Drugs: Prohibition and Criminalisation

Baroness Doocey Excerpts

Wednesday 11th November 2026 Lords Chamber

[Baroness Doocey (LD)]

My Lords, the director-general of the National Crime Agency has described how criminals are chemically bonding cocaine in everyday materials such as plastic and glue to evade detection. Given that the Government’s number one priority is to reduce the harm that drug does, does the Minister feel we have the right balance in the use of resources between pursuing people who have drugs for their own personal use and dismantling the ever-more sophisticated drug networks that are actually supplying the drugs?

[Lord Hanson of Flint (Lab)]

We have to take on the organised criminals who are supplying the drugs. In 2025-26, the National Crime Agency seized 189 tonnes of class A drugs. The quantity of illicit drugs seized at the border in 2024-25 was the largest, at 148 tonnes, recorded since 1973. So there are efforts to stop organised crime, but obviously, drug barons are looking at a whole range of methods, and the areas the noble Baroness has mentioned are extremely important. We need to keep on top of that, and that is why we have also put in some £3.4 billion over the next three years on drug and alcohol treatment as a whole, to ensure that we look at who the users of drugs are and how we can help support them.