ABSTRACT

This chapter explores recent developments in policy initiatives, especially criminal justice responses, to illicit drug use in the UK. The chapter surveys general and specific policy and legislative developments and the recent creation of what Parker has called the ‘new drugs interventions industry’ (Parker 2004: 379). It does so whilst exploring the context of the ‘normalisation’ of drug use debate (Davis and Ditton 1990; Measham et al. 1994; Parker et al. 1998, 2002; South 1999) to ask if the current policy framework provides evidence of a (particular) response to the ‘normalisation’ of drug use or, if not normalisation of use, a particular form of ‘normalisation of the drug user’? (Berridge 1993). As such the chapter does not necessarily seek to establish that drug use – particularly Class A drug use – has been normalised in and of itself, but rather to suggest that policy responses, in terms of systemic criminal justice responses and the extent to which responding to drug use has become a central priority for many areas of public policy and statutory agencies, may represent evidence of a shift to an acceptance of normalisation. This may be especially the case when located within the wider context of the cultural fabric of what are sometimes called ‘high crime)’ societies and the degree to which drug use, criminal justice responses and crime discourses have contributed to such developments (Garland 2000; Estrada 2004).