Nottinghamshire Police has incinerated a record £90m of drugs this year – with cannabis edibles becoming a popular new trend

The Archive and Exhibits department - which test most of the drugs that are seized by the force - says ‘cannabis is still the number one recreational drug in Nottinghamshire’.

Dealers have also moved into new areas to evade arrest by injecting or lacing tetrahydrocannabinol, the principal psychoactive constituent of cannabis,s into cookies, cakes, chocolates and sweets – and even seaside rock.

Some dealers have also manufactured their own packaging including ‘Zoot Pastels’ and ‘Dorweedos’, which look like a popular brand of crisps.

Officers are concerned these drugs could be marketed to young people and are actively clamping down on those who peddle this product.

These products have also been tested in the lab, with some coming back with traces of pesticides, detergents, hair spray and small traces of rat poison.

David Richardson, from Nottinghamshire Police, said: “These drugs are from recent jobs or historic jobs over the last two years, which have been stored while an investigation reaches its conclusion.

“There is a current trend where they are putting cannabis, THC, into cookies, cakes, chocolates, and sweets, but they have been mixed with other nasty things such as fly spray – one test came back with traces of rat poison.

“We are getting what we describe as cannabis edibles on a weekly basis.

“People have started doing their own and are more aware of how to do it through social media.

“We had one case where a woman from Nottinghamshire was making cannabis cakes for her own circle of friends.

“The cannabis market is evolving and those who sell this drug are trying to get one foot ahead of us.

“They think officers will assume they are just carrying chocolate bars or crisps, but on closer inspection we know that is not the case.

“The problem, and concern for us as a force is innocent people get involved and children could be attracted to it.

"We don’t want that to happen.”

In 2016, the force said the combined street value of all the cannabis seized was about £6 million but this has now jumped up to more than £20m a year.

On average, 300 to 500 drug items will pass through the department a week, which also includes heroin, crack cocaine, amphetamine, cocaine, cannabis, cannabis edibles and cannabis plants.

The team says cocaine is still a popular recreational drug in Nottinghamshire, but the purity is very poor, and it is mixed with many cutting agents which are found once examined at the lab.

Mr Richardson says the number of seizures is down to the excellent work by officers from across the force.

He said: “Cannabis is not getting worse, we are just getting better at finding the drugs.

“We thought we might experience a dip during the pandemic, but we have not had that – we have just got busier.

“When people say ‘why don’t you just legalise cannabis’, they don’t see the adverse effect it has on families, the local community, mental health, and the massive burden it has on the struggling NHS.

“Also, the money that criminals generate from drugs it just fuels more criminal activity.”