Home Affairs Committee - Seventh Report
The Cocaine Trade
Here you can browse the report together with the Proceedings of the Committee. The published report was ordered by the House of Commons to be printed 23 February 2010.
CONTENTS
Terms of Reference
REPORT
Summary
1 THE COMMITTEE'S INQUIRY
2 COCAINE: AN OVERVIEW
Physical effects
Health risks
Cutting agents
The law
Decriminalisation
3 WHO USES COCAINE?
'Problematic' crack vs 'recreational' powder
users
Cocaine powder is used by a cross-section
of society
Two 'tiers' of user
Use may be more endemic in certain professions
Polydrug use is commonplace
Combination with heroin
4 TRENDS IN COCAINE USE
Crack cocaine
Increase in numbers seeking treatment
Increase in deaths and hospital admissions
Decrease in purity
Increase in wholesale, but decrease in street,
price
5 WHY AN INCREASE IN USE?
Relative popularity of other drugs
Decrease in amphetamine use
Future displacement of cocaine use to other
drugs
Celebrity 'glamour'
Social norms
Greater availability
Emergence of cheaper cocaine
6 DISRUPTING THE SUPPLY
Policy emphasis: supply or demand?
Co-ordinating policy
UK Agencies
Disrupting production
Peru and Bolivia
Trafficking into the EU
International smuggling routes
Figure 5: Main cocaine trafficking routes
from South America and Africa to Europe (EMCDDA 2008)
DISRUPTING THE SUPPLY (continued)
Maritime Analysis and Operations Centre—Narcotics
Airbridge and Westbridge
West Africa
Routes into the UK
Detection at UK ports and airports
Impact of supply-side enforcement
Seizures by UK law enforcement agencies
Measuring success
Whose seizure?
Effect of seizures on purity
7 TACKLING DEMAND
Public information campaigns
Shared Responsibility campaign
Treatment
Shortage of treatment places?
Definition of Problem Drug Users
Policing and penalties
High-visibility operations
CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS
ANNEX A: LISBON AND MADRID VISIT NOTES
ANNEX B: NETHERLANDS VISIT NOTES
ANNEX C: HEATHROW AIRPORT VISIT NOTES
FORMAL MINUTES
WITNESSES
LIST OF WRITTEN EVIDENCE
LIST OF REPORTS FROM THE COMMITTEE DURING
THE CURRENT PARLIAMENT
MINUTES OF EVIDENCE - VOLUME II (HC 74-II)
WRITTEN EVIDENCE - VOLUME II (HC 74-II)
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