Illegal geographies and spatial planning: developing a dialogue on drugs

Abstract

ABSTRACT Recent debates in this, and other, journals have focused ‘illegal geographies’, ‘geographies of the illicit’ and ‘planning and criminal powers’. This paper fuses these debates in geography and planning through an interrogation of the interface between illegal drugs and spatial planning. In unpacking and problematizing the drugs–planning nexus and developing a dialogue on drugs, it sets the context for a new research agenda concerning contemporary deliberations on the territoriality, governance and planning of the contemporary city. It is argued that such a paper is necessary as there is a noticeable absence of a debate on planning for drugs; in fact, academic and professional planners largely ignore this hugely important and challenging issue facing cities, regions and countries around the world. The paper fills this void by exposing and interrogating the links between drugs and planning, and it demonstrate that planners can, and indeed should, contribute positively towards understanding and dealing with the ‘drugs problem’. Ultimately, the aim is to stimulate a new debate on this fascinating but under-researched topic of drugs and planning. The insights from this study are relevant to an international academic audience; more professionally, the policy and practice implications are transferrable across geographical space to planners around the world.