Fall in number of drug offences recorded in Louth
Central Statistics Office: Recorded Crime Q2 2023
There has been a fall in the number of drug related offences recorded in the Louth Garda Division according to the latest figures released by the Central Statistics Office.
According to the CSO release, Recorded Crime Q2 2023, the biggest fall was seen in possession of drugs for sale or supply offences, with 20 offences recorded in the Louth Garda Division in the second quarter (Q2) of this year, down from 23 in the first quarter (Q1), and down from 34 during the same period last year.
With 43 offences recorded in the first half of this year, it represents a 46% fall in the number of offences recorded in Louth, compared to the first half of last year when 79 offences were recorded.
Possession of drugs for personal use offences also fell, with 79 incidents recorded, down from 92 in Q1, representing a fall of 19%, and down 20% on the first half of 2022, when 213 offences were recorded, compared to 171 in the first half of this year.
The only category that saw an increase in Q2 of this year was "other drug offences", with six offences recorded, compared to three in the first quarter, and nine in the first half of 2022.
Driving/in charge of a vehicle under the influence of drugs offences also fell significantly in Louth in the second quarter of this year, with six offences recorded in Q2, compared to 23 offences recorded in Q2 of last year, representing a fall of 74%.
In the first half of this year, 15 offences of this type were recorded in the Louth Garda Division, compared to 42 in the first half of last year, which represents a fall of 64%.
The CSO Recorded Crime statistics continue to be categorised by the CSO as Under Reservation. This categorisation indicates that the quality of these statistics do not meet the standards required of official statistics published by the CSO.
The classification statistics Under Reservation has been applied to reflect the fact that there are data quality issues in the underlying sources used to compile these statistics.
To find out more about this categorisation, see the CSO explanation here.