Disrupting the nightclub drugs market

John Sayers

Drug Support Team, Merseyside Police, 38A Hope Street, Liverpool.

Phone no: +44 (0)151 285 2379 (Drug Action Team)

Drug markets

On a very basic level there are two types of drugs market. One would be habitual and the other recreational. Within the habitual market are the stereotyped chaotic addicts, people who commit acquisitive crime and tend to have broken relationships, poor health and be unemployed. The recreational market is stereotyped by the jet set, football stars, pop stars, the club scene, highbrow lifestyle and people in lucrative employment. There is a mix between the markets but strategies to deal with them have to be different.

Nightclubs are a part of the recreational market and a manager of a club must identify associated problems and how to deal with them. The scene in Liverpool is problematic because of the organised criminality and the flow of drugs in clubs. ‘Opportunist irregulars’ have no history of criminality. They may well be in a reasonably well paid job but see a niche in the market to indulge in activities which could be quite lucrative. This could then bring them into conflict with the law. ‘Criminal diversifiers’ are people who have a history of acquisitive crime and see dealing in drugs as more profitable and preferable than having to commit robberies and handbag snatches. ‘Illegitimate sideliners’ are nightclub workers who use their employment as a cover for dealing drugs to the clientele.

Problems in nightclubs

The primary activity of nightclubs is to provide a safe venue for people to come into the city and enjoy dancing, whether they take drugs or not. Many complaints have been received from young people who are hassled in this environment. The venues attract organised violent crime and the owner may eventually lose control of the actual club; they would be there in all but name. Profits are directed away from the owners to criminals within the establishment.

Sometimes these problems lead to the ultimate closure by the regulatory authorities, and investors may be dissuaded from clubs and even the city itself. The nightclubs in the city of Liverpool have been one of the lynchpins for the economic regeneration of the city. Similarly, this happens in Eastern Europe when people want to invest in the infrastructure but are then scared away by organised crime. This happens on a smaller scale in other cities in England and Wales, yet it results in job losses that have a negative effect on the local economy.

Dealing with problems

In Liverpool, the police, club owners and all the interested parties in the city worked together and they devised strategies to try and tackle the criminal elements that were coming into the nightclubs. A lot of the strategies involved close co-operation with the health authorities and club owners.

Doorstaff registration has been very successful in dealing with criminality and taking away the ‘illegitimate sideliners’. Registration meant that the criminals could no longer put their people on the doors. The benefits for the community were that people could visit the clubs knowing the door staff would behave in a professional manner towards the clients and that they had received training in conflict resolution. To a large extent, before we had this, the door staff would be part of the problem, if not the problem itself, and now they were being trained how to resolve problem issues without resorting to violence. They were taught the law, first aid and fire marshalling. They also wear badges so that people may note their number if they want to make a complaint.

Drug safes have been implemented. Public entertainment licences in England can impose conditions on club owners to comply with certain standards and we have asked that the drug safes become part of a compulsory requirement. Some clubs in Liverpool have already done this voluntarily. This is financed by the seizure of drug profits from some of the criminals in the city. The safes are bolted to the doors or the walls of the club. They are lockable and only the Police have the keys.

The benefits are that none of the club staff should have drugs in their pockets if police find it necessary to raid the club, as seized drugs are put straight into the safe to be collected at a later date. Thus they are protected. The police also get an idea of what is circulating in the system, and can have toxicological tests done to determine where the drugs might originate. Police might come across a drug safe which has nothing in it but know from speaking to colleagues in the paramedic and ambulance service that people have collapsed in that club. Therefore they could learn which clubs are not searching people.

Strategies for the future

Police would like to see ‘proactive patrols’ or training for the people who work in the clubs to observe if there are problems or criminals operating. This could include measures such as the screening of stairwells or installing close circuit TV (CCTV) to cover blind spots; examining toilets to make sure clientele are not being threatened, robbed or hassled; and installing blue lighting which makes it very difficult for people to intravenously inject.