Reflections on three decades of research on 'social supply' in the UK

Abstract

This chapter reviews how forms of friend and acquaintance supply that might be considered less than 'drug dealing proper' are not new and have existed over many years. It reflects on how, over time, views on these types of supply have developed and evolved in concert with changed and changing drug use and supply landscapes in the UK. In particular it considers the shift from some early forms of socially engaged recreational drug use and supply that were often bleeding, culturally, into myriad forms of counter culture and sat, to some degree at least, outside the everyday norm, to the sea change from the 1990s where a relatively normalised context around recreational drug use and some forms of friend/acquaintance supply moved more normatively towards the centre even for some parts of the criminal justice system. Following a consideration of how social supply has evolved over time the chapter culminates with an argument for a broadening of the concept to minimally commercial supply as a somewhat more refined position and that criminal justice approaches to non-commercially orientated supply need a more research evidence based framework for effective understanding and response.