An analysis of drug seizure data: How illicit drug markets adapted to COVID-19 in Australia
Dr Sharyn Goudie1, Associate Professor Caitlin Hughes1, Dr R.V. Gundur1, Professor David Bright2
1Centre for Crime Policy and Research, Flinders University, Adelaide, Australia
2Alfred Deakin Institute for Citizenship and Globalisation, Deakin University, Melbourne, Australia
Studies of illicit drug markets have long demonstrated the remarkable resilience of illicit drug players to adapt to market changes and law enforcement intervention. This resilience was put to the test as COVID-19 resulted in global lockdowns, including universal restrictions on air traffic. Australia has consistently had one of the highest rates of illicit drug use in the world and much of our drug trade is reliant upon overseas imports particularly from China, Mexico, USA and the Netherlands. As Australia put in place some of the strictest COVID-19 responses across the globe, it provides a unique perspective on how drug markets adapted and the strategies used to traffic drugs into and throughout Australia.
This paper maps and compares trends in illicit drug seizures between 2019 to 2021, based on over 140 Australian Federal Police press releases. Looking at number of seizures and quantities seized, by drug type, and other key variables (e.g. source countries, prices, weights and combinations of drugs seized), this presentation maps and compares drug seizure data from 2019 to 2021, providing a comparison of seizures in the year prior to the pandemic, the initial stages of the pandemic and then one year into living with COVID-19 as countries began to reopen. This presentation will outline the way methods, types, and sources of drugs trafficked changed in the lead up and throughout the ever changing COVID-19 environment. Providing important insights into new and evolving strategies and implications for drug policy responses.
Biography:
Dr Sharyn Goudie is a Research Associate at Centre for Crime Policy and Research. Prior to academia, Sharyn has worked for fifteen years in the not-for-profit sector working with young people and those experiencing homelessness and mental ill-health and has a specific interest in social policy’s impact on vulnerable community groups. More recently, she has been involved in a number of projects analysing Australian drug supply and use: since COVID-19 and in regional Australia.
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- A closed mouth catches no flies: How tertiary prevention of sexual violence and abuse can inform primary and secondary prevention
- Bail & Illusions of Justice
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- Carceral Borders
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- Changing perspectives on ‘youth’ and young people
- Children & young people in custody
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- Coercive Control
- Communication underpins access to justice
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- Concurrent Panel
- Consequences of Invasion
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- Digital Criminology
- Digital innovations in Offending and Control
- Encountering Crime in Everyday Publics
- Encounters with Crime and Justice in the Pacific Islands
- Ethics & Integrity: Police Training
- Everyday experiences of the internal border
- Expanding Criminological Frames: Global/Local
- Extending Punishment
- Family and Intimate Partner Violence
- Family Violence
- Forensic Criminology
- Gender and Crime
- Gender-based Crime in a Digital Age
- Getting the evidence: Police interviewing practices
- GPS geospatial tools and surveillance
- Green criminology
- Hidden punishment – fines and infringement notices
- Highlighting harm and resisting incarceration
- Illicit Drugs & Alcohol
- Immigration & Human Rights
- Improving prison practices
- Indigenous Criminology
- Inflicting Trauma
- Informing sentencing practice and policy
- Innovation in sentencing
- Innovative Data & Methodology
- Innovative Justice
- Innovative Justice and Desistance
- Inside and Outside the Prison
- Institutional Abuse
- Institutions of Harm and Victimisation
- Integer sempermolestie
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- National and international focus
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- Non-governmental and voluntary sector organisations in criminal justice and drug policy processes
- Nunc idorcisit amet jus
- Oral Presentation
- Panel Session
- PANEL – Parental and close family incarceration
- Parental and close family incarceration
- PECRC Oral
- PECRC Poster
- Plenary Keynote
- Plenary Session
- Police Investigations
- Police Legitimacy
- Policing
- Policing and State Crime
- Policing and the Public
- Policing Culture
- Policing Dangerous Consumption
- Policing mental illness
- Policing Systems
- Policing: From prevention to crime control: National and International Perspectives
- Prisons
- Prisons from the inside
- Problems and Solutions in U.S. Criminal Justice
- Processes and Procedures of In/Justice
- Programs and populations
- Public confidence in sentencing
- Regulating Corporations and tackling corruption
- Regulation & State Crime
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- Restorative justice and diversion of young people
- Restorative Justice and Justice Reinvestment
- Risky bodies risky systems: Post-prison policy practice and experience
- Round Table
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- Segregation inequality and crime
- Sentencing
- Sex bodies violence
- Sex Gender and Violence
- Sexual Offending
- Sexual Offending and Abuse: From prevention to prediction
- Southern and comparative criminology
- Southern Criminology
- State Crime and Structural Justice
- State Recognition and Possibilities for Justice: Gender Identity and Victimisation
- Sub-Plenary Panel
- Substance Abuse
- Surveillance
- Teaching Criminology
- Technology -facilitated harms
- Terrorism and Counter-terrorism
- Terrorism and Radicalisation
- Terrorism Crime Space and Place
- The Rehabilitative Prison: an oxymoron or an opportunity to design prisons differently and reduce reoffending?
