The number of studies that showed an increase in violence as a result of drug-related activities was higher than the decrease.
Mattha busby Filter
According to a government-commissioned report, drug law enforcement will increase violence more than it reduces. It remains to be determined whether the UK government will change its policies on drugs.
According to the RAND Europe report published on the 27th of March, “available evidence indicates that drugs-related law enforcement is only limitedly effective in reducing the violence.” In fact, there were more studies that showed an association between law enforcement and drug abuse than violence reduction.
These findings are not as shocking as the UK’s publication of them. This report cites an earlier review that examined the effect of law enforcement on drug trafficking on serious violence. It found, as it states, “that increasing law enforcement on drug markets was unlikely to have a significant impact on drug violence.”
In the report, British police officers are urged to consider the risks of violence when planning any drug law enforcement action. This is particularly important in relation to the removal or drug seizures of the leaders of drug trafficking organizations.
Steve Rolles is a senior policy analyst with the Transform Drug Policy Foundation. He said: Filter. “The war on drugs has fueled an arms race between law enforcement agencies and organized crime groups—ensuring only the most cunning and violent crime groups prosper.”
He continued: “Nevertheless, it is welcome to have the academic research commissioned by and published by Home Office confirm the systemic failures of the enforcement models. This makes it harder to ignore.
Filter asked the Home Office to comment if it was going to act upon the recommendations of the report. The Home Office did not reply.
The former policemen are among the many who warn that disruptions in drug markets increase violence as groups of traffickers fight for power when hierarchies and established structures are disrupted by arrests and seizures.
Neil Woods, a former undercover police officer who once participated in the drug enforcement actions, told Filter that he has been saying for years that there is no way to reduce the size of a market by reducing the amount of police involvement. Former undercover officer who changed his opinion about drug enforcement activities he participated in. He chairs Law Enforcement Action Partnership UK and campaigns for the end of the drug war.
He said that this type of research should be more than a niche study. It should also inform the policy. We’re talking about our entire society and its fabric.
Woods cited a study published in 2023, the American Journal of Public Health which showed that police disruption of the drug market increases overdose risk among those who use drugs. In what has been described as “the drug bust paradox,” the arrest of a person’s source of drugs can lead them to experience withdrawal and hastily seek a new source—who might provide drugs that are adulterated or of higher potency.
In a second report by RUSI, which was published in Febraury, researchers examined examples of actions taken to combat crime. They included the closure of an encrypted messages network, interventions made against groups involved with drug trafficking, the dissolution a group of guerillas who sold cocaine and shocks from pandemic policing.
“We find clear evidence in case studies…that enforcement often serves to worsen underlying violence and societal disruption dynamics, imposing significant human costs in terms of lives lost and socio-economic upheaval,” the report said, highlighting how the arrest of powerful leaders often removes dispute-resolution mechanisms and sparks anarchic violence and power struggles.
In theory, the goal of these enforcement measures is to decrease drug supplies. This is rarely the result in the long run.
The RUSI Europe Report found that “in no one case have we evaluated major external shocks, disruptions, through enforcement or lack thereof been demonstrated to have any demonstrable long-lasting impact on drug markets, either locally or worldwide.”
Sky ECC is an encrypted chat system that was popular among groups who sold drugs. In Europe, users were concentrated in Belgium, Netherlands and around Antwerp (the major Belgian port). According to the report some Western European trafficking organizations escalated violence after law enforcement shut down the network 2021. These groups included threats and several highprofile murders.
In one of the most well-known cases, four months after the closure, the journalist Peter de Vries died in the Netherlands. After a year, Belgian justice Minister was twice forced to withdraw with his wife and children to a safety house because of threats.
Report: “Neither does it seem that the operation has reduced violent crimes between drug gangs over the long-term,” added the report. The report stated that “Brussels saw an unprecedented number of shootings, the majority of which are believed to have been drug related.”
Other cases of European drug police involve direct violence towards unarmed individuals. The UK began an inquest on the death of Sean Fitzgerald, 31, a veteran soldier.
In 2019, Fitzgerald was fatally shot by the police as he ran from a suspected marijuana farm. He was not carrying any weapons. A friend told reporters that the police “climbed ladders, went through windows and acted like World War 3”. Any person with a rational mind would have run away.
According to an article published in 2023 by the International Journal of Drug Policy, the international drug control system could be viewed as a violation of a fundamental right to security and life. Petter Gran Johnstad, an academic and author of the paper in question, wrote that “the relationship between drug criminalization ad violent criminality is well known.”Prohibition is a very attractive option for criminal organizations to gain access to illicit drugs.
This article was originally published by Filter, an online magazine covering drug use, drug policy and human rights through a harm reduction lens. Follow Filter on Bluesky, X or Facebook, and sign up for its newsletter.
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