Drug law enforcement: a study in the interplay of power and resistance

This article investigates the links between drug law enforcement initiatives designed to reduce the availability of illicit drugs, and the illicit drug problem in Australia. Of particular interest are supply-reduction initiatives designed to locate and eradicate the production of illicit drugs in ‘source’ countries; the interdiction of drugs at the border; and attempts to disrupt the distribution of drugs at the community or street level. The examples provided illustrate that rather than reducing or deterring the trade in illicit drugs, many supply-reduction initiatives, when ‘successful’, create conditions that are favourable to the operation and expansion of the trade. This suggests that drug law enforcement is not the ‘solution’ to the drug problem, but part of the problem. The initiatives and effects outlined will be situated and discussed within the concepts of success and failure, power and resistance, and constitutive dialects.