The police on Saturday said they were picking up twice as many young people for drug-related offences each month as they did two years ago, but noted a decline in the number of such cases so far this year.

For the first nine months of the year, officers said they had arrested 361 people aged under 21 over drug crimes, dropping by one-fifth compared to the 472 detained in the same period last year.

However, the force noted that it was still detaining 40 youths on average each month on suspicion of drug offences, double the average of 20 in 2020.

It said the fifth Covid wave in the early part of this year could be behind the year-on-year decline.

Officers also said most teens caught up in drug cases – the bulk of them students – got involved in narcotics as a way to make quick money, adding that the youngest arrested this year was only 13.

Separately, they warned of an uptick in the number of cases of narcotics being smuggled into the SAR, since the scrapping of mandatory hotel quarantine for incoming travellers under the so-called "0+3" policy.