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Effective Interventions Unit: Reducing the impact of local drug markets: A research review
Chapter 2 Defining Low-Level Markets And Interventions
This chapter provides
Who deals drugs at the local level?
The nature of low-level drug dealing and the structure of dealing activity varies widely according to the characteristics of the local drug market. Low level dealers typically operate in order to earn primary or supplemental income, either to fund their own drug use (user-dealers) or for profit. Generally speaking, drug research has tended to focus on drug use, and comparatively little research has been done on how drugs are sold. However there is some empirical evidence from the UK on the proportions of drug users who also sell drugs.
The National Treatment Outcomes Research study (NTORS) in England recruited and interviewed drug users entering a drug treatment programme
6. 29% of clients reported selling drugs in the 90 days prior to entry. A small minority (7%) reported the majority of offences (89%). The high-rate drug sellers in the sample reported the highest rate of heroin use among the cohort
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The anecdotal evidence collected from police officers for the purposes of this report suggests that the majority of known low-level dealers are dependent users.
What are low-level drug markets?
Low-level distribution networks are the crucial means by which drugs become available within a neighbourhood- these networks operate both by sustaining existing drug-using subcultures, and also by recruiting new users
8. Low-level dealing by its very nature involves many more transactions than higher levels of dealing and is therefore more likely to have an immediate and more directly observable impact upon the communities in which it takes place.
Low-level drug markets are in many respects extremely diverse. Characteristics such as the catchment population of a market, its location, and the type of dealing activity vary enormously. However it is possible to make a general distinction between what might be called 'open' and 'closed' markets. In the former dealers will sell to anyone who approaches them, and in the latter dealers will only sell to people known to them.
It is also useful to distinguish markets in terms of their location and how they operate. A recent Home Office guide to disrupting crack markets describes different types of low-level markets that may be in operation, summarised below:
Open And Closed Drug Markets Open Markets An open market is one where a dealer will sell to anyone. Open markets can be: Off the street, at premises which can be approached by anyone. (e.g. clubs, cafes, pubs, crack houses).
Closed markets A closed market is one where a dealer will only sell to users who are known or introduced to them. Closed markets can be: Premises may also differ in terms of whether or not buyers may also stay and consume drugs Home Office: 2003 |
These broad characteristics are likely to be true whatever the specific primary drug dealt in the market. More specific differences may also be present that relate to the type of drug. There is some evidence, for example, that violence can be associated with markets for crack cocaine
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Supply, demand and harm reduction
The review of international research highlights many different interventions with a range of aims and impacts. In summary, police activity against local drug markets may encompass the following broad goals:
Supply reduction: The supply of drugs may be reduced through law enforcement, primarily through the criminal justice system (police, customs, courts and the prison service). A secondary goal may be to disrupt rather than, or as well as, to reduce supply.
Demand reduction: Demand for drugs may be suppressed by prevention activities, and by diverting users into treatment. Drug-using offenders may be targeted through Arrest Referral schemes and Drug Treatment and Testing Orders (DTTOs). Arguably demand may also be suppressed through inconveniencing users and therefore discouraging potential consumers.
The harms of drug misuse may be reduced primarily through health and social services (treatment & rehabilitation, user education, needle exchange). They may also be reduced through an increased understanding of the potential impacts of enforcement activity on harm reduction activities, and the reflection of this understanding in policing activity.
The aims of these three approaches should not be regarded as necessarily separate and distinct. Indeed, some research has emphasised the importance of combining all three aims within police strategies
10. For example, demand reduction may be seen as the product of effective supply and/ or harm reduction approaches. Arguably, the reduction of supply and demand may be seen as contributing to an overarching harm reduction strategy.
Problem solving
Problem-oriented policing is highly relevant to a style of drug policing that emphasises harm reduction.
11 Problem-solving, or problem-oriented policing (POP) approaches aim to control drug activity by targeting problem areas or situations in order to block criminal opportunities.
In the problem-oriented policing model, police should move from simply responding to the volume of incidents reported to them to analysing the underlying problems that produced them
12. Many incidents are simply repeats of previous calls to the police. A problem solving approach seeks to understand and resolve the problem producing repeat calls. This should lead to improved morale for the police and a more effective response for the public.
This approach also dictates that police become the managers of problems and draw on a range of alternative tactics to solve these problems. Problem-solving tactics incorporate a range of methods including the following:
Mobilizing the community (to identify problems and gather intelligence, and / or to encourage 'third party policing' - that is, the monitoring of disorder by local stakeholders), sometimes by using civil legal measures.
Conventional enforcement is not abandoned; problem-oriented policing advocates the use of arrests, investigations and selective enforcement when a problem requires such a response. The message of problem solving is for police to go beyond the conventional approach and apply responses that match the nature of the problem
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Evidence for effectiveness in tackling low level markets
As stated earlier, the impacts of law enforcement activity may extend beyond the reduction of drug supply. The positive impacts of enforcement may encompass the following:
Benefits for the community, such as environmental and 'quality of life' improvements (for example, reductions in drug related property crime, discarded drug paraphernalia).
It is important to note that research in this area has defined 'effectiveness' in different ways, according to the aims and objectives of the interventions being examined. The following information sources, used to measure the effectiveness of interventions, have been identified:
Interviews and focus groups with local residents, drug users, arrestees, police, community groups etc
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The relevant measures used in the studies reviewed in this report will be made explicit where possible: these vary between studies. However many of the studies included in this review have not been rigorously evaluated, and have used a variety of different methodologies and measures. It has been necessary to include a wide range of studies in order to investigate the question of 'what works' in tackling low level drug markets in a very broad sense - not just in strict law enforcement terms - and to include evidence from the UK when possible.
The variety of information sources used reflects the different definitions of 'effectiveness' used explicitly or implicitly by researchers evaluating interventions. For example, 'effectiveness' may be viewed in terms of an intervention's success in:
increasing drug seizures and arrests and / or decreasing drug related crime (police arrest data, crime figures, calls for service), and / or
The following three chapters will examine the evidence on the effectiveness of various approaches to tackling low-level drug markets. Some take the form of evaluations of interventions against low-level drug markets.
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