{"id":601320,"date":"2025-11-29T13:01:19","date_gmt":"2025-11-29T13:01:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/601320\/"},"modified":"2025-11-29T13:01:19","modified_gmt":"2025-11-29T13:01:19","slug":"drug-offences-up-by-more-than-a-third-in-london","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/601320\/","title":{"rendered":"Drug offences up by more than a third in London"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Met Police logged 50,279 drug offences in the year to June reports Clara Margotin, Data Reporter<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"The(Credit \u2013 Met Police)<\/p>\n

Drug offences rose by more than a third in London last year, figures show.<\/p>\n

It comes as the total number of drug offences increased by 18% across England and Wales.<\/p>\n

The Crime and Policing Bill, which is currently with the House of Lords for review, plans \u201ctougher action on drugs\u201d by enabling the police to drug test more suspects on arrest.<\/p>\n

But the Transform Drug Policy Foundation warned the Bill remains \u201cpurely performative\u201d, adding evidence suggests \u201ctough on drugs\u201d approaches are ineffective.<\/p>\n

Figures from the Home Office<\/a> show the Met Police logged 50,279 drug offences in the year to June \u2013 up 38% from 36,312 the previous year.<\/p>\n

It means around six drug offences per 1,000 people were recorded in the area last year, which was above the four per 1,000 average across England and Wales.<\/p>\n

Across the two nations, drug offences increased by 18%<\/a> from just under 183,000 to nearly 216,800 in the year to June.<\/p>\n

However, the offence rate varied greatly across regions. While just one drug offence per 1,000 people was recorded in Dorset, this figure climbed to about nine per 1,000 people in Merseyside.<\/p>\n

Steve Rolles, senior policy analyst at the Transform Drug Policy Foundation, said the statistics should be used with caution as they can reflect changes in policing rather than in actual offences and behaviours.<\/p>\n

He explained: \u201cIf the police put more resources into targeting particular offences \u2013 such as drug possession from stop and searches, or low-level dealing \u2013 that can easily boost numbers.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWhether this is good or bad news depends on your perspective.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Home Office will no doubt spin it as a success, and claim to be having a measurable impact.\u201d<\/p>\n

He said other statistics suggest drugs are becoming more easily accessible and drug-related deaths are rising, and called for a different approach to address drug addiction and offences.<\/p>\n

He added: \u201cThe drug war posturing of the Crime and Policing Bill is purely performative.<\/p>\n

\u201cAll the evidence from the past 50 years, in the UK and internationally \u2013 with ever expanding markets, use and harms despite the billions poured into punitive enforcement \u2013 suggests that \u2018tough on drugs\u2019 approaches and harsher penalties are expensive and ineffective.<\/p>\n

\u201cBy contrast, the government has been incredibly reluctant to embrace public health approaches recommended by its own appointed experts \u2013 that have been proven to work at reducing drug related harms.\u201d<\/p>\n

He said such approaches include investing in treatment and prevention, with supervised drug consumption facilities for instance.<\/p>\n

A CrimeStoppers spokesperson said drug dealing and offences have \u201ca significant impact on local communities\u201d and can lead to \u201cincreased violent crime and the exploitation of children and vulnerable adults by criminal networks\u201d.<\/p>\n

They added: \u201cWe all have a role to play in spotting and speaking up about signs of drug activity.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe appeal to the public to speak up to our charity, 100% anonymously, about those responsible for distributing illegal drugs in the UK.<\/p>\n

\u201cYour information could help protect families and make communities safer.\u201d<\/p>\n

A Home Office spokesperson said: \u201cThe government is deeply concerned about the harms that illicit drugs can cause to individuals and the communities.<\/p>\n

\u201cOur landmark Crime and Policing Bill will introduce a new offence of child criminal exploitation to go after the gangs who are luring young people into violence and crime, and expanding police powers to drug test suspects on arrest for a wider range of controlled drugs.\u201d<\/p>\n

Independent news outlets like ours \u2013 reporting for the community without rich backers \u2013 are under threat of closure, turning British towns into news deserts.\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

The audiences they serve know less, understand less, and can do less.\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

If our coverage has helped you understand our community a little bit better, please consider supporting us with a monthly, yearly or one-off donation.\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

Choose the news. Don\u2019t lose the news.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Monthly direct debit\u00a0<\/p>\n

<\/a><\/a><\/p>\n

Annual direct debit<\/p>\n

<\/a>
\n<\/a><\/p>\n

\u00a35 per month supporters get a digital copy of each month\u2019s paper before anyone else, \u00a310 per month supporters get a digital copy of each month\u2019s paper before anyone else and a print copy posted to them each month.\u00a0\u00a350 annual supporters get a digital copy of each month’s paper before anyone else. \u00a384 annual supporters get a print copy by post and a digital copy of each month’s before anyone else.<\/p>\n

\"Donate<\/a><\/p>\n

<\/a>More information on supporting us monthly\u00a0<\/a><\/p>\n

More Information about donations<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Met Police logged 50,279 drug offences in the year to June reports Clara Margotin, Data Reporter (Credit…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":105246,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7757],"tags":[748,188,535,393,4884,257,135,2453,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-601320","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-london","8":"tag-britain","9":"tag-crime","10":"tag-drugs","11":"tag-england","12":"tag-great-britain","13":"tag-london","14":"tag-metropolitan-police","15":"tag-policing","16":"tag-uk","17":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115633121549391812","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/601320","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=601320"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/601320\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/105246"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=601320"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=601320"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=601320"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}