The price of Tik has plummeted and it could be one of the reasons the Western Cape reported the highest number of drug-related crimes in South Africa. There has been a 3.9% increase in such crimes in the province - from 85,437 to 88,731 cases - police disclosed yesterday.Simon Howell of the University of Cape Town's Centre of Criminology said drug-related arrests had risen 161% over the past 10 years.This could mean either an increase in policing or an increase in the number of drug users."We can work backwards by looking at the market fluctuation and the price of drugs - the supply and demand. What we have found in the Western Cape is that the price of Tik has decreased over the past 10 years by 183.7% and heroin has decreased by 183.72%," said Howell.Because drugs are more affordable and used by more, it lead to more drug-related arrests.Ten years ago Tik cost R225 a gram, now it is R217.50 a gram. Had inflation been taken into account it should have cost R426. Heroin costs R119 and was R215 10 years ago. The price should have risen to R421.The province also recorded 3186 murders - a 9.7% increase, compared to the national increase of 4.6%. In addition, the province has the highest percentage increase of attempted murder.Gauteng, nicknamed "gangsters' paradise", lived up to its reputation. There, the murder rate rose by 10%, with few of the figures for the region showing a decline over the past two years.Cash-in-transit robberies fell by 35%, bank robberies by 18% and arson by 11%, but truck hijacking was up 47%, car hijacking by 13% and attempted murder by 8.7%.To check your own suburb, visit http://crimestatssa.com/index.php..