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Illicit drug markets are a part of our society. How visible and detrimental they are to their host communities has shaped enforcement action against them. Until the mid-1990s, open street-based markets were probably where most illicit drugs of dependency were bought and sold. With the steady rise in market activity, communities tired of the damage...
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Illicit drug markets are part of our society. How visible and detrimental they are to their host communities has shaped enforcement action against them. Until the mid 1990s open street-based markets were probably where most illicit drugs of dependency were bought and sold. With the steady rise in market activity, communities tired of the damage the...
Citations
... In our study, 23.0% of the drug users had used mobile phones to access drugs. Today, various types of chat services and/or apps are available, such as Viber, WhatsApp, Messenger, and Imo, etc., and drug users have used these chat services to identify drug use groups, organise drug use parties, purchase drugs, distribute the drug and for many other drug-related activities throughout the world [2,22]. Mobile transfer of funds (eZ cash) was a popular method used to purchase drugs outside the urban slum areas in Sri Lanka, and 21.5% of our study reported it. ...
... Before the introduction of various online markets, these types of sellers operated in more separate parts of the market. Recreational sellers relate to social supply (i.e., dealings with friends), whereas sellers with commercial engagement in terms of volume have an open network of buyers (e.g., Berger et al., 2022;Jacques & Wright, 2015;May & Hough, 2004). We may speculate that because social media markets do not call upon the same level of digital capital as in darknet markets, we may see an even higher degree of mixing between recreational and commercial sellers in social media markets (Bakken et al., 2023). ...
In the realm of cybercrime, technologies that facilitate illicit activities also produce uncertainties based on the hybridity between digital communication and offline presence. Social media platforms have blurred the lines between types of drug sellers, bringing the recreational and the commercial into the same marketplace. In the Nordic data used in this paper, 52 text-based qualitative interviews with recreational and commercial sellers are analyzed via process and variance analysis to identify the relationship between cognitive strategies and seller positions. We ask how sellers’ decision-making processes differ and intersect. Theoretically, we use cognitive sociology to enrich understanding of culture, trust, and rational decision-making in this context. Our findings reveal that recreational sellers often adopt a low-risk, low-gain strategy rooted in cognitive biases, reflecting the recreational nature of their engagement. In contrast, commercially competent sellers employ more complex cognitive strategies, including gut feelings, thus adjusting their decisions with less reliance on initial assessments, leading to a more calculated approach with higher risk tolerance. We conclude with a discussion of intervention strategies; here, we argue for the need for a dual strategy that targets and capitalizes on the differences in cognitive biases in an effective way that poses less harm to recreational sellers.
... These insights show the potential utility of markets and the importance of relationships between traders and customers. Similar dynamics have been observed in illegal markets and criminal networks elsewhere (May and Hough 2004;Malm, Bichler, and Van De Walle 2010). In the absence of property rights and formal contract-enforcement mechanisms, relational contracting and trust are crucial for the functioning of institutions specific to capitalism in North Korea (Lankov et al., 2017). ...
What determines the flow of unsanctioned information in authoritarian regimes? To answer this question, we explore the use and circulation of illicit foreign information among citizens in North Korea. This paper focuses on how the structure of social relations among citizens determines where and with whom people acquire and disseminate politically unsanctioned and potentially illegal content offline. Based on findings from a choice-based conjoint administered to 313 former residents of North Korea, we show that social capital and trust-related effects associated with the place where information is acquired and the person who provides it determine information flows.
... We make two contributions to the existing literature. First, by analyzing this phenomenon through the lens of Ahrne and Brunsson (2011) partial organizations, we concur with research calling for a differentiated perspective of illegal drug trading (Coomber, 2015;Eck, 1994;May & Hough, 2004). By theorizing the organization of app-based drug dealing as a partial organization, we make a conceptual contribution to the swiftly growing body of studies on illegal trade on platforms, social media, electronic markets or cryptomarkets. ...
Encrypted messaging apps like Telegram have become an increasingly attractive tool for drug dealing. The combination of easy opening and closing of user communities, powerful anonymity features, and operability on smartphones is changing the way drugs are delivered at the end of the chain. However, much of the recent research on Internet‐based drug markets has focused on cryptomarkets, but also on social media and the clear web. Drawing on economic sociology literature on marketplaces and partial organizations, this article fills this gap by analyzing the social organization of drug economies based on messaging apps. We argue that this form of drug trade enhances the experience of both selling and consuming drugs. Based on a unique set of in‐depth interviews with drug sellers and users belonging to four different Telegram groups in Argentina, this article shows that Telegram communities offer a wider variety of substances, speed up drug delivery, create the perception that police detection is unlikely, and promote drug specialization among sellers. This research expands our understanding of how technology and specific organizational forms transform both drug provision and consumption.
