Figure up 230,000 on last crime survey, with 8.8% of adults saying they have used illicit drugs in past year.
The number of adults using illicit drugs in England and Wales rose by an estimated 230,000 to 2.7 million over the last year, crime survey figures show. The increase was driven by more people saying they had used cocaine, ecstasy, LSD and ketamine. Nearly one million people – or 3% of adults – used class A drugs including powder cocaine, heroin and ecstasy in 2013/14. The Home Office statistics from the crime survey of England and Wales show that cannabis use remained stable, with about two million people aged 16 to 59 smoking or otherwise consuming it over the past year.
Most of the increase – 180,000 of the 230,000 extra illicit drugs users – comprised teenagers and young adults aged 16 to 24, who make up 1.1 million of the total number of drug users. The survey does not capture the popularity of legal highs, as it asks only about illicit drug use, but it does show a growing use of nitrous oxide, or laughing gas, which has been sold by the balloonful at festivals in particular in recent years. There was a small rise in users of mephedrone, banned in 2010, from 98,000 to 115,000 young adults.
Overall, 8.8% of adults said they had used illicit drugs, up from 8.1% in 2012/13 and flat on 2011/12. The rise follows a decade in which illicit drug use appeared to be becoming less fashionable, declining from a peak of 3.48 million – 12% of all adults – in 2002/03.
The detailed results show that 3% of adults regard themselves as frequent drug users, meaning they take an illicit substance more than once a month. Frequent drug use is much more likely among men than women, among those who go often to pubs and nightclubs, and among those who live in deprived areas.
Gay or bisexual men are much more likely than straight men to take illicit drugs. A third of gay or bisexual men said they had used illicit drugs over the previous year, compared with 23% of gay or bisexual women, 11% of heterosexual men and 5% of heterosexual women. Among ethnic groups, adults from Asian or British Asian backgrounds had the lowest levels of drug use last year.
The survey found that 57% of adult drug users bought their drugs from someone well-known to them, such as a friend, work colleague or neighbour. Just under a quarter said they had gone to a dealer, and 4% to a relative. Most said they used them at home or at somebody else's house, while a quarter said they took them in the pub, at a club or at a party.
Norman Baker, the crime prevention minister, said drug-related deaths in England and Wales had continued to fall over the past three years and people going into treatment were more likely to free themselves from dependency than ever before.
"The National Crime Agency and Border Force are involved in targeted operations across the world and at our borders to disrupt organised crime and stop drugs reaching the UK. We will continue to monitor our response to established drugs and I have commissioned a review to see if we can better tackle the challenge of new psychoactive substances, which will report shortly," Baker said.
The crime survey involves interviews with 36,000 people about their experience of crime in the past 12 months.
