The UK's War on Cocaine is Intensifying

Convictions and jail sentences for selling cocaine in England and Wales have rocketed in the past four years despite levels of use of the drug staying consistent, a VICE World News analysis of the latest official data shows.

The figures, published by the Ministry of Justice, come in the wake of a government clampdown on cocaine, including a threat to seize the passports of repeat cocaine offenders, an upcoming anti-cocaine marketing campaign targeting “recreational” cocaine use, and plans to ban football fans caught with the drug.

Between 2017 and 2021, convictions for dealing powder cocaine in England and Wales increased from 2,912 to 4,569. During this time the frequency of heavy sentences given out in courts has risen far more than the number of convictions, the data reveals. The number of sentences of more than four years for selling cocaine has doubled, from 686 in 2017 to 1,393 last year. While convictions for simple possession of cocaine has levelled off, the number of prison sentences of over 18 months handed out by judges for possession of cocaine has also more than doubled.

Earlier this month Courtney Healy, a 21-year old NHS worker from Wales with no previous convictions, was given an unexpectedly high three-year jail sentence after she was caught bringing cocaine into Creamfields music festival last summer. She told her friends she was going to make £200 profit from smuggling in and selling nine grams of the drug. Sentencing her at Chester Crown Court, Judge Steve Everett branded her behaviour “evil”. 

Healy’s sentence was branded as overly harsh by some drug policy observers. Niamh Eastwood, executive director of Release, the UK's national centre of expertise on drugs and drugs law, said the rise in cocaine convictions and sentences would be unlikely to impact those making the most money out of the trade. 

“We know from the evidence that the majority of those who will have been prosecuted for the supply of these drugs will be at the lower end of the supply chain, those supplying to their friends or people supplying out of economic desperation,” she said. “Increasing prosecutions and convictions will do nothing to stop the supply.”  

Most of those convicted for supplying cocaine were men aged between 25 and 39, with the steepest rises – more than doubling in four years – in people aged over 40 being convicted for selling it. There was a 75 percent rise in the number of convictions of women for dealing the drug, from 150 to 263, although convictions for teenage sellers fell.    

During this time, despite the rise in supply convictions, the use of powder cocaine has remained steady, with just under 3 percent of the population saying they had taken the drug at least once in the previous 12 months, according to government statistics. 

Cocaine has become the focal point of government efforts to tackle the drug trade because it is being used by a wide section of society, and unlike heroin is seen by many users as a lifestyle choice. The government wants to persuade cocaine users that buying the drug is not just illegal and unhealthy but morally wrong due to its gangland links.

Worried that the British public are not concerned about the impact of the cocaine trade in Latin America, ministers and police chiefs have been keen to link the use of powder cocaine to “county lines” drug dealing and the rise in street youth murders in the UK. These links have been hugely exaggerated, while the real causes of these two phenomenons are more likely due to state negligence and the spread of online gang culture. However the drug is undoubtedly a key money-spinner for murderous international cartels around the world and therefore a highly unethical product. 

Responding to the figures, a government spokesperson said its 10-year drug strategy, launched last year, aims to “drive down drug supply and demand through tougher response to criminal supply chains”. The government denied it has put any pressure on the courts to hand out tougher sentences for cocaine offences.

Melissa Bone, an associate professor at the University of Leicester who specialises in drug law, said the courts appear to be sentencing people buying drugs for friends, known as “social dealers”, in the same way they sentence professional dealers who sell for profit. 

Bone said ongoing research she and Rebecca Askew, another criminologist, are doing shows most people buy drugs from friends rather than professional dealers, and so many people caught selling could end up with sentences designed for career criminals. Bone and others at the Criminal Law Reform Now Network, a group which aims to reform laws using academic and legal expertise, are looking into changing sentencing guidelines for drug offences and the law around social supply drug transactions.

The Sentencing Council, an independent body which works to make sentencing more consistent, said it would review the new data when it next evaluates its guidelines on drug offences.

Deputy Chief Constable Jason Harwin, the National Police Chiefs’ Council Lead for Drugs, told VICE World News: “The increases in prosecutions and convictions of criminals in the supply and distribution of cocaine shows the great work forces are doing everyday to stop those who wish to cause harm to our communities.

“Cocaine is often seen by some in our society as a harmless drug they may use on a night out, but it is far from that. Cocaine production and supply is fuelled by violence and exploitation, not only around the world, but here in the UK. Cocaine is not only an extremely harmful illegal drug to take, but by taking it, you are also helping sustain the violent enterprise behind it.”

The data also revealed a rise in murder convictions between 2017 and 2021, from 250 to 414, mainly fuelled by killers aged 20 and below. Convictions linked to stalking jumped from 216 to 595, with most offenders aged in their 30s.