§ Mr. Rathboneasked the Secretary of State for the Home Department what is his latest estimate of the number of drug misusers in Britain, by county or by health authority area.
§ Mr. MellorSince drug misuse is usually a covert activity, it is not possible to give a reliable estimate of the total number of drug misusers in Britain. Information on the number of drug addicts notified by medical practitioners to the chief medical officer at the Home Office in 1984 is given, by police force area, in tables 3.11–3.13 of "Statistics of the Misuse of Drugs, United Kingdom, Supplementary Tables, 1984". Some research carried out in two urban areas in England in 1981 suggested that the number of notified addicts was only one fifth the number of opioid addicts in the local population at that time. The research also indicated that the number of opioid addicts may have been matched by a similar 521W number of people misusing other drugs. However, it is likely that the number of drug misusers varies greatly, according to the locality and over time.