The belief that drug addiction is the motor behind much property crime
has been a key part of recent UK drug policy. Review of the literature
shows that the empirical evidence does not support this view. It also
demonstrates that the fundamental weakness of existing research is its
failure to address the question of causality properly, relying mainly on
uni-directional mechanistic ‘cause-and-effect’ models. It is suggested that
the drug–crime link needs to be conceived in the context of the interaction
and inter-relation of a range of factors operating at different levels
and as part of a set of complex processes. The implications for policy are
that a reliance on improving access to treatment is likely to be of limited
effectiveness in reducing drug-related crime and that an emphasis on
tackling social exclusion may be more fruitful. Future research needs to
explore further the notion of causality outlined in this paper. It must also
examine emerging patterns of polydrug use and look at minority ethnic
groups and women.
The recent emergence of vibrant markets in 'new psychoactive substances' or 'legal highs' has posed significant new challenges for drug policy. These partly concern what to do about them but the speed and complexity of change has also raised difficulties for how policy responses should be developed. Existing drug policy systems appear too slow and cumbersome to keep up with the pace of change, remaining locked in large part within 'old' ways of thinking that centre almost exclusively around the deployment (or not) of the criminal law and its related enforcement apparatus. In this paper, it is argued that we need to rethink the problem through the lens of regulation, in order to learn lessons from other sectors where more agile responses to changing markets and business innovation have often proved possible. By examining examples drawn from these other areas, an alternative policy-making framework can be developed, involving a more flexible mix of state regulation, civil society action and private law mechanisms. This new approach is founded on a recognition of the networked and polycentric character of effective market governance in an era of global regulatory capitalism.
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