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- Victims & Offenders
- Victims and Trauma
- Visual and Sensory Criminology
- Visual Criminology: Policing the Image
- Vulnerable People and Human Rights
- White Collar Crime
- Women As Victims
- Working to support children and families of prisoners
- Working with young people reducing reoffending
- Wrongful Conviction
- Young people and violence victims and perpetrators
- Young People Crime and Justice
- “Police education: new models new approaches and emerging trends”
Recent Posts
- From Robo-Debt to Robo-Deport: Automating the criminal deportation machinery
- Victims’ Needs in the Post Atrocity
- A Safe Haven? Women’s Experiences of Violence in Australian Immigration Detention.
- Teaching & learning criminology for the 2020s and beyond
- The Administrative Appeals Tribunal: The Experiences of Migrant and Refugee Women who are Victim-Survivors of Family Violence
Archives
Categories
- A closed mouth catches no flies: How tertiary prevention of sexual violence and abuse can inform primary and secondary prevention
- Bail & Illusions of Justice
- Before we get to court
- Border Policing and Migration
- Border violences and control
- Borders & Risk
- Carceral Borders
- Changes in ‘youth crime’ – perceptions and realities
- Changing perspectives on ‘youth’ and young people
- Children & young people in custody
- Children in state care
- Coercive Control
- Communication underpins access to justice
- Community
- Concurrent Panel
- Consequences of Invasion
- Corrections and Penology
- Courts and Sentencing
- Crime and Media
- Crime and the City
- Crime in the Pacific
- Crime Management
- Crime Prevention
- Cultural Criminology
- Curabitur acconvallis
- Cybercrime
- Cybercrime victimisation
- Development & Prevention of Youth Crime & ASB
- Digital Criminology
- Digital innovations in Offending and Control
- Encountering Crime in Everyday Publics
- Encounters with Crime and Justice in the Pacific Islands
- Ethics & Integrity: Police Training
- Everyday experiences of the internal border
- Expanding Criminological Frames: Global/Local
- Extending Punishment
- Family and Intimate Partner Violence
- Family Violence
- Forensic Criminology
- Gender and Crime
- Gender-based Crime in a Digital Age
- Getting the evidence: Police interviewing practices
- GPS geospatial tools and surveillance
- Green criminology
- Hidden punishment – fines and infringement notices
- Highlighting harm and resisting incarceration
- Illicit Drugs & Alcohol
- Immigration & Human Rights
- Improving prison practices
- Indigenous Criminology
- Inflicting Trauma
- Informing sentencing practice and policy
- Innovation in sentencing
- Innovative Data & Methodology
- Innovative Justice
- Innovative Justice and Desistance
- Inside and Outside the Prison
- Institutional Abuse
- Institutions of Harm and Victimisation
- Integer sempermolestie
- Intelligence & Organised Crime
- International dimension in sentencing
- Intimate Partner violence risk and security: Securing women's lives in a global world
- Invisible powers to punish
- Judicial Supervision: Evidence current practice and implications for mainstream court settings
- Keynote Presentation
- Models
- Modern Slavery in Australia: exploring the limits & challenges of law
- National and international focus
- New & Old Constructs of Justice
- NGOs and Crime
- Non-governmental and voluntary sector organisations in criminal justice and drug policy processes
- Nunc idorcisit amet jus
- Oral Presentation
- Panel Session
- PANEL – Parental and close family incarceration
- Parental and close family incarceration
- PECRC Oral
- PECRC Poster
- Plenary Keynote
- Plenary Session
- Police Investigations
- Police Legitimacy
- Policing
- Policing and State Crime
- Policing and the Public
- Policing Culture
- Policing Dangerous Consumption
- Policing mental illness
- Policing Systems
- Policing: From prevention to crime control: National and International Perspectives
- Prisons
- Prisons from the inside
- Problems and Solutions in U.S. Criminal Justice
- Processes and Procedures of In/Justice
- Programs and populations
- Public confidence in sentencing
- Regulating Corporations and tackling corruption
- Regulation & State Crime
- Reoffending risk – bail gradual release community sanctions
- Restorative justice and diversion of young people
- Restorative Justice and Justice Reinvestment
- Risky bodies risky systems: Post-prison policy practice and experience
- Round Table
- See no evil hear no evil
- Segregation inequality and crime
- Sentencing
- Sex bodies violence
- Sex Gender and Violence
- Sexual Offending
- Sexual Offending and Abuse: From prevention to prediction
- Southern and comparative criminology
- Southern Criminology
- State Crime and Structural Justice
- State Recognition and Possibilities for Justice: Gender Identity and Victimisation
- Sub-Plenary Panel
- Substance Abuse
- Surveillance
- Teaching Criminology
- Technology -facilitated harms
- Terrorism and Counter-terrorism
- Terrorism and Radicalisation
- Terrorism Crime Space and Place
- The Rehabilitative Prison: an oxymoron or an opportunity to design prisons differently and reduce reoffending?
