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Article
Publication date: 4 March 2020

Jakob Demant, Silje Anderdal Bakken and Alexandra Hall

Internet use has changed the mechanics of drug dealing. Although this has spurred some initial academic interest in how markets and their users have been changing, the issue is…

Abstract

Purpose

Internet use has changed the mechanics of drug dealing. Although this has spurred some initial academic interest in how markets and their users have been changing, the issue is still under-researched. The purpose of this paper is to understand how the organisation of the distribution of prescription drugs and other illegal drugs overlap in these online markets by analysing data gathered from observation of the Swedish Facebook drug market and its participants.

Design/methodology/approach

Data were gathered during three months of digital ethnography conducted among Swedish Facebook posters supplemented by 25 interviews with sellers (20) and buyers (5). Screenshots and interview data were coded by carrying out an NVivo-based content analysis. The analysis is based on descriptive statistics of drug types, co-occurrence with other drugs, group size and the demographic characteristics of sellers. Additionally, the interviewees’ descriptions of the marketplace and their drug dealing or buying activities were included in the analysis.

Findings

In total, 57 Swedish Facebook groups that sold illegal substances were located. The groups rarely specialised in specific drug types, but were convened around demographic factors, such as specific cities and locales. The sales of prescription drugs were part of the overall activity of groups selling other illegal drugs, but they were more often sold in separate Facebook posts, possibly by specialist sellers. Swedish Facebook sales primarily concerned alprazolam, tramadol, pregabalin and clonazepam, and were sold by both professional and amateur sellers.

Originality/value

This study reports findings from a Nordic comparative study on social media drug dealing, representing the first in-depth study of digitally mediated prescription drug dealing outside of cryptomarkets.

Details

Drugs and Alcohol Today, vol. 20 no. 1
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1745-9265

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 4 December 2018

Paul J. Morton, Kelsy Luengen and Lorraine Mazerolle

The purpose of this paper is to present evaluation results of Operation Galley, an intelligence-led policing (ILP) intervention that sought to proactively address the problem of…

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to present evaluation results of Operation Galley, an intelligence-led policing (ILP) intervention that sought to proactively address the problem of drug dealing from hotel rooms by engaging hoteliers as crime control partners with the Queensland Police Service.

Design/methodology/approach

Operation Galley, a randomized control field trial, rank ordered and matched 120 hotels on size, star rating, location and estimated degree of suspicious behaviour. Hotels were randomly assigned to one of three conditions: Operation Galley hotels who received a procedurally just letter, followed by a personal visit with detectives; the letter-only hotels who received the procedurally just letter; and the business as usual hotels.

Findings

Using repeated measures ANOVA and general linear models, results of the 12-month trial indicate that the Operation Galley condition led to an increase in police engagement with hoteliers, increasing the recognition, reporting and police enforcement of drug offenders.

Practical implications

The Operation Galley trial demonstrates that the ILP approach helped foster positive engagement between hoteliers and detectives. The approach cultivated hoteliers as crime control partners and thereby increased the flow of human source intelligence, helping police to better target and respond to drug dealing problems in hotel rooms.

Originality/value

Results of the Operation Galley trial demonstrate that hoteliers can be leveraged as crime control partners, providing important human source intelligence about drug dealing and facilitating the capacity of police to better respond to drug problems in hotels.

Details

Policing: An International Journal, vol. 42 no. 1
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1363-951X

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 16 August 2021

Bernd Werse

This paper aims to research people who sell cannabis in public spaces known as “drug places” in Frankfurt, Germany. A particular focus is set to the relations of identity…

Abstract

Purpose

This paper aims to research people who sell cannabis in public spaces known as “drug places” in Frankfurt, Germany. A particular focus is set to the relations of identity formation, relations to other dealers and law enforcement, taking into account the concept of “street capital” as social and cultural capital accumulated in the practice of drug dealing in public.

Design/methodology/approach

Nine biographically oriented qualitative interviews were conducted directly within the respective “drug places” in the inner city and the margins of the local open drug scene with exclusively male subjects. Interviews were conducted in German, audio-recorded and transcribed. Data was analysed with structured qualitative content analysis.

Findings

All respondents had some degree of migration background, ranging from German citizens up to refugees with illegal residence permit status. Social deprivation, socio-cultural conflicts with parents, combined with often early own drug use (mainly cannabis and cocaine) and stigma had contributed to a precarious existence. Experiences of criminalisation did not discourage the respondents from the continuation of their selling activity. Violence in these settings was likely but assessed in highly different ways depending on attitudes and experiences. The same is true for diverging experiences with police, however, the threat of being criminalised is always present.

