THE amount of heroin and cocaine recovered by police in Lothian has nearly doubled in a year, new figures revealed today.
Officers seized more than 47kg of Class A drugs – worth more than £2 million – in the past year, with detectives crediting a major blitz against dealers for the record jump. But police chiefs also admit that the amount of drugs coming into the force
area is on the increase to meet rising demand.
The figures were released in the annual report by Chief Constable David Strang, who said officers were working to reduce both supply and demand.
The report also showed another increase in racist crimes, with the number recorded by police rising from 1,105 in 2007-8 to 1,397 in the year to March.
Police chiefs said a growing confidence among the minority community to report offences explained much of the rise.
The massive increase in the weight of drugs seized, which stood at 25kg for the previous year, has been fuelled by a string of high-profile busts. The number of dealers caught by police dropped from 2,206 to 2,128.
Last summer saw a number of large-scale seizures, including £250,000 worth of cocaine found in a West Linton farmhouse in July and £50,000 worth of the drug recovered in Dalkeith.
In November, police announced the largest single recovery of cocaine in the force area after a 16kg consignment, with a street value of £800,000, was found at Edinburgh Airport.
Recent clampdowns have brought dozens of raids in West Lothian and Midlothian, targeting low-level dealers in local communities. The operation coincided with a drive alongside doctors and NHS Lothian to direct addicts on to programmes to wean them off drugs. In the latest swoop, two men, aged 23 and 25, were arrested on East Crosscauseway on Thursday night in connection with alleged drugs offences. The men were released on undertaking to appear at Edinburgh Sheriff Court at a later date.
Mr Strang said: "As we know, drugs cause problems throughout the force area, and indeed throughout the whole of Scotland. They cause harm to individuals, their families and to wider communities and we want to work to reduce supply, and to reduce demand.
"We have a number of initiatives to make sure young people make sensible choices, and to help people who have been involved with drugs get into treatment and back into employment."
A spokeswoman for the Scottish Drugs Forum said: "Reducing the demand for drugs – through working to overcome poverty, poor mental and physical health and related social inequalities – remains crucial if we are to tackle the drugs problem effectively."
On the rise in recorded racists crimes, a police spokesman said: "The force treats all instances of hate crime seriously and continues to develop its remote reporting mechanisms to tackle the issue of under-reporting."
Under the remote reporting system, a victim can report an incident to a third party agency, which then reports it to the police.
"As the system matures this has led to more cases being recorded and increased confidence in the system," the spokesman said.
Your Say: Are the police doing enough to tackle drugs?Katherine Hegarty, 31, interior designer, Forrester Park Avenue: "They have only got limited resources so they are doing pretty well with that."
Jean Jobson, 76, retired, Kirknewton: "I think they are maybe catching the obvious people who use drugs. The suppliers are the nasty ones."
Kathleen Green, 67, retired hospital worker, Newtongrange: "I honestly do think they are doing a good job."
The full article contains 603 words and appears in Edinburgh Evening News newspaper.
