The Economics of Ecology, Exchange, and Adaptation by Wood Donald C.;

Author:Wood, Donald C.;
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Emerald Publishing Limited
Published: 2016-08-31T00:00:00+00:00

CAVEATS AND ORIENTATIONS

Starting at defining the term drug dealer, research on illegal drug markets presents challenges. Groundbreaking research in this area outlined numerous and unique roles associated with drug distribution (Preble & Casey, 1969), yet now many of these distinctions seem unclear or arbitrary. In this chapter, a drug (heroin) dealer is simply someone who sells heroin and selling means handing over heroin for money.1 The terms dealer and seller are exchangeable. The two other groups discussed are buyers and brokers. Brokering, however, is the act of buying (i.e., copping) drugs for another buyer, meaning these two “groups” (buyers and brokers) are both customers who pay a dealer for heroin. For many heroin users brokering is something they intermittently or spontaneously do. It is not a preplanned activity. But for others, brokering is an everyday full-time occupation, a strategy or hustle deployed to afford the heroin they use. Although they can act very much like (low-level) dealers, brokers do not sell heroin. Brokering does not require friendship, which further separates brokering from the “social suppliers” noted above (Taylor & Potter, 2013). Researchers and heroin users agree that brokering is not heroin dealing (Hoffer, 2006). Where then, does this common act fit in the narrative of illegal drug markets and why is it important?

Research on drug distribution usually focuses on (1) drug dealing because the act of selling a commodity (in this case heroin) is what defines a marketplace, or (2) drug dealers as the primary actors. This implies that customers are not critical in how local heroin markets operate. Ironically, customers seem to have no place in the market2 and hence, “Descriptions of drug markets have often concentrated on either distributors or users, but seldom both” (Curtis & Wendel, 2000, p. 124). I argue this is a false dichotomy. Local heroin markets require brokering, making brokers (i.e., customers) just as relevant as dealers in both defining these spaces, as well understanding their operation. Brokers are necessary for reasons described later in detail, but for new heroin users they are essential. This is because brokers traverse the space (and barriers) between buyers and sellers, allowing buyers the ability to purchase the drug. More importantly, this chapter seeks to demonstrate that by including brokering in the scope of the drug economy, a broader and more accurate perspective on conflict emerges (see Fig. 1).

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