Cost of enforcing drug policies in 2014 (FOI)

​Request

I would like to know the total costs for the previous year: Jan to Dec 2014 of enforcing local drug policies. (Enforcing the illegal use / possession / importation manufacturing of substances covered by the misuse of drugs act.)

Including:

A.

Police raids. Any instance where police offers are sent to a location for the purpose of enforcing (or investigating the breaking of) current drug legislation, whether or not there was any activity that was actually unlawful (eg warrants, investigations).

B.

Undercover operations. Any police operation, whether solely or in joint with other agencies, where the prime directive is to enforce current drug legislation.

C.

Dedicated units: police, customs, prison service, hospitals.

D.

Court costs.  All costs, including lawyers fees, and any costs associated with other members of the court room (judge, scribe etc).

E.

Prison costs for current inmates convicted of drug offences.

F.

Chemical testing from custom seizures. All costs incurred by the states/island for ay forensic examination, regardless of location of actual testing.

Response

The States of Jersey Police or the Jersey Customs and Immigration Service (JCIS) do not hold the information requested for any of the above questions.

The Freedom of Information (Jersey) Law is there to enable access to information held by a scheduled authority. It is not intended for that authority to have to create information to respond to a request.

While the States of Jersey Police and the JCIS try to be as transparent as possible in all of aspects of their respective roles, to divert resources to research and prepare answers to these questions is outside of the remit of the FOI law.

If the information required to answer these questions were to be researched, it would entail analysis of each and every recorded incident involving controlled drugs, from start to finish. The time taken would exceed the £500 limit imposed by the Freedom of Information (Costs)(Jersey) Regulations 2014 (12.5 hours work).

E.

From the prison service:
At the time of responding, the prison has 34 prisoners serving sentences for drug-related offences. The total running costs of the prison equates to approximately £145 per prisoner per day which equates to approximately £1.8 million per year for 34 prisoners.