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Abstract
New regulatory state scholarship has documented the rise of pluralized forms of governance that lay beyond central states. This has resulted in regulation being constituted by dense networks of actors and institutions. This article sets out to explore the role of police agencies within these networks through a case study of illicit synthetic drug control. Reducing the supply of illicit synthetic drugs presents unique challenges for the police compared to the control of traditional plant-based illicit drugs such as cannabis or heroin. A key focus of reducing supply is that of governing the interface between licit and illicit market activities. This strategy has required police agencies to increasingly engage in forms of meta-regulation. Under such a strategy, the police role is increasingly one of acting as “brokers” i.e., connecting the internal capacity of external institutions to crime control goals and promoting collective responses around externalities (i.e., opportunities for illegal conduct) generated by legitimate commercial activity.
Research for this article was undertaken when Adrian Cherney was a post-doctoral fellow in the Regulatory Institutions Network, Security 21, Australian National University.
Research for this article was undertaken when Adrian Cherney was a post-doctoral fellow in the Regulatory Institutions Network, Security 21, Australian National University.
Notes
Research for this article was undertaken when Adrian Cherney was a post-doctoral fellow in the Regulatory Institutions Network, Security 21, Australian National University.
1. Parker and Braithwaite (2003: 141) describe meta-regulation as “government regulation of plural regulation in the private sector and civil society”. Parker (2002: 15, 246) regards it as “regulating the regulators” in which the state withdraws from attempting to be the direct agent of command and control and public management in favour of being an indirect regulator of internal control systems in both public and private agencies. It is these techniques of governing and facilitating such non-state orderings that are seen as comprising “meta-regulation” (also see Grabosky, 1995a).
2. This article does not canvass the health consequences of illicit synthetic drug use or the effects of addiction. Again research has focused extensively on these issues (see Victorian Drugs and Crime Prevention Committee, 2004).
3. These clandestine laboratories pose significant human and environmental threats. The waste from ATS production is highly toxic and flammable. Fumes can cause serious injury such as eye, skin or respiratory damage, or in some cases even death. Harmful fumes produced include phosphine gas, hydrogen cyanide and hydrogen sulphide. The amount of waste produced by synthetic drug production is enormous. It is estimated that the production of one kilogram of amphetamine or ecstasy will, depending on the production method, result in 5–20 litres of waste. Much of this waste seeps into the surrounding environment and poses significant clean up costs and ongoing hazards (DEA, Citation2003c: 71, 73, n.d.A; National Drug Intelligence Center, 2003; McKwen et al., 2002; Scott, 2002; Steel, 2003).
4. Such a tactic has been aided by central states’ efforts to institute shifts in governance by recalibrating their roles in relation to the development and implementation of policy (i.e., steering more, rowing less; see Osborne & Gaebler, 1992). This has seen an emphasis on policies and programmes that aim to transfer the task (i.e., the management of risk) for dealing with safety and security onto institutions, groups and individuals within the private sector and civil society. Such a strategy of responsibilization has been identified as a key characteristic of the new regulatory state (Crawford, 2004; Garland, 2001).
6. This was due to misunderstandings about the ambit of civil nuisance abatement laws and a lack of communication between relevant authorities and participants in the Salt Lake City strategy over their use.
7. For more information, see http://www.wcoomd.org/.
8. See http://www.wcoomd.org/.
9. “Pseudo runners” is a termed used to refer to individuals who target retail-level pharmacies and purchase multiple packets of cold and flu medication for the purpose of diverting it into illicit markets.
