HC Deb 29 January 1990 vol 166 cc17-8W
Mr. Martlew

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what was the estimated value of illegally imported drugs into the United Kingdom in 1989.

Mr. Mellor

The clandestine nature of the illicit traffic in controlled drugs has made it impossible to obtain a reliable estimate of the amount imported into the United Kingdom.

Mr. Dykes

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what is his assessment of the progress being made in the United Kingdom to combat drug abuse and dealing.

Mr. Mellor

The Government give the highest priority to tackling both the demand for and the supply of drugs. The ministerial group on the misuse of drugs, which I chair, co-ordinates and monitors regularly progress in implementing our strategy for combating the misuse of and traffic in drugs.

Recent developments have included: introducing provisions in the Criminal Justice (International Cooperation) Bill to enable the United Kingdom to ratify the new United Nations convention against illicit drug trafficking; organising, in association with the United Nations, a world ministerial summit to reduce the demand for drugs and to combat the cocaine threat, to be held in London next April; increasing, from £2 million a year to £3 million in 1990–91, the Home Office programme of overseas drug-related law enforcement assistance to producer and transit countries and providing an emergency package of drug-related assistance to Colombia; providing £1 million for a central fund to meet some of the additional costs of overseas drugs investigations by the police and rewards to major informants; tightening domestic controls with the addition of buprenorphine and pemoline to the list of drugs controlled under the Misuse of Drugs Act 1971; deterring drug traffickers by the confiscation of assets—so far, some £16 million has been ordered to be confiscated from convicted drug traffickers; requiring, under the science part of the national curriculum, all primary and secondary schools to provide education about the harmful effects of drugs, and in addition making available continued grant support for local education authority drugs education co-ordinators and in-service teacher training on drugs; increasing to over £18 million earmarked funding for drug treatment and rehabilitation services.