Citation

Dunlap E, Graves J, Benoit E. Int. J. Drug Policy 2012; 23(6): 473-480.

Affiliation

National Development and Research Institute, 71 West 23rd Street, 8th Floor, New York, NY 10010, United States.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2012, Elsevier Publishing)

DOI

10.1016/j.drugpo.2012.04.003

PMID

22728093

Abstract

BACKGROUND: In recent years, numerous weather disasters have crippled many cities and towns across the United States of America. Such disasters present a unique opportunity for analyses of the disintegration and reformulation of drug markets. Disasters present new facts which cannot be "explained" by existing theories. Recent and continuing disasters present a radically different picture from that of police crack downs where market disruptions are carried out on a limited basis (both use and sales). Generally, users and sellers move to other locations and business continues as usual. METHODS: The Katrina Disaster in 2005 offered a larger opportunity to understand the functioning and processes by which drug markets may or may not survive. Utilizing a variety of qualitative data including ethnographic field notes, in-depth interview transcripts, and focus group transcripts, we investigate the operation of the New Orleans drug market before, during, and after Hurricane Katrina. RESULTS: Our data clearly indicate that drug markets go through a series of stages in the wake of disaster in which they disintegrate and then reconstitute themselves. In the case of New Orleans, the post-Katrina drug market was radically different from the pre-Katrina drug market. CONCLUSION: Ultimately this manuscript presents a paradigm which uses stages as a testable concept to scientifically examine the disintegration and reformulation of drug markets during disaster or crisis situations. It describes the specific processes - referred to as stages - which drug markets must go through in order to function and survive during and after a natural disaster.

Language: en