The name ‘county lines’ refers to a rapidly growing new form of crime, in which drug dealers seek new markets outside their traditional urban areas. The drugs involved are primarily heroin and crack cocaine, and the new markets are in rural areas, often some considerable distance away from the large metropolitan areas in which the criminal gangs involved have their base.
Apart from the considerable social harm arising from people taking these drugs, one of the most disturbing aspects of county lines is that the dealing comes with considerable exploitation and violence. Violence is used to drive out existing drug dealers in the new locations and also to keep the newly-recruited drugs runners in line.
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