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The Bailiwicks appetite for cannabis and its related products over other drugs clearly remained strong in 2022, new seizure figures from Bailiwick Law Enforcement have shown.
Guernsey Police and Border Agency publish a report each year detailing annual activities and listing out various crimes, including the quantity and values of drugs found in the community and at the border.
While the authorities have expressed particular concern about the increased detection of cocaine in 2022, the quantities of cannabis discovered were the most prevalent and valuable.
It's made more complicated by the ever-increasing legal prescription of the drug, which means even the increase values found last year pales to what was previously being uncovered at the border.
The total value of drugs found in 2022 was just under £699,000, while in 2020 it was over £1,848,000 worth, the majority of which was again cannabis.
Pictured: BLE raised concern about attempts to smuggle cocaine into the island last year.
The biggest increase from 2021 was for Class A cocaine powder with a fivefold increase which police say was mainly imported through the dangerous internal concealment method.
Just over 376 grams were detected in 2022 with a value of £47,065 up from around 70 grams valued at £8,780 the previous year.
Head of Law Enforcement, Ruari Hardy said cocaine, which widely available in the United Kingdom and Europe, is causing “grave concern” locally.
“It can cause an awful lot of medical issues and concern. It is a highly addictive and highly dangerous drug. As is always the case with illegal drugs, they are cut and they are mixed. Organised crime doesn’t care really what they put into it, or to whom they sell it, they just want to make profit, and they deal in an evil trade of illegal drugs.
“Just to reassure the public, we will do everything we can, particularly at our borders to stop cocaine coming into the island.”
Imports of other Class A drugs went largely undetected, however. A single ecstasy pill with a value of £20, 3.2 grams of ecstasy powder, and just £19.50’s worth of LSD were found. 6.9 grams of magic mushrooms were also taken but no valuation was given.
And it was cannabis products which dominated Class A seizures, including THC oils and resin. But the most valuable was edibles with 17,436 units found valued at £52,368 – comfortably exceeding the value of the seized cocaine for the year.
But those were dwarfed by the value of Class B seizures, which were again dominated by cannabis products including 10 kilos of cannabis resin (hash) which was valued at £462,811. Meanwhile £94,439.10 worth of cannabis flower from 1,881 grams was found.
These two alone outstripped the total value of all other drugs seized in 2022 by over £416,000 and came through nearly 100 less individual seizures than in 2021.
Pictured: Chief Officer Hardy presented the report last week.
Mr Hardy told Express that while the number of individual cannabis seizures has dropped year-on-year, the financial values remain high.
“What we saw in 2020 and 2021 was a huge increase in the number of small volume cannabis importation for the post. We're now seeing more traditional smuggling type importations of cannabis. So we're not seeing so many, but we're now seeing larger amounts. And of course, that may in itself also be linked to the availability of medicinal cannabis,” he said.
Mr Hardy admitted last year that the number of people who had been prescribed cannabis far exceeded initial predictions.
When asked if representations have been made to companies which prescribe the drug locally, he said it’s an issue for the States rather than Law Enforcement to deal with.
“The Committee for Home Affairs are aware of the exponential rise, and the Committee for Health & Social Care is the responsible committee in that area. From a basic law enforcement perspective, we are aware that there are a significant number of our community who are acquiring cannabis through prescriptive use.
“We know that some of that, and I stress some of that, will probably find its way into an illegal market, which is a concern. But that may be one of the reasons why there aren't so many individual small importations of cannabis because people are now able to procure cannabis through prescription."
The 2022 report states that “the introduction of prescribed medicinal cannabis into the jurisdiction has undoubtedly had an impact on the illegal market for the drug locally.
“Additionally, seizures of the synthetic cannabinoid liquids and powders have completely fallen away, changing the illegal drug landscape in Guernsey.”
Pictured: A breakdown of GBA seizures last year.
Police dealt with 60 drug offences in 2022, representing a drop of 13 in 2021; 54 were for possession, three for cultivating cannabis, two for supply of a controlled drug, and one for production of a drug.
Meanwhile at the border, there were four times more GBA investigations into drug imports than controlled weapons, and eight times more than RIPL offences - which is when suspects fail to disclose their pin codes.
But the overall number of offences investigated by the GBA more than halved from 132 in 2021 to 62 last year.
The report explained: “Overall, the number of offences investigated by the GBA fell as they no longer had to enforce COVID-19 restrictions and the large volume of smaller scale postal importations of cannabis had lessened."
Staffing issues also persisted throughout service areas: “Across the GBA and Police we are yet to be fully staffed and are below the numbers required to deliver the services that we would seek to do. However, using our pre-existing resources we have ensured that the service to the public has not been significantly impacted.”
Class C steroid importations have been found in “high numbers” for both liquid and tablet form, but there was a drop compared to 2021 with around a £115,000 difference in value for vials found. Around 1,100 more tablets were discovered, though
Law Enforcement says it has worked with the Health Improvement Commission to raise awareness of the dangers of steroids in gyms across the island.
LISTEN: Drug policing facing new challenges
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