View metadata, citation and similar papers at core.ac.uk brought to you by CORE provided by Plymouth Electronic Archive and Research Library An Exploration of how the Social Supply and User-Dealer Supply of Illicit Drugs Differs to Conventional Notions of Drug Dealing and Consideration of the Consequences of this for Sentencing Policy By LEAH MOYLE A thesis submitted to Plymouth University in partial fulfilment for the degree of DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY School of Government Faculty of Business October 2013 Copyright Statement This copy of the thesis has been supplied on condition that anyone who consults it is understood to recognise that its copyright rests with its author and that no quotation from the thesis and no information derived from it may be published without the author's prior consent. Abstract The concept of ‘social supply’ has emerged as a term used both in the UK, and internationally, to describe drug distribution that is non-commercially motivated and almost exclusively found between friends and acquaintances. Social suppliers have increasingly been presented as actors who are qualitatively different to drug dealers (proper), in relation to their motivation and their activity. As a result, they have increasingly become identified as a group who should be distinguished as such legally (Police Foundation, 2000; Release, 2009). While social supply behaviours can be identified in wider research literature relating to recreational drug use, there is a relative gap in regard to in-depth accounts of social supply activity, and in regard to a social supply definition. In a similar way, heroin and crack cocaine user-dealers - a group who are also perhaps not best understood as profit motivated suppliers - have received insufficient academic attention, with the majority of research references failing to go beyond typologies that recognise them simply as suppliers who also use. With research indicating that social supply permeates a meaningful section of adolescent and adult drug markets, along with evidence to suggest that drug supply embodies one of limited options for addicted drug users to fund their habit, this thesis explores how far we can understand these behaviours as drug dealing (proper). Using qualitative in-depth interviews and case studies, this interpretivist research design develops existing ideas, as well as highlighting emergent social supply and user-dealing themes. Findings from this research indicate that social supply behaviours are usefully understood through a theoretical application of ‘normalisation’ (Parker et al., 1998) and ‘drift’ (Matza, 1964) and are wider in scope than those currently recognised by the literature base. The research findings also indicate the importance of the notion of ‘economies of scale’ - an incentive for drug users to obtain a larger quantity of substance for a cheaper price. Notions of reciprocity also feature, with group obligation providing a i rationale for involvement in social supply. The findings are also suggestive of the idea that user-dealing - understood through the theoretical gaze of Bourdieu’s ‘Theory of Practice’ (1990) - is characterised by limited distribution, minimal profit and explicated as a less harmful option than other crimes undertaken to fund drug dependence. This thesis concludes with the proposal that a conceptual shift towards ‘minimally commercial supply’ offers a more realistic and inclusive means of conceptualising both social supply and user-dealing activity. Possible ways forward therefore include the implementation of this term as a distinct offence that focuses on intent, thereby presenting a more proportionate approach than current policy responses for these groups allow. ii Author’s Declaration At no time during the registration for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy has the author been registered for any other University award without prior agreement of the Graduate Committee. This study was financed with the aid of an ‘ESRC CASE Studentship’ and funding from Plymouth Drug and Alcohol Action Team (DAAT). A programme of advanced study was undertaken, which included a range of qualitative methodology training and courses. Relevant social scientific seminars and conferences were regularly attended at which work was presented; external institutions were visited for consultation and a number of papers were prepared for publication. Publications Moyle, L, Coomber, R and Lowther, J. (2013) Crushing a Walnut with a Sledgehammer? Analysing the Penal Response to the Social Supply of Illicit Drugs. Social and Legal Studies (online). Coomber, R and Moyle, L. (2013) Beyond Drug Dealing: Developing and Extending the Social Supply of Drugs to Minimally Commercial Supply. Drugs Education Prevention and Policy (online) Coomber, R and Moyle, L. (2012) A Rapid Appraisal of Illicit Drug Market in Southend- on-Sea, Essex. Selected Presentations: 2013: ‘Earning a Score’: Considering the Penal Response to Heroin and Crack Cocaine User-Dealers within UK Drug Policy (Contemporary Drug Problems, Aarhus Denmark (Forthcoming) 2013: ‘Exploring ‘Minimally Commercial Supply’: The Small-Scale Supply of Heroin and Crack Cocaine as a Means of Supporting a Drug Habit’ (Research Seminar, Plymouth Drug and Alcohol Research Unit) 2012: ‘Exploring the Social Supply of Illicit Drugs in relation to Drug Dealing Proper’ (PhD Substance Misuse Symposium, Oxford Brookes University) Word Count of Main Body of Thesis: 81,176 Signed…………………………………… Date………………………………………. iii Contents Abstract.................................................................................................................................. i Author’s Declaration .............................................................................................................. iii Acknowledgements ............................................................................................................... xi Introducing the Drug Dealer .................................................................................................. 1 Social Supply: A Brief Introduction to the Current Research Base ..................................... 1 User-Dealers: Just Suppliers who Use? ............................................................................ 3 Why Should we be Interested in Social Supply and User-Dealing? ................................... 3 User-Dealers as a Distinct and Visible Group .................................................................... 5 Social Supply and User-Dealing in a Wider Political Context ............................................. 7 The Purpose of this Study ................................................................................................. 8 Structure of this Thesis ...................................................................................................... 9 Chapter One: Theorising Drug Use and Supply .................................................................. 12 The Problem: Actor vs. Structure ..................................................................................... 13 Structural Perspectives .................................................................................................... 13 Macro-Structural Contributions: Modernity, Risk Society and Governmentality ................ 15 Foucault: Discursive Formations and Power ................................................................ 15 Technologies of Power................................................................................................. 16 Risk, Individualisation and Modernity ........................................................................... 18 Risk and the Regulated Self ......................................................................................... 19 Agential Perspectives as Critique ................................................................................. 20 Bridging Structure and Agency: Bourdieu’s Theory of Habitus and Field ......................... 22 Habitus ........................................................................................................................ 24 Field and Capital .......................................................................................................... 26 Bourdieu on Crime ....................................................................................................... 28 Critiquing Bourdieu ...................................................................................................... 30 Micro-Theories of Drug Use and Supply .......................................................................... 31 The Relationship between Class, Poverty and Drug Use ............................................. 31 Strain Theories ............................................................................................................ 32 Subjectivity, Drug Use and Supply ............................................................................... 34 The Meaning of Friendship: the Relationship Between Drug Supply and Friendship and Reciprocity ...................................................................................................................... 36 Universal Reciprocity Principles ................................................................................... 37 Symbolic Exchange and Obligation in Social Drug Markets ......................................... 38 Normalisation .................................................................................................................. 39 iv Illegal Leisure: The North West Longitudinal