Overview
- Home Office figures for the year to March 2024 record nearly 218,000 drug seizures across England and Wales, the highest since 2021 and up 13% on the previous year.
- Cannabis accounted for about 70% of all seizures nationwide, with powder cocaine next at roughly 10%, alongside large totals including 485,000 cannabis plants and 1,700kg of powdered cocaine.
- Across Yorkshire, police made 17,002 seizures, with crack cocaine most common in West Yorkshire (9,490 total seizures), South Yorkshire (5,017) and Humberside (531), while heroin led in North Yorkshire (1,964).
- Metropolitan Police made 28,088 seizures in London, an 18% year-on-year decline, with crack the most seized non-cannabis drug (1,322 seizures) followed by heroin (1,280), and nitrous oxide topping the City of London’s non-cannabis list.
- Home Office data show varied local leaders among non-cannabis drugs, including crack in Warwickshire and the West Midlands, heroin in forces such as Essex and Kent, benzodiazepines in Northumbria and Cumbria, nitrous oxide in Greater Manchester and Norfolk, ketamine in North Wales, and amphetamines in Gwent.