The sharing of information facilitates the work and prepares different professionals for situations that can occur at the drug scenes, as expressed by one of the social workers as follows:. Often, we get information about the seizure of illicit drugs, which has led to a reduction in, for example, heroin at the scene, which can create unrest and a need for caution.
Such information is very important for those who do outreach work. Collaboration in the form of day-to-day work as well as more strategic planning was mentioned as important. Attempts to involve healthcare actors in the collaboration forums have been unsuccessful thus far. Some of the informants also expressed a desire for more collaboration with schools, parents, and businesses.
The cooperation between the different organizations seemed to be characterized by a culture of generosity and supportive relations. A common room for planning and having coffee at the central scene has contributed to a good collaborative climate, according to several of the informants. To get to know each other is important for a good collaboration climate, and this room has really contributed to that.
Despite this, daily cooperation is sometimes perceived as dependent on certain individuals, as described by one of the security guards as follows:. The cooperation with the police varies to a great extent depending on where you are and, unfortunately, is down to an individual level. Given that cooperation depends on certain individuals and is therefore unstable, informants stressed the importance of priorities and mandates from higher up in the respective organizations as well as clear structures for responsibility, indicating that these are still lacking.
The working environment at the squares seems to vary between professions. Security staff expressed that they were in a vulnerable position when approaching criminals at the scenes due to a lack of education, restricted access to information about individuals due to secrecy regulations, a lack of rooms in which to keep persons whom they take into custody, and a lack of anonymity when having to testify against criminals in court.
One of the security guards described the high degree of exposure accompanying court appearances as follows:. Every time you testify or are a plaintiff, you appear with name, social security number, address and everything. This creates an exposed situation, and it feels like the legislation is lagging behind. Other professionals did not note working environment problems to a large extent but praised the collaboration between professionals, which they thought contributes to a more secure working environment.
Knowledge about the methods in the handbook seems high among the informants and several police officers who, according to themselves, have worked to counter drug crime for many years mentioned various actions that can be taken to combat the drug scenes, including those stated in the handbook.
What distinguishes from is that we now have a much deeper, broader, more adequate picture of the situation. We have a much greater understanding that we cannot work with just one thing at a time, but we must work broadly.
However, high staff turnover in certain organizations challenges the ability to maintain knowledge and competence, especially among security staff, according to one of the social workers. One of the police officers also underlined the importance of specialization to achieve sufficient knowledge to carry out the tasks effectively.
If you work with narcotics, you get skills concerning both substances, what to look for, etcetera [ … ] because, there are trends in this business. So, if you want to be really skilled, you may have to work solely on this problem during a period, instead of changing between different tasks all the time. Very few people live in the area where the central scene is located, as described by the informants who meant that people are passing by primarily in day time.
Conversely, many people live in the suburban scene, but without engaging very much in events related to the open drug scene, according to the informants.
During the daytime, the central square is an important place for recurrent demonstrations and speeches. However, the square is also perceived as a meeting place for people who are excluded from mainstream society according to one of the informants, who stated that loneliness is one of the reasons they visit the place. There are so many lonely people. I actually want to point out that I have talked to many people there [at the square] who just stand there trying to get in contact with someone who wants to talk to them.
One of the informants described a h fast food restaurant as meeting plac for people who create messes and start quarrels, creating an unsafe environment for people passing by. At the suburban drug scene, the physical layout of the square contributes to a general impression of insecurity, and problems with pigeon droppings and graffiti, according to the informants, adding that the square also has many hiding places, which facilitates drug dealing, and the need for a brighter, more open space was expressed.
Furthermore, groups of people with alcohol use disorder was described as visiting the square due to the adjacent alcohol retail outlet and another organization providing activities for this target group. Several informants highlighted socioeconomic factors as contributing to the recruitment of people to drug dealing, thereby influencing the size of the problem to be handled.
The low socioeconomic status characterizing the suburban scene entails high rates of unemployment, which some informants said made it a hotbed for the recruitment of young people to criminal networks. To prevent this, police officers and social workers suggested that education and job opportunities, as well as organized leisure time activities, are needed.
One of the informants expressed the following:. The society should get people employed. Instead of hanging around, they should do meaningful things during the day. Although there are some clubs offering leisure activities, high participation costs and the difficulties entailed in starting at a later age were mentioned as barriers for adolescents.
One informant expressed the wish that more local businesses would offer jobs to young people. According to the informants, many immigrants, some without residence permit, are present at the central scene, making them especially vulnerable to recruitment into drug dealing. Those whose asylum applications have been rejected.
