National Amphetamine-Type Stimulant Strategy Background Paper: Monograph Series No. 69
6.9 Priorities in law enforcement
Table of contents
The issues of law enforcement form a substantive part of this background paper as they are fundamental to the principal aspects of ATS management in reducing supply, reducing demand, and minimising and ameliorating harmful effects. Major themes emerging from the consultations and submissions concerned legislation (Commonwealth, State and Territories), policy and policy implementation, and operational procedures as they apply to the day-to-day routine activities of law enforcement officers. The evidence of the information gathering process suggested a need for an inter-jurisdictional and coordinated response in these matters. There is also a need to ensure community understanding about the type of responses adopted by law enforcement in targeting ATS.
The role of law enforcement has traditionally been viewed as reducing the supply of illicit drugs. Though supply reduction remains the principal focus for law enforcement, these agencies also play an important role in the development and delivery of demand and harm reduction strategies. As confirmed during the consultations, police have increasingly become involved in early intervention programs through the referral of illicit drug users to health and welfare agencies under the Illicit Drug Diversion Initiative. They have also moved towards the implementation of non-criminal justice related outcomes for minor drug offenders.
In 2007, Australian law enforcement agencies developed a national policy framework to assist in promoting a coordinated and integrated response to the harms and challenges presented by ATS. The resulting strategy represents a holistic law enforcement approach to ATS, emphasising, for example, the important role played by law enforcement officers in supporting the development and delivery of education programs, dealing with drug affected individuals, and facilitating the entry of drug users into treatment plans and diversion schemes. The aim of the strategy is to improve social, economic and health outcomes by preventing the production, consumption and trafficking of ATS, and reducing the harmful effects of ATS on the Australian community. The strategy aims to realise three outcomes:
- Reduced availability of ATS in Australia;
- Reduced demand for ATS in Australia; and
- Reduced impact of ATS on individuals, families, and communities.
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Priority Area 1: Community Understanding of ATS manner of manufacture and criminal offences
There continue to be community misconceptions about the use of ATS. The use of terms such as ‘party drugs,’ ‘recreational drugs’ and ecstasy provides an implicit message of fun, pleasure and, in the case of ‘ice,’ purity of methamphetamine. There is a lack of awareness of the true manner in which ATS is manufactured and the significant harms that may arise from the manufacturing process and use of ATS.The community’s perception of the criminality of possession, use and trafficking in ATS needs to be enhanced. There is also a need to ensure the community understands the type of responses being adopted by law enforcement in response to the threat of ATS – including the use of diversion from the criminal justice system to treatment and education, controls on precursor chemicals and equipment, successes in seizing drugs and proceeds of crime.
The objective of this priority area is to increase awareness among the Australian public about ATS, its manner of production, its harms and the enforcement of its illegal status.
Recommended activities are:
i. In partnership with other sectors of Federal, State, Territory and local Government, the non-government sector, the media and the community, support the development and delivery of public awareness campaigns. The content of campaigns should include:
- the physical, psychological and social harms of ATS use;
- the nature of ATS manufacture, including clandestine drug laboratories;
- the types of substances often found in illicit drugs and the conditions under which they are produced;
- the criminal penalties for ATS possession, use and trafficking;
- the availability and success of treatment options, and;
- law enforcement approaches to ATS, including how the community can assist in the achievement of law enforcement successes, such as through involvement in community cooperation programs;and
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Priority Area 2: Preventing the supply and use of ATS
The Strategy seeks to promote innovative and targeted responses to prevent the supply and use of ATS in the community. It focuses on promoting informed and intelligence-led law enforcement strategies and exploiting inter-jurisdictional and inter sectoral partnerships and synergies. Furthermore, the Strategy recognises that the breadth of supply reduction activities has a greater cumulative effect than simply reducing the availability of ATS in the community—there are a number of flow-on benefits, such as:- reinforcing the message that illicit drug use is not condoned by the community;
- raising awareness amongst the community that use and manufacture of illicit drugs is illegal and carries significant penalties;
- increasing the likelihood of people seeking treatment;
- reducing the funds available for illicit drug purchase by prosecuting associated crime; and the deterrent effect of successful law enforcement operations involving commitment, cooperation and sophisticated capabilities, on those involved in illicit drug supply.
Prevention reflects the need to build community resilience and cohesion through broad based programs and activities. Such programs should focus on addressing identified social and structural determinants of community health and drug use, including risk and protective factors that affect individual probabilities of drug use. There is a need to consider a wider range of interventions that acknowledge and address the social origins of poor health and health risk behaviours at all levels – individual, family, community and across the population. As well as influencing drug use in the community, such interventions would positively influence education, employment, health and crime outcomes.