... What the English call 'county lines' is, to some extent, what the Scottish call 'good old-fashioned drug dealing', owing to the country's history, geography, connectivity and population distribution ( Holligan et al, 2020 ). Furthermore, in both countries, 'commercial dealers' who sell drugs for fi nancial gain have long utilized a low-paid workforce to courier, store and sell drugs on their behalf ( May and Hough, 2004 ;Coomber, 2006 ;Pitts, 2008 ). As early as 2012, Densley (2014 : 533) warned about senior gang members employing young people to work their 'drugs line' by sending them out 'on assignment' outside of London to explore 'new markets'. ...
Introduction
In Chapter 5, we began to explore some of the issues that would affect the A-Town group’s ability to sell drugs efficiently and efficiently, as well as erode their overall cohesion and credibility. As we will now see in this chapter, things only got worse. The tension between Grease and his employees in A-Town rises as their county line goes to war with another group in town. Accumulated debt, stock mismanagement, personal vendettas and ensuing violence cause the drugs gang back in Glasgow, who have their own problems to deal with, to lose faith and patience with Grease, and effectively sever his line. This chapter examines all of this, then looks at what happened next, whereby some local independent dealers are incarcerated and begin to desist from crime. This chapter concludes our case-study findings.
‘The drugs don’t work’
“Jimmy, mate, I am not saying that you’re trying to bump me. That is not what I am saying”, said Grease into his mobile phone. “Listen Jimmy, please listen”, he pleaded.
Jimmy continued to scream and talk over him. “No Grease. You are phoning me up. Telling me I have sold you duds. Saying they are shit.”
“Your pills are shit, mate”, Grease came back. “You said it yourself.”
Grease was angry now. Earlier that day, he had asked Davey to drive him around town running errands, none of which had anything to do with crime and county lines: a kid’s bike he bought on Gumtree; a few bags of shopping ordered for ‘click and collect’ – that sort of thing. On the way home, though, Grease asked Davey to drive up to a house on the edge of town near North Village. The homes on this small estate were different from the cottage-style homes, flats and semi-detached and mid-terrace homes in A-Town. They were older, built for the traditional labourers of the town before the residential population grew, but nicely maintained, with manicured gardens and roughcast or pebbledash on the outside walls.
... What the English call 'county lines' is, to some extent, what the Scottish call 'good old-fashioned drug dealing', owing to the country's history, geography, connectivity and population distribution ( Holligan et al, 2020 ). Furthermore, in both countries, 'commercial dealers' who sell drugs for fi nancial gain have long utilized a low-paid workforce to courier, store and sell drugs on their behalf ( May and Hough, 2004 ;Coomber, 2006 ;Pitts, 2008 ). As early as 2012, Densley (2014 : 533) warned about senior gang members employing young people to work their 'drugs line' by sending them out 'on assignment' outside of London to explore 'new markets'. ...
Introduction
A common feature in county lines drug supply is the exploitation of young and vulnerable people. The dealers will frequently target children and adults – often with mental health or addiction problems – to act as drug runners or move cash so they can stay under the radar of law enforcement. (NCA, no date)
From the standpoint of a sociological analysis, the diagnosis of a growing variety of psychological harms today should be interpreted as an act of social construction rather than the discovery of objective facts. (Furedi, 2016: 34)
There is now a consensus among policy makers, scholars and law-and-order agencies – a standard story – that county lines pose a fundamental challenge to how drug markets and criminal gangs have been understood and policed in the UK (HMG, 2018; NCA, 2015, 2017, 2019). There are two principal challenges noted by the standard story.
The first suggests that county lines represent a significant shift in the organizational and economic rationale of how drug markets operate (Harding, 2020; Whittaker et al, 2020b). Changes in relations of supply and demand at local levels reflect changes in global consumer capitalism. In this sense, then, county lines embody a marked shift away from traditional localized markets and towards evolving, more globally informed post-industrial consumer-oriented models (McLean et al, 2020). The second key challenge relates to the identification and subsequent centring of the concept of ‘vulnerability’ within discussions regarding approaches to policing and prosecuting county lines networks (Moyle, 2019).
Both these challenges, the standard story suggests, undermine current practice and thinking regarding the policing of illicit drug markets. Traditional approaches to policing, predicated upon a normative understanding of deviance, criminal behaviour and the victim/perpetrator binary, for example, are no longer fit for purpose and require fundamental change. This is both a cause and a consequence of the standard story, and we readily admit that some of our prior research contributed to it (Robinson et al, 2019; McLean et al, 2020).
Our two ethnographic case studies of county lines in action do not demonstrate that the standard story is wrong per se, but rather, and consistent with studies that embrace their complexity (for example, Harding, 2020), demonstrate that county lines cannot be reduced to one narrative and one narrative only.
... What the English call 'county lines' is, to some extent, what the Scottish call 'good old-fashioned drug dealing', owing to the country's history, geography, connectivity and population distribution ( Holligan et al, 2020 ). Furthermore, in both countries, 'commercial dealers' who sell drugs for fi nancial gain have long utilized a low-paid workforce to courier, store and sell drugs on their behalf ( May and Hough, 2004 ;Coomber, 2006 ;Pitts, 2008 ). As early as 2012, Densley (2014 : 533) warned about senior gang members employing young people to work their 'drugs line' by sending them out 'on assignment' outside of London to explore 'new markets'. ...
