E for Ecstasy by Nicholas Saunders
Appendix 1: Reference Section

88 Statistics of Drug Seizures, up to the end of 1991 from Home Office Statistical Bulletin, published by the Government Statistical Service, September 1992

There were 1,700 seizures of MDMA in 1991, compared to 400 in 1990 and 770 in 1989. Only two police forces (both in Scotland) did not report seizures and in 30 per cent of police forces MDMA was the most frequently seized class A drug. The Metropolitan Police in London and the Merseyside, Lancashire, West Yorkshire and Strathclyde police forces each reported more than 50 seizures. The number of doses seized was just over 365,000 compared with about 44,000 in 1990. 1991 saw a substantial increase in the use of cautioning as a penalty for drug offences of all kinds. As in 1990, more drug offenders were cautioned than fined, which was previously the most common penalty. Between 1981 and 1991, the proportion of drug offenders receiving cautions increased from 1% to 45% and the proportion receiving fines fell from 65% to 30%. The proportion given prison sentences (with immediate effect) fell from an average of 15% between 1984 and 1987 to 7% in 1991. The likelihood of a stiffer penalty rose with the age of the offender: in 1991 80 per cent of males aged under 17 were cautioned, but only 25 per cent of males aged 30 or over. About half of unlawful possession offences resulted in a caution, with one third of such offences resulting in a fine, while between 30 and 40 per cent of most types of trafficking offences resulted in a prison sentence.