Law enforcement plays a significant role in the prevention of ATS use. Law enforcement agencies implement programs to reduce the amount of drugs in Australia and raise public awareness through involvement in community-based ATS education programs. The following objectives and related activities are recommended:
i. Disrupt and dismantle the production and trafficking of ATS into and within Australia through the following activities:
- Continue intelligence-led law enforcement activities to disrupt criminal activity, including dismantling organised crime syndicates engaged in ATS related activities, with particular emphasis on facilitators, importers, manufacturers, distributors and ‘cooks’;
- Review the effectiveness and efficiency of the current proceeds of crime arrangements nationally from a law enforcement perspective;
- Increase international collaboration with overseas agencies to identify and respond to ATS manufacture and trafficking operations, emerging products, precursors and technologies of concern;
- Increase State and Federal cooperation and collaboration among law enforcement on joint precursor, ATS and clandestine laboratory seizure operations;
- Increased efforts to engage with overseas agencies to enhance local enforcement capacity in the control of key chemicals and equipment and operational responses;
- Increased effort in the monitoring of the importation of key chemicals and equipment at the border from a regulatory and intelligence perspective;
- Continue Australia’s participation in international activities such as the International Narcotics Control Board’s project PRISM, and enhance the impact within Oceania of Australia’s commitment to reducing the diversion of ATS precursors into illicit manufacture in the region;
- Investigate new technologies for detecting ATS and their precursors at the border;
- Investigate internet facilitation of ATS and their precursors, and increased investigations targeting online sites;
- Continued support of State and Territory Chemical Diversion Desks or similar;
- Continue close monitoring of domestic diversion of key chemicals and equipment; and
- Continue State and Territory led investigations and activities to detect and dismantle clan labs within Australia.
- Continued support for the activities of the National Working Group on Preventing the Diversion of Precursor Chemicals. This will include development and implementation of the National Clandestine Laboratory Database; identifying and responding to emerging trends and threats in the diversion of chemicals and equipment and ATS manufacture; assessing the continued adequacy of controls on precursor chemicals and related equipment used in the manufacture of ATS, with a view to developing more effective controls; development of a national regulatory approach to the control of essential precursor chemicals and equipment which draws on the National Code of Practice; development of awareness raising activities for the community, industry and government of the risks and signs of ATS manufacture and the diversion of chemicals and equipment; devising a national regulatory framework; supporting the development and delivery of law enforcement training initiatives, such as extending the Customs Precursor Training Program to law enforcement agencies; enhancement to information and intelligence databases for law enforcement, such as the National Industrial Chemicals Notification and Assessment Scheme;
- Support the national roll-out of Project STOP to provide pharmacists, law enforcement and health agencies with information on the purchase of pseudoephedrine based medicines; and
- Support industry development of alternative products to pseudoephedrine which are not susceptible to diversion to ATS manufacture.
- Continue to improve and increase intelligence-led law enforcement practices, with particular emphasis on the use of the ACC’s Australian Criminal Intelligence Database and the National Clandestine Laboratory Database. This will involve ensuring the timely provision of ATS related information and intelligence between jurisdictions; ensuring timely release and widest appropriate distribution of intelligence products; continuation of national forums which bring together investigators and intelligence experts from all jurisdictions;
- Continued support for, and networking of Chemical Diversion Desks in each jurisdiction, including the coordination and exchange of information and intelligence;
- Enhance existing intelligence arrangements for law enforcement to access corrective services intelligence, and prisoner information on ATS production and trafficking on a national basis, including visitation programs;
- Continued use of ACC coercive powers and dissemination of intelligence on a national basis;
- Continued support for the operation of the National Chemical Diversion Congress;
- Continued support for the further development and refinement of the ATS Signature
- Program under AIDIP and improve exchange of timely and quality information between law enforcement and forensic officers on seized chemicals and substances; and
- Develop awareness campaigns to improve provision of information to community, industry and other government sectors, by highlighting risks and dangers associated with ATS manufacture, including increased risks to children, the environment and emergency responders; signs of illicit activity and importance of community, industry and local government assistance to police; law enforcement responses and successes in the detection and prosecution of ATS offences; and the seriousness of ATS-related offences, including their impact on the community and the range of penalties available for ATS offences.