And they are not allowed to be in Sweden. They are not allowed to work. Although people at risk of evading deportation can be arrested, one of the informants said that few secured housing places are available for this purpose. Furthermore, the informant pointed to the fact that minors who are not granted asylum can go to high school but are not allowed to work, which the informant meant could put them in a vulnerable situation as it is hard for them to support themselves legally.
Immigration has increased in recent years and has posed new challenges to the police, as expressed by one of the police officers who said that there is a need for better cooperation with the migration board and the border police to discourage criminal activity. Regarding social prevention methods, there is a lack of support from social services for drug-using foreign minors and a lack of engagement by the legal guardians of unaccompanied minors, according to a police officers, who also meant that many of these adolescents have been assigned to housing in northern Sweden but prefer to stay with friends in Stockholm, putting themselves in vulnerable situations and making it difficult for the authorities to help them.
Several of the informants reported that they have noticed the emergence of a more liberal view on drugs and a normalization of drug use in society, especially with respect to cannabis, which they thought contribute to an increase in drug use.
Moreover, fear of revenge from criminals prevents locals who live near the suburban drug scene from intervening in drug use and dealing, according to one of the informants, stressing the importance of engagement by the civil society.
We need to engage the local residents [ Reaching out to parents is considered central in activating the local community, according to several of the informants who consider patrolling at, and around, the open drug scenes by parents and other adults as an important means to render the area more secure.
Schools are identified by some informants as an important potential actor in the work against open drug scenes. Several schools around the suburban scene report adolescents dealing drugs on school grounds, according to one of the informants connected to the suburban scene. However, after a dialogue between the schools and the police, a common letter was sent out by the heads of twelve schools informing parents about the problem and calling for patrolling. A police officer at the central scene mentioned similar attempts to initiate such actions there.
Social workers, however, try to raise the problem and suggested possible actions that can be taken during meetings with the schools. We try to make contact with schools and meet with them and talk [ … ] about how we can complement each other and work supportively for the kids.
Several informants brought up issues related to laws and regulations, which they felt sometimes impede the effective handling of problems at the drug scenes. Some of them claimed that the law mandating professional secrecy, especially in social services, impedes collaboration by the different professions when attempting to support adolescents.
One informant, however, said that sometimes closer collaboration and information exchange was possible between the social services and the police after a mutual agreement to be less strict concerning professional secrecy was made.
Other regulations impeding the work at the scenes are policies governing the tasks of security staff, e. This is especially troublesome since some exclusive warrants of the police, e. We want to work in these environments [.. All kinds of weird gatherings that we have to follow through the city for several hours. Minors can be arrested for drug use or dealing but are usually not detained by the prosecutor, according to one of the informants who also meant that this practice affects migrants without IDs who claim to be underage and are arrested for drug dealing.
The police expressed a need to speed up the prosecution process regarding drug crimes through mandatory collaboration between authorities to effectively counteract drug dealing. Additional policies affecting the work of the police at the drug scenes are that girls can be searched only by female police officers of which there are few , that they cannot expel people who are known as sellers of drugs from the scene if they are not disturbing the public order or have no drugs on them, and that the regulations do not allow having a person to watch the surveillance cameras around the clock, according to police officers.
Both the central and the suburban scenes seem to fit the descriptions from earlier studies on open drug scenes, with drug use, dealing and other criminal activitiecs and nuisance taking place [ 5 , 8 ]. However, in contrast to drug scenes in cities in neighboring countries, such as Oslo [ 10 ] and Copenhagen [ 9 ], and even past European drug scenes [ 11 ], the Stockholm central scene does not seem to attract many people who use heroin.
Some heroin-dependent individuals who used to visit the scene have now moved to the two areas in Stockholm where needle exchange services are offered.
Whether this circumstance influences the implementation of interventions targeting other risk groups is not clear from this study, but the low rate of visible injection use may decrease feelings of insecurity at the site and thereby perhaps increase public visits and strengthen informal control.
From a public health perspective, the investigation of health-related consequences among people using drugs and their relatives is of course important, as is also the underlying ambition of the combat of open drug scenes, i. Drug dealing at the two scenes is conducted by well-organized criminal networks using people below the age of criminal responsibility at street level, which highlights the importance of protecting minors from visiting the current scenes and of detecting senior people who sell drugs with methods other than direct observation of dealing.
Formal control in the form of intensive patrolling seems to have changed the central scene from open to more closed, i. This circumstance may contribute to a reduction of visible signs of drug dealing and perhaps a safer impression of the place while also implying that people who sell drugs can escape detection when handing over illicit drugs.
The formalization in written agreements, along with the regular meetings of the professionals from the organizations involved, indicates that the work to counteract open drug scenes is prioritized among key actors in accordance with what is required for successful implementation [ 23 ].
