 5.3 billion drugs market was proving "extremely resilient" to crackdowns by law enforcement agencies, despite hundreds of millions of pounds being spent each year to tackle the problem.

It claimed even significant drug seizures and high-profile convictions of traffickers and dealers usually fail to have an impact on supply and demand due to the scale of the market and its ability to adapt quickly.

In times of short supply, dealers often reduce purity.

The number of Class A drug seizures in England and Wales more than doubled from 1996 to 2005. But an estimated 60 to 80 per cent of drugs would need to be seized regularly to put major traffickers out of business, even though rates on this scale have never been achieved anywhere.

Tim McSweeney, one of the report authors, said: "We were struck by just how little evidence there is to show that the hundreds of millions of pounds spent on UK enforcement each year has made a sustainable impact and represents value for money."