Avoiding unintended consequences

Markets vary and the opportunities and powers available to act against it vary. This means that the methods appropriate to the tackling of supply will need to vary, and the likely result is likely to vary as well.

An individual can be not only prosecuted for supply but also the place from which they supply can also be adapted or physically altered in some way to make it less useable for supply. A street corner cannot be moved, but design alterations can close physical spaces where supply occurs (derelict garages etc).

The powers and resources available to some degree determine the result that can be achieved. Some market settings lend themselves to particular types of interventions.

The impact of any operation must be considered in advance:-

 The individual partners in any location where supply takes place will have different knowledge of how the operations they propose will impact on broader supply patterns and will bring their own contribution. An action to evict a dealer, where there is insufficient evidence for successful criminal prosecution may well result in that individual moving their trade to another location, probably in the private sector, which is beyond civil power regulation but still a headache for Police. It may also mean an increase in trade and more disruption to more vulnerable people.

 A street based market may be relatively stable and not pose too many issues to local residents, or it may be that it is associated with sex work, other crime, aggressive sales to young people, and regulated internally with firearms. It could be that the temporary disruption of an established dealer group may lead to various groups competing for that territory. This could in turn lead to an increased use of violence within the market. The strategy to tackle drug markets must factor in these issues and the likely impact of the intervention. 

Action by one partner to tackle another behaviour, for example begging, may have an effect on other issues like drug supply being carried out by those individuals. Their disruption from begging may mean a move to a different method of supporting their drug habit in a different location.

 Visibility reduction does not necessarily have the same value to different partners. Whilst high profile street based supply in key urban areas may be most important to urban planners and police, displacing it to less visible housing estates hidden behind, may have negative impact in another way entirely on the poorest and least resilient communities and those who work there. This additional supply problem may have profound consequences for area decline.

 Every market must be subject to a process which: -

• Analyses the profile of the market, including the risks and harm it poses to various groups and the management issues it poses.

• Designs an approach that reflects this profile and range of concerns, shared and agreed between different partners with their own priorities

• Is based on the resources and opportunities available to the partners

• Is evaluated for the undesirable impacts it may have