MEMORANDUM 63
Submitted by Daniel Silverstone, The
University of Portsmouth
1. I have just completed a PhD at the London
School of Economics and Political Science under the supervision
of Professor David Downes. This piece of work included two empirical
studies. Firstly, a year long ethnography in an inner city London
night-club, where I worked as part of the security team. Secondly,
a longitudinal study of a group of six young middle class ecstasy
users, which was supplemented by further one-off interviews with
three other similar groups, which amounted to 20 interviews in
all.
1.1 The first point I would like to make
about working in a security team in a big inner city London night-club
is that a large amount of drugs were readily available and were
being dealt and consumed on the premises. There was a clear structure
present. The most consistent and robust market was the internal
drug market, which provided for the people employed at the club.
This included the bar staff, the security team, the DJs and the
owners and it was predominately based around cocaine, ecstasy
and marijuana. Then there was a public market for dance drugs,
mainly ecstasy, which was managed by the security team but actually
involved local dealers from outside of the club. [10]
They would be subject to searches and their activities were sometimes
interrupted by the security team. Outside the club, there were
street dealers who predominately dealt in ecstasy but also crack
cocaine and heroin and they were more likely to be policed by
the public police.
1.2 The widespread availability and consumption
of drugs with impunity inside the club was mirrored by the groups
of ecstasy takers I interviewed who obtained their supplies elsewhere.
They all had a history of cannabis use and were lately involved
with a variety of drugs and had used ecstasy between 20 and 3,000
times. As a relatively privileged group of drug users, they felt
that due to their class they were inconspicuous and had nothing
to fear from police interference. Though the quality of their
drug supply varied they had little trouble obtaining their drugs
for long periods of time.[11]
1.3 The club itself though saturated with
drugs was a surprisingly peaceful place to work. In spite of the
area being known as somewhere where guns were available and despite
the consistent threat of violence its actual realisation was rare.
The instances of violent or public order offences among customers
were also low. This is in direct contrast with the amount of violence
which recent research has uncovered as endemic to venues where
young people drink. [12]
It also differed from the less well-researched but obviously violent
street drug market outside. [13]
It was also the case that despite the fact that ecstasy has a
reputation as a drug that kills, both my work in the club and
my interviews confirmed the opposite. That is considering that
ecstasy is often taken in large quantities and frequently mixed
with other drugs it rarely causes fatal injury.[14]
1.4 In conclusion, the current drug laws
do not seem to have a significant impact on the availability or
the consumption of drugs in clubs. The unfortunate combination
of mass drug taking and strict laws[15]
criminalises a large group of people, who as previously argued
pose little threat to themselves or to others. It also among other
things creates problems for those who are enforcing these laws.
Both the police service and the security agencies are forced to
compromise, which means in practice letting some drug taking go
on as long as it is discreet. [16]
The problems with these informal arrangements, which result in
the acceptance of criminal activity, are the predictable ones
of further criminal activity and corruption.
1.5 Furthermore there is also the possibility
of a divide being created, where in venues such as night-clubs,
drug taking is being tolerated where as in other areas of public
space, drug takers (who take drugs which have been given the same
classification) are being policed and the drug laws are being
enforced.[17]This
scenario is clearly inequitable and may create resentment among
populations where the law is still enforced.
1.6 Certainly the decriminalisation of marijuana
and a reduction in classification for the drug ecstasy would make
the law less anomalous. This argument could be made on the grounds
of the relative dangers of the drug to those who take it or in
recognition that their consumption is not accompanied by the kinds
of disorder or criminal behaviour seen with crack, heroin, or
indeed alcohol.
September 2001
10 The existence of a drug market in night-clubs and
the complicity of doormen in them has been noted before. Morris,
S "Clubs Drugs and Doorman", Crime Detection and Prevention
Series Paper 86, 1998. Back
11
This is again consistent with the growing number of larger surveys
on ecstasy users, for example, Release Drugs and Dance Survey,
London: Release, 1997 and most recently by Measham, F, Aldridge,
J & Parker, H "Dancing on Drugs" Free Association
Books, 2001. Back
12
Deehan, A "Alcohol and Crime-Taking Stock" Pg 9 "Half
of the facial injuries sustained by persons between 15 and 25
years of age were the result of assaults, nearly half were in
or near bars and 40 per cent were severe enough to necessitate
specialist surgery". Crime Reduction Paper Series Paper 3,
1999. Back
13
Street Drug Markets are notoriously violent but as such are difficult
to gather evidence about. However, the Police Research Series
Paper 134 (2000) by May, T, Harocopos, & Hough, M "For
Love or Money: Pimps and the management of sex work" makes
clear the serious nature of the criminals involved. Back
14
The Institute for the Study of Drug Dependency calculated the
drug's mortality rate at 0.0002 per cent in 1997 and the drug
in these terms as safer than aspirin. My own work confirmed this. Back
15
In particular the combination of ecstasy being classified as a
Class A drug and the Misuse of Drugs Act and the Public Entertainment
Licences (Drug Misuse) Act making a club liable to being closed
if there is a "serious problem relating to the supply or
use of controlled drugs at the place or nearby which is controlled
by the holder of the licence". Back
16
The existence of these sorts of arrangements was one of the more
striking conclusions from my ethnography and a sense of the problems
drugs squads can be gained from Collison, M "Police, Drugs
and Community". London Free Association, 1995. Back
17
For example it is becoming clear that one unifying factor of those
who are stopped and searched by the police is their use of public
space. See Mooney, J & Young, J "Policing Ethnic Minorities:
Stop and Search in North London, pg 82". "The police
trawl in those areas where they can make some level of arrest,
some possibility of a result . . .." In Marlow, A& Loveday,
B "After Machherson" Russel House Publishing.2000. Also
see, FitzGerald,M "Final Report into Stop and Search"
"The people who get searched by Metropolitan Police Officers
are not a representative cross section of the population of London.
They are drawn from the population which is present on the street
in the places and time when the police are most likely to undertake
searches" (pg 7). Metropolitan Police Online, 1999. Back
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