Archive photo.
In 2022, the province of Limburg was the leader in terms of established offenses of drug possession at school. This is evident from figures that CD&V MP Franky Demon requested from his fellow party Minister of the Interior Annelies Verlinden. A total of 75 facts were established in Limburg in 2022. In East Flanders there were 72 and in Antwerp 66.
In 2022, the police made a total of 418 detections of drug possession at school. The year before there were 232 facts. “Although it is difficult to compare these figures, since we still had to deal with distance learning in 2020 and 2021 due to the corona crisis,” said CD&V MP Franky Demon. “If we compare the figures with those of 2019, the last year before corona, a slight improvement can be seen. In 2019, this still involved 533 facts. Although every finding is one too many.”
No complete figures are yet available for 2023. In the first quarter of last year, 134 observations were made. This means that the number of detections appears to remain stable compared to 2022. The vast majority of detections of drug possession in educational institutions are made in secondary schools. The vast majority of cases (305) involve possession of cannabis.
The province of Limburg has been the leader for many years in terms of the number of drug possession findings at school. In 2022 there were 75 cases. Other leaders are Antwerp and East Flanders with 72 and 66 cases respectively. The striking bottom is the Brussels Region. Only 14 offenses of drug possession at school were established there in 2022. Demon suspects that there is a higher dark number in the capital. “We know that the police in the capital have to make choices regarding the priority use of their capacity. This may probably partly explain the lower figures.”
