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The purpose of this paper is to explore the various ways users of synthetic cannabinoids (SCs) managed the dangers associated with the consumption of this substance.

This paper is based on a parent study of the use and market of synthetic cathinones (also known as “bath salts”) in New York City, Houston, Galveston and New Orleans. Focus groups were conducted in all four cities with a total of 20 individuals who identified as users of SCs. Grounded theory was used to analyse focus group transcripts.

Participants were aware of drug-related risks and implemented strategies to reduce harm to health. Protective measures fell into two broad categories: marketing and consumption. They noted the instability of SC products and consumer manipulation through packaging. Harm reduction (HR) strategies included: carefully selecting SC sources; sticking to one brand; handling their own SC; managing amount of K2 consumed in one sitting; controlling the pace.

Given the small amount of data on user experience with SCs and its risk to health, it is important to learn from users themselves how they create methods to keep themselves safe. This is one of the first studies recording HR practices of SC users and can contribute to intervention programs and organisations serving substance users.

Attempts to theorize the relationship between the informal and the illegal sectors of the economy. States that there are significant behavioural similarities. Proposes an emergent paradigm based on dual labour market theory to explain the similarites and differences in order to guide future research in each area. Applies the theory to the production and marketing of crack cocaine and shows how the model helps us to understand issues of exploitation and risk makagement within the drug market.

Extends the notion of informality into the area of illegality, looking at how illegal crack vendors in New York use informality to reduce and pass risk to others. Focuses on the techniques used to avoid detection and arrest and the methods of placing risk of imprisonment on smaller, lower‐income dealers. Suggests that this process of exploitation only makes sense when seen in the broader context of inequality in US society where some have nothing to lose by going to jail.

During the 1990s, the New York City Police Department (NYPD) instituted a policy of arresting and detaining people for minor offenses that occur in public as part of their quality‐of‐life (QOL) policing initiative. The purpose of this paper is to examine the pros and cons of the current policy and compare it with possible alternatives including: arrest and issuing of a desk appearance ticket (DAT); issuing of a non‐criminal citation (violation); street warnings; and toleration of public marijuana smoking.

The paper reviews several studies of QOL policing and examines the pros and cons of the current NYPD policy, compared to possible alternatives.

The number of NYPD arrests for marijuana in public view (MPV) (with most detained for one or two days) increased from 3,000 in 1994 to over 50,000 in 2000, and have been about 30,000 in the mid‐2000s. Most of these arrestees (84 percent) were minority; Blacks were 2.7 more likely and Hispanics 1.8 times more likely to be detained than Whites for an MPV arrest. Minorities received more severe dispositions, even controlling for demographics and prior arrest histories.

The paper recommends that the NYPD change to routinely issuing DATs to reduce detention for marijuana violators. Drug policy reformers might wish to further pursue changing statutes regarding smoking MPV into a violation (non‐criminal) or encourage the wider use of street warnings, as in Britain. Any of these policy changes would help reduce the number detained and the disproportionate burden on minorities associated with the current arrest and detention policy. These policies could help maintain civic norms against smoking marijuana in public.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the experiences of poor drug users and sellers who remained in New Orleans during Hurricane Katrina in 2005 to identify their special needs and the unique challenges they present to disaster management.

Semi‐structured, open‐ended interviews were conducted with 119 poor, predominantly African‐American, drug users and sellers. Their stories in their own words provide a mosaic of drug‐related experiences from the period immediately preceding the storm through evacuation and reveal the motivations behind their behaviors.

Many drug users placed partying, maintaining their habits, and making money ahead of personal safety and evacuation. Drug use and sales led many not to evacuate before the storm, to use drugs in congregate shelters, to avoid shelters, to roam through flooded debris‐strewn streets, to loot stores and homes of drug dealers, and to use violence or the threat of violence to achieve their drug‐related aims.

During a disaster, many poor drug users place risks on themselves, their families, their communities and ultimately on rescue workers. The conclusion presents pragmatic and humanitarian guidelines for successfully addressing this additional challenge. The recommendations are consistent with other suggestions concerning the special needs of indigent populations.

Interviews over 120 sellers and low‐level distributors of the drug “crack” in New York City. Documents seller strategies to counter police tactics. Finds that crack sellers and distributors have developed several important strategies to limit vulnerability to arrest, but that success in avoiding arrest diminishes considerably once they are detected by police. Suggests that problem‐oriented approaches are better than crackdowns, since they permanently disrupt the environmental conditions that foster drug market sites.