public health campaigner David Penington and Victoria’s drug court Magistrate, Tony Parsons<\/a> who argue that the focus should be on treatment, rehabilitation, education and family support.<\/p>\nI believe that the nation\u2019s policy responses need to be focused on reducing harm through integrated supply and demand reduction. Focusing solely on arrests or supply reduction won\u2019t work. But equally, a strategy that focusses on balancing treatment, rehabilitation, education and family support without arrests is unlikely to be successful on its own.<\/p>\n
For organised crime groups (OCG) the Australia ice market offers high per-capita user demand accompanied by high and stable prices (in global terms). Every time police take out a street dealer or global kingpin there is someone ready to fill the void in the market.<\/p>\n
In a one week period in February 2015 Customs and the Australian Federal Police, in two separate border operations, seized over 330 kilograms of methamphetamine with an estimated street value of approximately $221 million dollars.<\/p>\n
The Australian Crime Commission regularly reports substantive increases in methamphetamine seizures, yet Australian Institute of Criminology researchers find that this isn\u2019t having a marked impact on the drug\u2019s domestic availability to users.<\/p>\n
To undermine the profit motivation for participation in the Australian ice market, border agencies need to seize large proportions of the total quantity of incoming drugs. I think it would be safe to assess that, despite record seizures, stable user prices reveal border and enforcement agencies aren\u2019t seizing increasing percentages of the total ice shipments (and its precursors) being imported into Australia.<\/p>\n
I believe that there are disconnects between the use of seizure rates as a performance measure and the achievement of the government\u2019s policy intent of harm minimisation. Law enforcement performance measures are forcing our border agencies to concentrate on seizing drugs not reducing supply.<\/p>\n
This isn\u2019t a criticism of the good work of our border and enforcement agencies. It\u2019s a commentary on whether concentrating our strategy towards higher seizure rates, at the cost of other more innovative enforcement strategies and measures, is the best approach to supply reduction let alone harm minimisation.<\/p>\n
Policy makers are in a difficult situation. If they don\u2019t pursue politically sensitive increases in the number of seizures, they will be found wanting by government and the community. I don\u2019t believe that the policy challenge need be a polar question; to seize or not too seize. Put simply new strategies should avoid using drug seizures as a police performance measure. Instead new policies should encourage police to utilise more innovative non-traditional responses: such as offshore disruptions.<\/p>\n
As an example, Australian Crime Commission reporting highlights the role of China in the production and shipment of ice and its precursors. To achieve a substantive reduction in the supply of ice the diversion of drugs and precursors in the Chinese chemical and pharmaceutical industry needs to be addressed. To have a lasting impact on the availability of ice, police need to pursue less tangible, complex and difficult strategies to achieve this: such as disrupting drug manufacturing in China through enforcement cooperation, intelligence exchange, capacity development, and international aid.<\/p>\n
A substantive component of the supply reduction strategy should be focused on international engagement with the Chinese government on pharmaceutical and chemical regulation and police and border security intelligence exchange.<\/p>\n
In the next month the Australian Strategic Policy Institute will release its own report with recommendations for a strategy to address the harms caused by ice in our communities\u2014a report that will call for a strategic approach to harm minimisation.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
With a new Prime Minister, it\u2019s an appropriate time to reconsider Tony Abbott\u2019s \u2018dob in an ice dealer\u2019 hotline before things get a whole lot more difficult for Australia\u2019s top cops. Prior to the initiative, …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":310,"featured_media":22690,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mi_skip_tracking":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[805,552,1082,316,1194],"class_list":["post-22688","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-general","tag-afp","tag-australian-crime-commission","tag-drugs","tag-law-enforcement","tag-methamphetamine"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n
Ice: a new strategy for a new Australian government | The Strategist<\/title>\n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n\t \n\t \n\t \n \n \n \n \n \n\t \n\t \n\t \n