Drug Policy Constellations: The Role of Power and Morality in the Making of Drug Policy in the UK

How is UK drugs policy made, and why does it so often seem irrational when considering what works in reducing drug-related harms? This book explains how the concept of drug policy constellations - the loosely concerted policy actors with shared moral commitments that influenced policy outcomes - explains why there is no such thing as 'evidence-based' drug policy. Drawing on his participation in high-level policy discussions, and a novel approach to policy analysis, Stevens presents three recent cases involving key issues in UK illicit drug policy - medical cannabis, drug-related deaths and the government’s 10-year drug strategy.How is UK drugs policy made, and why does it so often seem irrational when considering what works in reducing drug-related harms? This book explains how the concept of drug policy constellations - the loosely concerted policy actors with shared moral commitments that influenced policy outcomes - explains why there is no such thing as 'evidence-based' drug policy. Drawing on his participation in high-level policy discussions, and a novel approach to policy analysis, Stevens presents three recent cases involving key issues in UK illicit drug policy - medical cannabis, drug-related deaths and the government’s 10-year drug strategy Front Cover Half-title Drug Policy Constellations: The Role of Power and Morality in the Making of Drug Policy in the UK Copyright information Dedication Table of Contents List of Figures and Tables About the Author Preface 1 An Introduction to Drug Policy Constellations A note on reading this book Titular, descriptive concepts Sub-titular, explanatory concepts: power and morality Explaining drug policy with policy constellations: the structure of this book Conclusion: drug policy as a testing ground for the policy constellations approach Part I Contexts, Concepts and Methods for Studying Drug Policy Constellations 2 Facts and Narratives of the UK Drug Policy Context Medical and penal control in UK drug policy Drug-related harms: public health crisis or crime epidemic Drug use in the UK Conclusion: the abundance of drug-related facts and narratives 3 Power and Morality in Policy Making Political and social power and its stratifications Forms of political power: institutional, legal and coercive Forms of social power: economic, epistemic, affective, media and savvy Stratification and reproduction of power: the unequal distribution of the ability to influence policy Moral foundations, bases and narratives for understanding policy making The effects of morality The contents of morality Overlapping moral, material and affective imperatives Conclusion: all policy is morality policy 4 Policy Constellation: A Critical Realist Approach Critical frameworks for policy analysis: a very brief introduction What are policy constellations? Morality as “shared mission” Policy constellations and forms of power Constellations and reflexivity: where you stand affects your view Conclusion: the advantages of the policy constellations approach 5 Studying Policy Constellations in the Real World Casing and sampling for ethnography, interviews and documents Ethnography of policy work Elite interviewees Documents for discourse analysis Coding and analysis of fieldnotes, interviews and documents Narratives and tropes Factoids Policy positions Policy actors Coding Ethico-political bases Analysis of policy constellations with SNA Two-mode SNA Nodes and ties Creating sociograms Policy constellations as SNA modules Conclusion: mixed methods for studying policy constellations Part II Morality and Power in UK Drug Policy Constellations 6 Moralities in Action: The Ethico-Political Bases of UK Drug Policy Compassion: a shared, but differentiated value Traditionalism: big and small C conservatism Default paternalism: limiting freedom to protect from harm Progressive social justice: fairness as equality and the removal of disadvantage Liberty: self-enhancement and making money Moral overlaps and mutual repulsion Conclusion: the ethico-political bases of UK drug policy 7 Mapping UK Drug Policy Constellations Reading the map of policy constellations The conservative constellation The public health constellation The drug policy reform constellation The progressive social justice constellation The libertarian constellation The hybrid medico-penal constellation The missing voice of people who use drugs Conclusion: a map for explaining policy outcomes 8 Power in UK Drug Policy Constellations Policy constellations and institutional power Insiders and outsiders in the institutional power game The politics of familiarity Forms of social power in drug policy constellations Media power: the unequal ability to set the agenda Economic power: money talks Epistemic power: the uses of ‘evidence-based policy’ Affective power: personal stories “cut through” Savvy social power Conclusion: powers and structures Part III Cases in Drug Policy Making in the UK 9 The Limited Legalisation of Medical Cannabis Policy constellations around medical cannabis The competition for epistemic power on cannabis Economic, affective and media power in changing policy: the art of political cornering Institutional power in the rearguard action against expanding medical cannabis Conclusion: savvy social power and political cornering in the legalisation of medical cannabis 10 Responses to the Drug Deaths Crisis: Explaining Differences at UK and Scottish Levels The UK’s drug-related death crisis: not enough or the wrong kind of treatment Reactions to rising deaths Indifference to deaths in England Policy constellations in Scotland Policy constellations and the response to drug-related deaths in Scotland Conclusion: explaining policy responses to drug-related deaths 11 The UK’s Ten-Year Drug Strategy The drug strategy as a moral discourse Moral posturing New money to save lives Explaining the development of the drug strategy: the role of policy constellations It takes a zoo, and zoos have hierarchies Dame Carol Black: broker, entrepreneur or savvy power player The exclusion of challenging proposals and people Conclusion: explaining a contradictory and surprising strategy 12 A Retroductive Conclusion Retroduction: the propositions of the policy constellations approach Contextualisation: a competing and complementary theory of the policy process Some limitations and trade-offs of this analysis Conclusion: the practical adequacy of the policy constellations approach Notes Chapter 1 Chapter 2 Chapter 3 Chapter 4 Chapter 5 Chapter 7 Chapter 8 Chapter 9 Chapter 10 Chapter 11 References Index