- Uncategorized
- Understanding Inequality and Challenging State Complicity
- Unlawful Migrant Labour
- Vestibulum consequat
- Vestibulum eutellus
- Victimology
- Victims & Offenders
- Victims and Trauma
- Visual and Sensory Criminology
- Visual Criminology: Policing the Image
- Vulnerable People and Human Rights
- White Collar Crime
- Women As Victims
- Working to support children and families of prisoners
- Working with young people reducing reoffending
- Wrongful Conviction
- Young people and violence victims and perpetrators
- Young People Crime and Justice
- “Police education: new models new approaches and emerging trends”
Category
- A closed mouth catches no flies: How tertiary prevention of sexual violence and abuse can inform primary and secondary prevention
- Bail & Illusions of Justice
- Before we get to court
- Border Policing and Migration
- Border violences and control
- Borders & Risk
- Carceral Borders
- Changes in ‘youth crime’ – perceptions and realities
- Changing perspectives on ‘youth’ and young people
- Children & young people in custody
- Children in state care
- Coercive Control
- Communication underpins access to justice
- Community
- Concurrent Panel
- Consequences of Invasion
- Corrections and Penology
- Courts and Sentencing
- Crime and Media
- Crime and the City
- Crime in the Pacific
- Crime Management
- Crime Prevention
- Cultural Criminology
- Curabitur acconvallis
- Cybercrime
- Cybercrime victimisation
- Development & Prevention of Youth Crime & ASB
- Digital Criminology
- Digital innovations in Offending and Control
- Encountering Crime in Everyday Publics
- Encounters with Crime and Justice in the Pacific Islands
- Ethics & Integrity: Police Training
- Everyday experiences of the internal border
- Expanding Criminological Frames: Global/Local
- Extending Punishment
- Family and Intimate Partner Violence
- Family Violence
- Forensic Criminology
- Gender and Crime
- Gender-based Crime in a Digital Age
- Getting the evidence: Police interviewing practices
- GPS geospatial tools and surveillance
- Green criminology
- Hidden punishment – fines and infringement notices
- Highlighting harm and resisting incarceration
- Illicit Drugs & Alcohol
- Immigration & Human Rights
- Improving prison practices
- Indigenous Criminology
- Inflicting Trauma
- Informing sentencing practice and policy
- Innovation in sentencing
- Innovative Data & Methodology
- Innovative Justice
- Innovative Justice and Desistance
- Inside and Outside the Prison
- Institutional Abuse
- Institutions of Harm and Victimisation
- Integer sempermolestie
- Intelligence & Organised Crime
- International dimension in sentencing
- Intimate Partner violence risk and security: Securing women's lives in a global world
- Invisible powers to punish
- Judicial Supervision: Evidence current practice and implications for mainstream court settings
- Keynote Presentation
- Models
- Modern Slavery in Australia: exploring the limits & challenges of law
- National and international focus
- New & Old Constructs of Justice
- NGOs and Crime
- Non-governmental and voluntary sector organisations in criminal justice and drug policy processes
- Nunc idorcisit amet jus
- Oral Presentation
- Panel Session
- PANEL – Parental and close family incarceration
- Parental and close family incarceration
- PECRC Oral
- PECRC Poster
- Plenary Keynote
- Plenary Session
- Police Investigations
- Police Legitimacy
- Policing
- Policing and State Crime
- Policing and the Public
- Policing Culture
- Policing Dangerous Consumption
- Policing mental illness
- Policing Systems
- Policing: From prevention to crime control: National and International Perspectives
- Prisons
- Prisons from the inside
- Problems and Solutions in U.S. Criminal Justice
- Processes and Procedures of In/Justice
- Programs and populations
- Public confidence in sentencing
- Regulating Corporations and tackling corruption
- Regulation & State Crime
- Reoffending risk – bail gradual release community sanctions
- Restorative justice and diversion of young people
- Restorative Justice and Justice Reinvestment
- Risky bodies risky systems: Post-prison policy practice and experience
- Round Table
- See no evil hear no evil
- Segregation inequality and crime
- Sentencing
- Sex bodies violence
- Sex Gender and Violence
- Sexual Offending
- Sexual Offending and Abuse: From prevention to prediction
- Southern and comparative criminology
- Southern Criminology
- State Crime and Structural Justice
- State Recognition and Possibilities for Justice: Gender Identity and Victimisation
- Sub-Plenary Panel
- Substance Abuse
- Surveillance
- Teaching Criminology
- Technology -facilitated harms
- Terrorism and Counter-terrorism
- Terrorism and Radicalisation
- Terrorism Crime Space and Place
- The Rehabilitative Prison: an oxymoron or an opportunity to design prisons differently and reduce reoffending?
- Uncategorized
- Understanding Inequality and Challenging State Complicity
- Unlawful Migrant Labour
- Vestibulum consequat
- Vestibulum eutellus
- Victimology
- Victims & Offenders
- Victims and Trauma
- Visual and Sensory Criminology
- Visual Criminology: Policing the Image
- Vulnerable People and Human Rights
- White Collar Crime
- Women As Victims
- Working to support children and families of prisoners
- Working with young people reducing reoffending
- Wrongful Conviction
- Young people and violence victims and perpetrators
- Young People Crime and Justice
- “Police education: new models new approaches and emerging trends”