‘Whack-a-mole’ crackdown on drugs ‘not the answer’

‘Whack-a-mole’ crackdown on drugs ‘not the answer’

Law enforcement only ‘temporarily disrupts and displaces’ illegal supply networks, according to Steve Rolles, senior policy analyst for UK drug think-tank Transform. He urged Jersey to use its political autonomy to set the pace in the British Isles and Europe on tackling drug problems in a different way – through regulation and education.

Earlier this month, the States police launched Operation Shark – a clampdown on drug supply in the Island – following the death of a 19-year-old, who died following a suspected reaction to MDMA.

States police Chief Inspector Mark Hafey, who is leading the operation that has led to at least 27 arrests so far and the seizure of more than £30,000 of class A and B drugs, has previously acknowledged that the Island cannot ‘arrest its way out of the problem’. He said that meetings were due to take place to intensify the Island’s multi-agency approach to drug harm reduction through education.

Studies show that ecstasy – the street name for MDMA – has massively increased in strength globally over the past two decades. A report by the European Monitoring Centre for Drugs and Drug Addiction found the average tablet contained 50–80mg of MDMA in the 1990s and early 2000s. That has since doubled to an average of 125mg, with some so-called ‘super pills’ found to contain between 270 and 340mg.

In Jersey, warnings were issued last year – weeks before the death of 29-year-old Ashleigh Green following a suspected severe reaction to MDMA – about high-strength tablets stamped with a Skype logo that were in circulation. It is understood that tablets seized in 2018 with the same Skype logo contained up to 300mg of MDMA.

Mr Rolles, who has been with Transform since 1998, said: ‘The problem is both created or worsened by an enforcement-led approach. Yet another enforcement crackdown is not the answer. It’s a denial of evidence and history.

‘A drug crackdown may break up a drug-dealing network in the short term – which may lead to a shortage of a particular drug for a period. But ultimately other criminals will come in to exploit that gap. It does not get rid of the market – it just displaces it or mutates it.’

Transform are in favour of a regulated drug market whereby drugs would be available to buy from registered outlets. The theory is that the drugs game would be taken out of criminals’ hands, as users would not need to buy from illegal dealers because they could get tested, regulated drugs from a reliable authorised source.

Asked, in the absence of any imminent change in drug policy at a political level in Jersey, what the police should do in the meantime, Mr Rolles said: ‘I am not expecting the police to give up on pursuing OCGs [organised crime groups] selling drugs. But what we say is you’re never going to get rid of it this way.

‘The reality is that young people like taking drugs and no amount of grandstanding is going to stop that. The key is giving people the knowledge and tools to stay safe because enforcement does not deter use or prevent supply. It does make drugs more dangerous and creates problems with other criminality. All evidence and logic points towards the harm-reduction approach.’

The Island, for many years, has had a drug education programme delivered through Prison! Me! No Way!!! and the Youth Service. The Alcohol and Drugs Service do regularly issue harm reduction advice, via the media, to Islanders insistent on taking drugs.

The EMCDDA found that a shortage of safrole oil, a key ingredient for making ecstasy, in 2008 contributed to a rise in other drugs known as new psychoactive substances. But a new ingredient was found called PMK and production of MDMA resurfaced in China and other Asian countries – taking the production of the party drug out of traditional strongholds such as the Netherlands and Belgium.

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