Controlled Delivery of Illegal Drug Parcels in Scotland: Does Policing Practice Align With a Public Health Approach Focused on Drug-Related Harm?

• Author: Ana Morales-Gómez,Susan McVie,Fernando Pantoja
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1177/00220426221098986
• Published date: 01 October 2022
• Date: 01 October 2022
• Subject Matter: Articles

Article

Journal of Drug Issues

2022, Vol. 52(4) 616–637

© The Author(s) 2022

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DOI: 10.1177/00220426221098986

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Controlled Delivery of Illegal

Drug Parcels in Scotland: Does

Policing Practice Align With a

Public Health Approach

Focused on Drug-Related

Harm?

Ana Morales-Gómez

1

, Susan McVie

1

, and Fernando Pantoja

1

Abstract

An increase in the f‌low of drugs into the UK via international postal systems poses challenges for

law enforcement. ‘Controlled delivery’can be used to disrupt supply networks and secure in-

telligence for prosecution; however, critics argue that law enforcement should instead focus on

reducing drug-related harm. In Scotland, national drugs strategy adopts a public health approach

but it is unclear whether this extends to policing practice. Therefore, this paper examines whether

controlled delivery of drug parcels aligns with a public health policing approach. We f‌ind evidence

of alignment in terms of potential harm to individual users, particularly in relation to legal highs,

but not in terms of drug-related harms within the communities to which parcels were destined.

We argue that further investigation is required in order to assess the extent to which political

intent and policing practice in Scotland align around the principles of harm reduction and public

health.

Keywords

drug markets, controlled delivery, public health policing, drug-related harm, Scotland

Introduction

Widespread access to the internet and the development of new encryption technologies have

signif‌icantly facilitated the expansion of illegal drug markets from physical to online spaces

(Mounteney et al., 2016). These technologies have changed the dynamics of buying drugs, by

connecting customers to a much wider global supply network and enabling the direct delivery of

drugs via postal systems (Martin, 2014;National Crime Agency, 2018). While reducing some of

1

School of Law, University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh, Scotland, UK

Corresponding Author:

Ana Morales-Gómez, School of Law, University of Edinburgh, Old College, South Bridge, Edinburgh, EH8 9YL, UK.

Email: Ana.Morales@ed.ac.uk

the risks to buyers associated with traditional physical markets, including detection and exposure

to violence (Bakken, Moeller, and Sandberg, 2018), purchasing drugs online has also increased

the potential for greater drug-related harm to both individuals and communi ties (MacCoun and

Reuter, 2001;Matthews et al., 2021). While it is impossible to quantify the scale of global online

drugs markets, the NCA (2018) has expressed concern that the increasing volume of illicit drug

consignments transiting the UK border via fast parcels and post is likely to continue rising in line

with online consumer demand. Moreover, the Covid-19 pandemic has substantially increased the

online drugs trade (NCA, 2021).

Parcels entering the UK through the international postal system are subject to checks by Border

Force off‌icers who try to intercept and seize those containing illicit items, including drugs. Seizing

drugs parcels removes potentially harmful substances from the supply chain; however, it also

offers the opportunity to disrupt drug networks and apprehend distributers (Martin, 2014). This

can be done using ‘controlled delivery’whereby a law enforcement off‌icer posing as a postal

worker attempts to deliver the parcel to the purchaser (usually with the drugs removed) under

controlled conditions and using surveillance (Cutting, 1983). The UNODC (2018) def‌inition of

controlled delivery makes it clear that its purpose is purely law enforcement, such as tracing the

transit routes of illicit goods and securing evidence to pursue arrest and potential prosecution.

However, little is known about the use of this law enforcement tactic, such as the basis on which

parcels are selected for delivery or the intended outcome.

Understanding more about such law enforcement tactics is important in the UK context given

that drug-related harm, crime and violence, and wider societal impacts are estimated to cost around

£20 billion annually (Black, 2020). Drug-related deaths are a particular problem, especially in

Scotland which has the highest rate in Europe (National Records of Scotland, 2021). Critics claim

that the war on drugs has been lost and that law enforcement policies do not reduce supply chains

(Holland, 2020), but are counterproductive and potentially damaging (Maher and Dixon, 1999;

Kerr et al., 2005;Paoli et al., 2013). Instead, it is now widely agreed that drug control regimes

should focus on harm minimization, such as reducing drug-related health risks and other socially

damaging impacts (Bull et al., 2016). This is in keeping with a growing realisation that many

complex societal problems straddle the domains of law enforcement and public health (van Dijk &

Crofts, 2017) and, therefore, require a ‘public health approach’to policing (Christmas and

Srivastava, 2019).

Drugs f‌lowing through postal systems clearly represent a degree of harm to potential users,

depending on the amount and type of drugs contained in each individual parcel. However, they

also pose a threat to the communities to which such parcels are destined, which often suffer from

deprivation and health-related vulnerabilities (Saberi Zafarghandi et al., 2022). Caulkins and

Reuter (2009: 9) note that “law enforcement is uniquely empowered to address market-related

harms”; therefore, it is of interest to know whether the use of controlled delivery aligns with a

harm reduction approach.

In Scotland, the language of harm reduction has been central to drug strategy for many years

(Scottish Government, 2008,2021); however, responsibility for drug policy is reserved to the UK

Government and sits within a law enforcement portfolio (UK Government, 2021). According to

the Scottish Affairs Select Committee (2019), lack of domestic power over drugs poli cy has

constrained efforts to implement public health measures in Scotland; and critics note that policing

strategies towards the control of drugs remain rooted in punitive enforcement rhetoric (McLean,

Holligan and McPhee, 2018). However, there is very little research on operational policing

practice in relation to drugs in Scotland and nothing on whether it aligns with a harm reduction

approach. Therefore, using a novel administrative dataset, this paper examines the use of con-

trolled delivery by law enforcement off‌icers in Scotland to determine whether it shows evidence of

a public health approach that has the potential to reduce drug-related harm.

Morales-Gómez et al. 617