I completed reading Sheptycki, J.W.E. The 'drug war': learning from the paradigm example of transnational policing in Sheptycki, J.W.E. Ed. Issues in Transnational Policing (London: Routledge, 2000). This is for week 6 of the LAWS4306B course and will be taken up on October 19th, 2004. The topic that day will be policing and drugs. So I was wrong that this paper was included for the books' main arguments concerning transnational perspectives in the social sciences. It is not meant to be a paper just on the topic of drug laws and international perspectives. Instead I must see this paper as contributing to my knowledge of policing and drug laws in the international sense. In fact, the end and later half of the paper is more specifically about how policing internationally is solidified around drug law enforcement.

In conclusion Sheptycki makes three points, one non-state actors affected international drug law formation in the past and could act to reform laws and this might be something or someone, while difficult to predict, to be watched for in the international drug law scene. But also this reflection will help us study transnational policing and the international state system as this paper calls it. Second point, is that sub state actors, namley officals in charge of national agencies, play a role in international relationships. Again suggested for study are these roles that Sheptycki feels are ignored by senior state officals. Third point, Sheptycki suggests we take away from this article is that police studies must look at what is termed "High Policing" rather than looking at the local municipal and national level of policing or the study I have done on my own all summer namely studying policing work and tools. Thus, although the first two points concern law making and law reform, the third point suggests something about the focus of police studies and carries the topic with an international dimension. But international drug laws are not really looked at until week 9 November 9th. I guess this article prepares us for week 9 at the same time as it works in week 6.

Although the International policing efforts around anti-terrorism in the 1970's is mentioned as equivalent to the drug law policing in the 1990's, the article was written in 2000 and thus does not account for the obvious change in focus from drugs back to anti-terrorism that has occured this past few years. Somehow I was thinking that terrorists had managed to be the actors that changed this focus of international policing. Also interesting is what could be become of Canada as an international relevant state when we change our marijuana laws shortly. Needless to say I can totally agree with Sheptycki that it is the bureaucracy that will act to prevent the reform of the drug laws.