- Ensuring offence and penalty provisions remain appropriate in light of emerging ATS trends and threats, including appropriate coverage of possession and use of precursor chemicals and equipment for the purpose of manufacturing ATS; exposure of children to clandestine laboratories; use of children for trafficking ATS; and sale of ATS to children;
- Review the regulations surrounding the sale of devices used for ATS consumption;
- Support the work of the National Scheduling Committee; and
- Ensure law enforcement has appropriate powers to respond to the ongoing and evolving ATS threat.
- In partnership with other sectors of government and the community, support the development and, where appropriate, the delivery of community prevention/ intervention measures that acknowledge and address origins of poor health and risk health behaviours at all levels (individual, family, community and across the population). This includes neighbourhood building/community regeneration strategies and projects; crime prevention through environmental design projects; school-based drug education and social influence programs; at-risk youth, early intervention and mentoring programs; and parenting skills programs;
- Ensure, wherever possible, that law enforcement policies, programs and activities effectively link with health, education and other government policies and programs;
- Ensure partnership with correctional and juvenile justice authorities and other sectors of government and the community, support the development and delivery of education programs for prisoners and juvenile detainees about the dangers and risks of ATS use and programs that build resilience and life skills/opportunities; and
- Ensure police and corrective services are aware of particular prevention/early intervention programs available to local communities and individuals and that, wherever possible, appropriate linkages and protocols are in place to facilitate referral to relevant agencies.
Priority Area 3: Preventing harms associated with ATS
Law enforcement agencies are continuing to play a greater role in the implementation of harm reduction initiatives. This may take the form of providing access to drug diversion programs for minor offenders, drug driving responses, and responding to violence and property offences which arise from the use of ATS. The priority area promotes responses consistent with the role of police as first responders to the results of ATS use, trafficking and manufacture on individuals and the community. Within this there is a need to prevent adverse health impacts of clandestine laboratories both to first responders and the community. The following objectives and related activities are recommended:i. Support for the use of the Illicit Drug Diversion Initiative (IDDI):
- Support a review of the effectiveness of the IDDI in terms of the criteria adopted for participation, the availability of treatment and education responses, the participation rate and outcomes for participants;
- Ensure adequate training of police in the use and benefits of the IDDI;
- Support a review of the level of integration of IDDI with existing drug and alcohol programs; and
- Educate offenders and the community about the benefits of IDDI.
- Train police and other emergency responders to deal with individuals exhibiting violent and erratic behaviour—who may be affected by ATS—in a way that limits harm to themselves and others;
- As appropriate, establish effective mechanisms to enable the dissemination of information about emerging ATS issues and associated risks;
- Continued evaluation of drug driving initiatives with a view to national adoption; and
- Ensure training for law enforcement officers is adequate to safely identify and handle precursor chemicals and ATS.
- Implement as appropriate, the national guidelines to assist Jurisdictional responses to clandestine drug laboratories, and review as necessary;
- Ensure training for law enforcement and other emergency responders is adequate to safely respond to ATS risks including entering and dismantling clandestine laboratories, identification and proper handling of precursor chemicals;
- Provide input and leadership into the development a national framework for remediating clandestine laboratory sites; and
- Establish effective collaborative linkages or protocols with child protection agencies for the provision of medical checks and care for children found at seized clandestine laboratories.
Priority Area 4: Responding to harms associated with ATS
Evidence continues to grow about the serious physical and mental harms associated with ATS consumption and manufacture. The availability of treatment services for users of illicit drugs is essential to meeting this challenge. While preventing the uptake of harmful drug use is vital, it is also essential to provide treatment services for people who experience drugrelated problems or who are drug dependent.Top of Page
Law enforcement agencies are playing an increasingly important role in the harm reduction and demand reduction strategic areas of the National Drug Strategy, including responding to drug users and drug affected individuals. Law enforcement agencies are in regular contact with at-risk individuals or individuals already suffering from drug related harms. Consequently, law enforcement is able to aid the diversion of individuals to timely and appropriate treatment plans and/or early education programs. The following objectives and related activities are recommended:
i. Improve understanding among law enforcement personnel about interventions, treatments and support for ATS users:
- Ensure training for law enforcement officers is adequate to assist with awareness of benefits and availability of referral to treatment, education or early intervention for individuals with ATS related problems, including mental health and drug comorbidity; police officers ability to able to deal with people exhibiting violent and erratic behaviour, which may result from ATS intoxication; and
- Ensure effective coordination arrangements exist between law enforcement and health, mental health, and social welfare agencies.
- Support the accelerated implementation provision of effective broad ranging treatment options for dependent users of ATS.