Originality/value

As mostly independent and solitary dealers, this study researched a rarely investigated group. While these respondents have developed skills or street capital to survive in the respective setting, they are caught between unfavourable social conditions, social exclusion, violence, law enforcement and own drug use, leading to a desperate and fatalistic mindset. Somewhat paradoxically, this fatalism may be regarded as a result of keeping control over their own actions.

Details

Drugs and Alcohol Today, vol. 21 no. 3
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1745-9265

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 1 June 2008

Vibeke Frank

In the course of the 2000s Denmark has experienced a shift in drug policy in general and of cannabis policy in particular. Danish drug policy used to be known as liberal, but is…

Abstract

In the course of the 2000s Denmark has experienced a shift in drug policy in general and of cannabis policy in particular. Danish drug policy used to be known as liberal, but is now saturated with ‘zero‐tolerance’ and ‘tough on crimes’ rhetoric. What happened, and what have the consequences been? This article describes recent changes, focusing on the closing of Pusher Street in Christiania, Copenhagen, one of northern Europe's largest open cannabis markets. This most spectacular outcome can also be seen as a conquered symbol of a former liberal ‐ and for many too lenient ‐ drug policy.

Details

Drugs and Alcohol Today, vol. 8 no. 2
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1745-9265

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 1 March 1991

Allan Metz

Historically, Panama has always been “a place of transit.” While technically the isthmus formed part of Colombia in the nineteenth century, it was linked geopolitically to the…

Abstract

Historically, Panama has always been “a place of transit.” While technically the isthmus formed part of Colombia in the nineteenth century, it was linked geopolitically to the United States soon after the California gold rush, beginning in the late 1840s. The first attempt at building a canal ended in failure in 1893 when disease and poor management forced Ferdinand de Lesseps to abandon the project. The U.S. undertaking to build the canal could only begin after Panama declared itself free and broke away from Colombia in 1903, with the support of the United States.

Details

Reference Services Review, vol. 19 no. 3
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0090-7324

Article
Publication date: 13 May 2009

Marie Van Hout

The challenge for drug and health promotion services is to keep up‐to‐date with the dynamics of drug use patterns and trends both nationally and within certain groups (Kilpatrick…

Abstract

The challenge for drug and health promotion services is to keep up‐to‐date with the dynamics of drug use patterns and trends both nationally and within certain groups (Kilpatrick, 2000). The traveller community present with lower but similar levels and patterns of drug use than the general population, but are particularly vulnerable to early onset of drug use and problematic substance use relating to their life circumstances. Drug use in the traveller community is facilitated and mediated by a combination of risk and resilience factors, which include lack of education, unemployment, comprised health and poor housing conditions.The research aimed to provide an explorative account of the issue of drug use in the traveller community and consisted of focus groups (N=12) of travellers (N=57) with a gender balance (47/53%) based on self‐selection and volunteerism. The focus groups (4‐5 individuals) were predominantly peer‐accompanied where a traveller guided the facilitation of the traveller focus groups and were also gender based. The focus groups incorporated the following key themes relating to the travellers and drug use; traveller culture and drug use, drug availability and dealing, gender differences in drug use, types of drugs used, reasons for drug use, levels of drug related knowledge, attitude to drug use, drug taking contexts and patterns, problematic drug use in the traveller community, drug awareness, perceptions of risk and experiences of drug treatment and community services.The travellers indicated increased drug availability in recent years. Some members of their community were dealing in and using drugs, as a result of unemployment, lack of education, depression, and increasing contact with the settled community. This has lead to a fragmentation of traveller culture. Traveller men are at heightened risk of substance dependency in terms of increased contact with drugs such as cocaine, speed, hash and ecstasy. In contrast, traveller women reported prescription medication abuse. The travellers described a fear of problematic drug use within their communities coupled with concern in terms of discriminatory experiences with health and drug services, lack of awareness of current service provision and the lack of culturally appropriate drug education material and addiction counseling.

Details

Ethnicity and Inequalities in Health and Social Care, vol. 2 no. 1
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1757-0980

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 7 September 2012

Iain McPhee, Colin R. Martin and Anthony Sneider

This paper aims to critically explore the consequences of how Scotland interprets the UK Misuse of Drugs Act (1971). Scotland prosecutes 24 per cent of people found in possession…

497

Abstract

Purpose

This paper aims to critically explore the consequences of how Scotland interprets the UK Misuse of Drugs Act (1971). Scotland prosecutes 24 per cent of people found in possession of illegal drugs for drug “dealing” compared to less than 15 per cent in England and Wales and less than 16 per cent in Northern Ireland.

