The drugs supply chain: Qualitative research

The main conclusions drawn were:

• Few drug users had thought beyond their immediate personal experience of the supply chain to wonder what the distribution network which supported it might have been like, or by what means drugs were produced. The respondents’ immediate experience was that of a cottage industry with drugs supplied by longstanding contacts, and where buyers and suppliers were often part of the same social network. If pressed to think, users could accept that something much larger and perhaps more sinister lay beyond this, but they found it hard to equate this to their own experience. Perceptions of this more remote world were driven by the media. Media images dominated perceptions of the drugs world held by non users without friends who used drugs who had no direct contact of any sort with the drugs world.
• Some of the supply chain facts presented were thought provoking in different ways. An understanding of the chemical and toxic ingredients used and discarded in their manufacture served to emphasise the potential dangers presented by drugs, which reinforced the views of non users to avoid them, and of users to take care how they used them. There could also be a more subtle change in the way the drugs industry and drug consumption was viewed, as it was clear that there were negative consequences beyond the personal risk to the user, which meant that taking drugs was not purely a personal decision. In addition the sheer scale of the industry was a surprise to all.
• In itself this information is unlikely to provoke wholesale behavioural change, or lead to non users confronting users. It might however provide additional reasons for avoiding drugs in the first place, taking more care, using them less, and so on. The wider harm done by the drugs industry to the environment and society could also allow non users to have a slightly different perspective on drugs, that is they could feel justified in seeing drugs as ‘wrong’ rather than just ‘not for them’.
• Drug users were likely to see the effect of their own behaviour in relation to environmental and social issues as minute. As a result they felt little inclination to change their behaviour, as they felt that this would have little effect on these macro level problems. While it may not be impossible to overcome this individual ‘inertia’ to provoke action it would undoubtedly be a difficult communications task.
• Some of the supply chain issues would be much more powerful if they could be evidenced by examples closer to home. Ideally people should feel that these problems are occurring in places, near where they live, and in places like where they live.
• If ‘supply chain’ issues are used to help undermine drugs usage and the drugs industry it will be important not to appear to be singling drugs out for an unfair proportion of blame, or to be seen to be otherwise distorting the facts to make negative points. This will certainly be the case for environmental issues where the impact of ‘big business’ in its many forms is already well known. In this instance it will probably be sufficient simply to make it clear that drugs share the blame with other industries. In other instances, for example crime, there was more general agreement that drugs were to blame from drug users and non users alike, although by this these drug users were thinking specifically of Heroin and Crack. There was a feeling across the sample that crime was reaching worrying levels. Many had been directly affected by it, or had direct connections with those who had.
• Another issue found generally concerning, prompted by exploitation of youth in the supply chain, was the age at which children and teenagers were seen to be starting to use drugs. Everyone, even the most hardened and youngest of users, felt that this was a worrying and unacceptable trend. This might also be an issue which could be harnessed to positive effect?