Novel Psychoactive Substances: Implications for UK Drugs Policy A thesis submitted to the University of Manchester for the degree of PhD in the Faculty of Humanities 2016 Joseph Ritchie School of Law Contents List of Tables.....................................................................................................................6 List of Figures....................................................................................................................7 Thesis Abstract ..................................................................................................................8 Declaration ........................................................................................................................9 Statement of Copyright....................................................................................................10 Acknowledgements .........................................................................................................11 Dedication........................................................................................................................11 Chapter 1: Introduction....................................................................................................12 Introduction and Thesis Structure ...................................................................................12 Background......................................................................................................................16 NPS, Problematization and the Production of ‘Policy Problems’...................................19 Precarious Subjects..........................................................................................................22 Contestable Objects.........................................................................................................24 Conclusion.......................................................................................................................28 Chapter 2: Literature Review ..........................................................................................30 Introduction .....................................................................................................................30 The Policy context of NPS ..............................................................................................31 Defining NPS...............................................................................................................31 The UK Policy Response.............................................................................................34 Critiques of the Psychoactive Substances Act 2016 ....................................................41 The Psychoactive Substances Act 2016 in International Context. ..............................44 Summary......................................................................................................................47 Research on the Consumption of NPS ............................................................................48 NPS Prevalence............................................................................................................48 Situating NPS Consumption. .......................................................................................55 The Relevance of Legality .......................................................................................56 Challenges in Estimating NPS use...............................................................................60 Summary......................................................................................................................62 The Evolution of NPS Commerce...................................................................................64 Drug Digitalisation.......................................................................................................64 Online Consumer Markets and Cryptomarkets............................................................65 Head shops and the ‘street market’..............................................................................69 Summary......................................................................................................................69 2 Conceptualizing NPS related harms................................................................................71 Summary......................................................................................................................76 Conclusion.......................................................................................................................77 Chapter 3: Methods .........................................................................................................80 Introduction .....................................................................................................................80 Constituting NPS as an Object of Discourse...................................................................81 News Media Analysis ..................................................................................................83 Parliamentary Debates (2nd Reading of Psychoactive Substances Act, Oct 19th 2015, 3rd Reading of the Psychoactive Substances Act, January 20th, 2016). .......................85 Harm Assessments.......................................................................................................86 Policy Reports: ‘Consideration of the Novel Psychoactive Substances’ and Recommendations of the Expert Panel on New Psychoactive Substances..................87 Constructing NPS narratives ...........................................................................................87 Ethics............................................................................................................................88 Data Collection.........................................................................................................90 Interview Structure...................................................................................................96 Coding and Analysis ................................................................................................97 Methodological Limitations...................................................................................100 Reflexivity..............................................................................................................101 Conclusion .................................................................................................................102 Chapter 4: The Production of the NPS Policy Problem ................................................103 Introduction ...................................................................................................................103 The Escalating Problem of Legal Drugs....................................................................103 Framing the Harms ....................................................................................................105 Chasing After a Changing Drugs Market ..................................................................110 Alternative Frames and Voices..................................................................................114 Summary....................................................................................................................116 Parliamentary Debates...................................................................................................117 Second Reading of the Bill, 19th October 2015 .........................................................117 Third Reading of the Bill, 20th January, 2016............................................................121 Summary....................................................................................................................125 Harm Assessments.........................................................................................................125 Constituting NPS in terms of Controlled Drugs ........................................................126 Documenting harmfulness .........................................................................................128 3 Subjective Effects ......................................................................................................131 Summary....................................................................................................................132 Policy Documents..........................................................................................................133 ACMD: Consideration of the Novel Psychoactive Substances (‘Legal Highs’) (2011) ....................................................................................................................................133 Expert Panel on NPS (2014) Report of the Expert Panel ..........................................138 Summary....................................................................................................................146 Conclusion.....................................................................................................................147 Chapter 5: Constructing NPS Differently......................................................................149 Introduction ...................................................................................................................149 Unpicking the Complexity of NPS Markets..................................................................150 Motivations ................................................................................................................150