Design/methodology/approach

The paper provides a narrative review in the context of the background of the economic and social costs of illegal drugs in Scotland and compares this with the UK and Northern Ireland.

Findings

The explanation for such a wide disparity in numbers of dealers between these countries proposed is that the Scottish Police force is comparatively more successful at persuading courts that small quantities of drugs rather than for personal use are in fact for onward sale or supply to others.

Practical implications

The police in Scotland have a network of specialist drug units in which officers make decisions in the absence of benchmarks against which to judge quantities of repossessed drugs. Taking this approach, a devolved Scotland's commitment to drug prohibition has resulted in some very curious differences in classifications of prosecutions compared to other countries.

Originality/value

The paper explores the consequences of how Scotland deals with the use of illegal drugs and the economic and social costs.

Details

Drugs and Alcohol Today, vol. 12 no. 3
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1745-9265

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 12 March 2010

Ross Coomber

This paper outlines how, in many ways, the drug market is not what it is commonly assumed to be and that, as such, we need to reconceptualise how we understand both the drug…

Abstract

This paper outlines how, in many ways, the drug market is not what it is commonly assumed to be and that, as such, we need to reconceptualise how we understand both the drug market and the drug dealer. It briefly reviews the research showing that many of the core activities thought to characterise drug markets and drug dealing are unreasonably exaggerated or even essentially fallacious. It then seeks to demonstrate that the drug market doesn't even look the way it is assumed to look, in terms of its shape, structure and personnel. The issue of social supply is held up as an example of how unhelpful the current view is, particularly around cannabis and young people, and as evidence that the ‘house of cards’ that is the current conceptualisation of the drug market and the drug dealer needs reappraisal along with policy that is currently insufficiently nuanced to respond appropriately.

Details

Drugs and Alcohol Today, vol. 10 no. 1
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1745-9265

Keywords

Open Access
Article
Publication date: 24 May 2023

Johan Nordgren and Fredrik Tiberg

Drug sales facilitated through digital communication on the surface web and on darknet cryptomarkets have increased during the past two decades. This has resulted in an increase…

Abstract

Purpose

Drug sales facilitated through digital communication on the surface web and on darknet cryptomarkets have increased during the past two decades. This has resulted in an increase in drug law enforcement efforts to combat these markets and a subsequent increase in judicial sentencing of people selling drugs online. The aim of this study was to analyze how Swedish courts describe sentenced sellers and how the courts apply case law.

Design/methodology/approach

The empirical material consists of 71 sentencing documents produced by Swedish courts in cases of online drug selling between January 1, 2010 and January 1, 2020. In total, 99 sentenced persons occur in the documents. Using a qualitative research design, the authors analyzed the material through thematic text analysis.

Findings

Overall, in their descriptions of online drug sale operations, the courts’ characterizations of the concepts of street capital and digital capital show a dichotomy. These forms of capital are situationally described as both aggravating and mitigating aspects in the application of case law, indicating that it may be fruitful to view both street and digital capital as resources used on contemporary drug markets in general.

Originality/value

Very little research exists into how judicial systems describe and perceive the developing phenomenon of online drug sales. Using a relatively large sample from a decade of sentencing, the authors provide an analysis of how Swedish courts view and valuate capital forms in the online drugs trade.

Details

Drugs, Habits and Social Policy, vol. 24 no. 3
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 2752-6739

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 18 June 2019

Franca Beccaria and Sara Rolando

The purpose of this paper is to explore the relationship between drug use and offending by using the concept of critical moments as an analytical tool.

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to explore the relationship between drug use and offending by using the concept of critical moments as an analytical tool.

Design/methodology/approach

In total, 41 semi-structured individual interviews with young people (15–25 years) using drugs and in touch with the criminal justice system (CJS) were conducted.

Findings

Analysing critical moments in young people’s drug use contributes to explaining some of the multiple, possible links between drug use and offending. Institutional factors emerged as important, as well as social and economic inequality. This was in particular clear when comparing students’ and immigrants’ trajectories.

Research limitations/implications

Limitations are due to the difficulties in getting access to prisoners and young people in touch with the CJS and the possibility to meet them only once with time limits due to the setting.

Practical implications

Prevention intervention addressed to this target group could take young people’s social contexts and everyday life situation into consideration.

Social implications

To decrease both offending and drug use, structural measures aimed at decreasing social inequalities would be more effective than punishment.

Originality/value

The study proposes a practical way to analyse narratives of young people who have experienced both drug use and offending and to show the importance of socially structured patterns without reducing the complexity of the topic.

Details

Drugs and Alcohol Today, vol. 19 no. 3
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1745-9265

Keywords

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