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Cannabis Campaigners' Guide News Database result:
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Police fear drugs war is being lost as prices fall to record
The Independent
Monday 26 Mar 2001 Subj: Police fear drugs war is being lost as prices fall to record low Date: Mon, 26 Mar 2001 Source: The Independent Police fear drugs war is being lost as prices fall to record low By Jason Bennetto, Crime Correspondent 26 March 2001 The cost of "street" drugs is at an unprecedented low, indicating that Britain is losing the war against dealers and traffickers, a police intelligence service has revealed. Its survey of drug prices has found that all of the 11 illegal substances studied, including heroin, cocaine, ecstasy and cannabis, are cheaper than at any time in the past six years. The prices do not take into account the inflation rate, making them, in effect, even cheaper. The findings of the National Criminal Intelligence Service (NCIS) suggest that despite the Government's much trumpeted war on drugs – and despite additional resources for the police, MI5 and Customs – the quantities of drugs available throughout Britain are greater than ever before. The intelligence service has also found big regional variations in the prices of various drugs, with Liverpool being among the cheapest places to obtain narcotics and Cardiff one of the most expensive. The NCIS survey covers the average cost of drugs in the United Kingdom bought from dealers on streets, in clubs, and ordered on the telephone, from July 1995 to December 2000. It found that all forms of cannabis, including super-strength skunk, have never been cheaper. The price of cocaine, at £65 a gram, is also at its lowest, down from £82 in 1995. So too is ecstasy at £9 a pill, compared with £15 six years ago. The price of amphetamine, at £9 a gram, has never been lower. LSD, at £3.34 a dose, was cheaper (£3) only in 1996. The price of heroin was £88 a gram in July 1995. Although it was £65 in 1999,it began to rise again andhas fallen to the present level of £70. The highly addictive crack cocaine is £4 cheaper, at £23 for each "rock" or hit, than it was in 1995. The drugs prices were obtained from the police, informers and undercover operations. David Martins, an NCIS drugs section analyst, said: "The four 'P's – product, placement, price and promotion – are the core marketing factors involved in selling a product or service to customers, and are regularly and subtly applied in the drugs market. "The single most important fact is price, partly because it can affect sales volumes. If the price is too high and the market is competitive, sales may drop correspondingly." A senior source at Customs and Excise admitted that the true indicator of success in cutting off supply would be when drug prices started to go up. Until that happened, they were easily available. A comparison of costs of drugs around the country found that, in December 1999, cocaine varied from £20 a gram in Leeds to £30 in Nottingham, £40 in Liverpool and Brighton, £100 in Sheffield and Belfast and £120 in London. The cheapest prices for ecstasy were £5.50 a pill in Brighton and £7 in Edinburgh and Liverpool, with the most expensive being £15 in Belfast, Brighton, Sheffield and London, and and £20 in Manchester. Cannabis resin was cheapest in Liverpool and Manchester at £70 a gram, but cost £140 in Cardiff. Mr Martins said the top prices were charged by dealers who operated in pubs, clubs and on the streets to strangers. Commenting on recent trends in the market, he said dealers were increasingly selling cannabis cultivated in secret greenhouses in Britain, rather than smuggling it from abroad. He added that the popularity of LSD had continued to decline in favour of ecstasy and "speed" or amphetamine.
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