New survey finds 88.3% of people think drugs are becoming easier to obtain

UK drug and alcohol treatment centre Ocean Recovery has published a new survey assessing the public’s trust in the government’s handling of crime linked to drugs and alcohol intake.

1078 people from a range of social backgrounds in the UK were surveyed across August to September 2019, with the results indicating that a majority of people are concerned about the prevalence of drugs and alcohol and related crime in the country.

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10.4% of people said they “always” see alcohol-related violence on a night out, with 28.5% saying seeing they “often” see it, and 48.3% seeing it “sometimes”. Just 12.9% of people said they “never” do.

77.7% of people said they do not feel completely safe when on a night out, and 53.2% said they do not trust the police to deal with alcohol-related violence.

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88.2% of people said they believe drugs are becoming more common in social circles, and 88.3% said they think drugs are becoming easier to obtain.

When asked if they trust the government to solve the rise in drug-related crime, 15.4% said yes, while 84.6% said now.

The number of drug-related offences recorded in England and Wales fell year on year from the 2008/09 figures of more than 243,000 offences until 2017/18, when fewer than 139,000 offerences were recorded. Since then the number of drug offences has started rising again, with more than 175,000 offences recorded across 2019/2020. The recent report of recorded drug offences surging during lockdown indicates a further rise is likely this year.

View the full survey results here.

Patrick Hinton is Mixmag's Digital Features Editor, follow him on Twitter

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