However, several of the informants believe that additional resources are required to ensure personnel continuity among police officers and security staff at the current locations, suggesting that the counteracting activities at open drug scenes actually need to be given even higher priority.
Motivated and skilled professionals appear to constitute an additional facilitator for the implementation of interventions, in line with previous research [ 23 , 24 ]. Additionally, a culture characterized by generosity and understanding between organizations seems to facilitate this common effort.
Most of the informants expressed enthusiasm for their work and concern over the situation at the open drug scenes, not least for those at risk of being drawn into using or dealing. Professional knowledge about the problem and a shared view of what needs to be done also appears to facilitate the implementation of counteracting interventions.
However, lack of personal continuity at the scenes and with regard to performance of specialized tasks imped the ability to achieve high levels of knowledge and skills to a certain extent. Finally, the organized collaboration among the police, housing companies, and public transport companies appears to facilitate situational prevention activities, such as regular cleaning and permanent physical changes of the squares.
A barrier to effective formal control at the open drug scenes is the lack of resources to maintain the continuity of uniformed and plain clothes police officers. Competing police tasks often leave security staff alone at the scenes with a limited mandate to intervene against drug dealing and other criminal activities.
Additionally, the use of cameras for surveillance, previously highlighted as an effective tool to observe drug transactions [ 34 ], is not fully implemented due to being too dependent on personnel resources, according to the police.
Another barrier affecting the cooperation between professionals, e. This strict approach can contribute to an unsafe work environment for the security staff, since they have less or no information about the individuals they have to approach.
With regard to information exchange between the social services and the police, the law on public access to information and secrecy allows certain exceptions, e. One of the informants mentioned that in a previous position, information sharing between the police and social services had taken place to a larger extent than in the current situation, indicating that it might be possible to meet the need for information sharing between the social services and the police authority without having to extensively revise the law on secrecy.
Moreover, rules governing the procedures in court do not allow anonymity for security staff, as described by one of the security guards who meant that this circumstance put security staff in an exposed position. In parallel with the direct prevention of open drug dealing, social interventions to prevent additional recruitment to dealing and using illicit drugs, thereby protecting individuals from addiction and reducing the demand for drugs, were also described by the informants.
Even if the number of people who sell or use drugs per se is not a facilitator or barrier to the implementation of counteracting interventions, it determines the size of the task and the number of resources required. With regard to social interventions, there are barriers connected to circumstances in which individuals in need of support lack residence permits in Sweden or are minors with parents abroad.
Social support for minors often requires the engagement of parents, which can be problematic in the case of unaccompanied, underage immigrants.
Additionally, adult immigrants without residence permits are in a vulnerable situation because they lack work and income, which can lead to their recruitment into drug dealing. There are also several external factors challenging the counteracting of open drug scenes. Few people live around the central scene; therefore, informal control by residents is lacking.
We all have a role to play in keeping our local areas safe from drug dealing. Below are some questions that might help you identify strange activities where you live or work, that might be related to drugs:. If you answered yes to any of these questions, you can report drugs related crimes to us online or call us on You don't have to tell us your name, just what you know or have seen. Your information could be vital. If someone is in immediate danger or a crime is taking place you should always call If you'd prefer to stay anonymous, you can contact Crimestoppers to report anonymously online opens in a new window or by calling There are many local and national drug support specialists and websites, which you may find useful:.
New website. Close alert. Home Information and services County Lines. County Lines Drug networking, also known as county lines, involves organised crime groups extending their drug dealing business from big cities into new areas.
Transporting drugs Drug dealing groups often use young people to deliver their drugs, by paying them or by forcing them through violence and grooming. Drug trafficking is a key part of this research. Further information can be found in the yearly World Drug Report. At current levels, world heroin consumption tons and seizures represent an annual flow of tons of heroin into the global heroin market.
Of that total, opium from Myanmar and the Lao People's Democratic Republic yields some 50 tons, while the rest, some tons of heroin and morphine, is produced exclusively from Afghan opium. While approximately 5 tons are consumed and seized in Afghanistan, the remaining bulk of tons is trafficked worldwide via routes flowing into and through the countries neighbouring Afghanistan.
The Balkan and northern routes are the main heroin trafficking corridors linking Afghanistan to the huge markets of the Russian Federation and Western Europe. The northern route runs mainly through Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan or Uzbekistan or Turkmenistan to Kazakhstan and the Russian Federation.
Cuckooing involves offenders targeting the homes of vulnerable people and using it to deal drugs. Those who usually become vulnerable to cuckooing are lonely, isolated and drug users themselves.
In fact, dealers usually offer them free drugs as a way of getting into the victims home. The property is then used to deal and manufacture drugs for a short period of time before the dealer moves onto somewhere new.
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