Table 1 gives the number of persons charged for possession and supply of cocaine, heroin, ecstasy, amphetamine and cannabis for 2005-06 and 2006-07.
The court datasets do not hold information on the number of prosecutions and convictions for different drug types as these do not constitute separate offences by legislation. It is possible, however, to determine the class of drug. Table 2 outlines this information for the number of prosecutions and convictions for possession, possession with intent to supply unlawfully and the unlawful supply of illegal drugs. Data cover the calendar years 2005 and 2006 (the latest available years) and are collated on the principal offence rule; so only the most serious offence with which an offender is charged is included.
It is not possible to reconcile PSNI data routinely on the number of persons charged with offences and prosecution and conviction data as PSNI data denote each offence as it has been initially recorded and this may differ from the offence for which a suspect or suspects are subsequently proceeded against in the courts.
2005-06 2006-07 Persons charged or summonsed with: Persons charged or summonsed with: Supplying Possession Supplying Possession Cocaine 44 97 65 133 Heroin 10 21 33 41 Ecstasy 65 112 118 229 Amphetamine 41 63 43 97 Cannabis 168 923 225 839 1 As a person can be charged with or summonsed for both supplying and possessing drug offences, the figures cannot be added to give the total number of persons charged or summonsed. Source: PSNI Central Statistics Unit.
2005 20061 Prosecuted Convicted Prosecuted Convicted Unlawful possession Class A 113 111 174 157 Class B 75 67 42 34 Class C 310 279 417 380 Total 498 457 633 571 Unlawful possession with intent to supply Class A 48 42 65 45 Class B 39 31 35 26 Class C 47 41 65 56 Total 134 114 165 127 Unlawful supply Class A 4 4 4 3 Class B 5 3 3 2 Class C 8 8 7 7 Total 17 15 14 12 Overall total 649 586 812 710 1 Data for 2006 are provisional. Source: NIO Statistics and Research Branch.