§ Mr. WyattTo ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what estimate he has made of the(a) direct and (b) indirect cost of illegal drug smuggling to the United Kingdom in the last year for which figures are available. [55655]
§ Mr. George HowarthEstimates of the costs of problematic drug misuse were produced by Professor Michael Hough of South Bank University and included in the Home Office Drug Prevention Initiative report "Arrest Referral: Emerging Lessons from Research", published in April 1998.
The total annual cost was put at between £3.2 billion and £3.7 billion, made up of £100 million health costs, £600 million unemployment and sickness benefit 1211W payments, £500 million criminal justice system costs and costs of between £2 billion—£2.5 billion to victims of drug-related crime.
These estimates do not distinguish between costs arising from drugs smuggled illegally and drugs produced in this country, although other studies suggest that the overwhelming majority of the drug misused in this country are produced overseas.