Networks and meta-regulation: Strategies aimed at governing illicit synthetic drugs

New regulatory state scholarship has documented the rise of pluralized forms of governance that lay beyond central states. This has resulted in regulation being constituted by dense networks of actors and institutions. This article sets out to explore the role of police agencies within these networks through a case study of illicit synthetic drug control. Reducing the supply of illicit synthetic drugs presents unique challenges for the police compared to the control of traditional plant-based illicit drugs such as cannabis or heroin. A key focus of reducing supply is that of governing the interface between licit and illicit market activities. This strategy has required police agencies to increasingly engage in forms of meta-regulation. Under such a strategy, the police role is increasingly one of acting as “brokers” i.e., connecting the internal capacity of external institutions to crime control goals and promoting collective responses around externalities (i.e., opportunities for illegal conduct) generated by legitimate commercial activity.