Drugs 'cost UK £110bn in ten years'

The sum, which is the total health and crime costs of Class A drug use, is published in a new report by drug and alcohol treatment charity Addaction.

The report claims that just 3% (£3bn) of total spending on drug-related issues has gone to actually tackling drug addiction in the UK.

The report has been published days before the Government is due to unveil its new ten-year drugs strategy.

It claims that since the start of the current ten-year plan, which began in 1998, the cost of drug related crime has risen to £100bn, with health costs contributing a further £10bn to the total.

It suggests that last year alone, these costs came to £16.4bn, with each person who remained dependant on illegal drugs costing the UK around £44,000.

This includes the costs of providing medical treatment and crime-related problems.

The document concludes that the total cost of providing medical treatment to Class A drug users in the last 12 months was £560m while the cost of processing drug users through the criminal justice amounts to £2.6bn a year.

Addaction chief executive Deborah Cameron said: "Illegal drug use is costing the UK taxpayer £16.4 billion a year, which is more than one and a half times the cost of holding the Olympic Games in 2012.

"Many of the millions spent by the Government on dealing with the consequences of the hugely profitable drugs trade in this country could be recovered if drug users were given a better route out of a life dependent on drugs."