It is rare to call an academic book a page-tuner, but this is no ordinary academic book. Contesting County Lines draws on ethnographic research and interviews with an entire cast of characters from two county lines drugs networks to ‘re-up’ on knowledge about these emerging phenomena. Written in a narrative criminology style that reads almost like a novel, this book challenges some of the conventional wisdom underpinning the ‘standard story’ about county lines. First, the findings show that crime opportunities and drug market expansion can be secondary motivations for gang proliferation and gang member migration. People migrate from hub cities to remote county sites not just at the direction of gang leaders, but for personal, family reasons. Second, while some drug runners are bullied, exploited and cuckooed, the findings challenge the ‘passive vulnerability’ narrative of county lines because some people enter into county lines of their own volition – they have agency and fully embrace a life of deviant entrepreneurship. Third, while some drug dealers enthusiastically embrace the always-on culture of modern drug dealing and the use of smartphones and social media to reach clients, others find delivery dealing a chore and only do it to keep up with consumer demands and customer preferences. Finally, the book documents in vivid detail that even if county lines are regulated by violence, too much violence is bad for business, and this can be the end of the line for organized crime groups. Aimed at students, scholars, practitioners and policymakers, this book warns against concept creep in criminology and offers new ways of thinking about drug-crime prevention, intervention and enforcement.
... Our findings are consistent with studies demonstrating the use of mobile phones in obtaining drugs (May & Hough, 2004;Sullivan & Voce, 2020). Our work builds on these findings to demonstrate how individuals who are changing their substance use modify their use of mobile phone technology to avoid triggers. ...
Background: People experiencing substance use disorders (SUD) face myriad challenges in maintaining changes in substance use after treatment. Mobile phones can play a role in supporting the recovery process. To date, research has not explored how individuals use mobile phones to seek social support as they enter SUD recovery. Objectives: We sought to understand how individuals in SUD treatment use mobile technology in support of their recovery. Methods: We conducted semi-structured interviews with thirty individuals in treatment for any SUD in northeastern Georgia and southcentral Connecticut. Interviews explored participants' attitudes toward mobile technology and how they used mobile technology while using substances, in treatment, and in recovery. Qualitative data were coded and analyzed using thematic analysis. Results: We identified three major themes related to how participants: (1) adapted their use of mobile technology as they entered recovery, (2) relied on mobile technology for social support while in recovery, while (3) some found aspects of mobile technology triggering. Many individuals in SUD treatment reported using mobile phones to buy or sell drugs; as such, they took measures to adapt their use of mobile technology as they changed substance use behaviors. As they entered recovery, individuals relied on mobile phones for affiliational, emotional, informational, and instrumental support, though some did share they found some aspects of mobile phones triggering. Conclusion: These findings highlight the importance of treatment providers engaging in conversations around mobile phone use to help individuals avoid triggers and connect with social supports. These findings uncover new opportunities for recovery support interventions utilizing mobile phones as a delivery mechanism.
... Jahre et al., 2012). Previous contributions about drug distribution have focused on the organization patterns in the country of destination, detecting a high degree of complexity and identifying the existence of four levels of distribution, these being, importation, wholesale, middle market, and retail-level dealing (May and Hough, 2004;Pearson and Hobbs, 2001). It has also become clear that alongside the economic principles of the functioning of a market, there are also specific cultural and social values, in which the prevailing interest of the market is "to maximize supply options to militate against risks of disruption to supply" (Taylor and Potter, 2013, p. 394). ...
... 827). In the case of illicit hashish trafficking, the value chain is a set of closed markets, whose distribution system maintains a clear structure, and the tasks of each agent are clearly differentiated (May and Hough, 2004). Among the specific features of the distribution channels, we can list the following: their length, their highly customized nature, the role of third parties, and issues relating to the fact that the final consumer does not fully understand the origin of the product or the smuggling process. ...
Despite the social, health, law enforcement, and economic importance of illegal drug supply, the lack of information and understanding regarding these supply chains stands out. This paper carries out a disaggregated analysis of the structure of the hashish supply chain from Morocco to Europe to explain the value contributions at each level, the end-price formation, and the supply chain management practices. The methodology adopted is based on a mixed method of data collection where the primary data are gathered from field interviews with cannabis producers and dealers and secondary information is obtained from official statistics, research papers, informational reports, and documentaries. We review supply and value chain frameworks through the lens of cost–benefit analysis. Our main findings show an unequal contribution on the part of the different levels of distribution, with end-user prices increasing by 7000% of the cost of production during the supply chain. The chain also has high variable costs but limited fixed ones, exacerbating the lack of stability and fostering continuous adaptation. We also detect a reluctance to raise end-user prices but a great propensity to change quality. This research may have implications for several stakeholders. In the case of dealers, we find that they have created a supply-push system thanks to their dominant power, leaning on information sharing as a source of resilience. In the case of law enforcement, we delve into the operational functioning of the drug chain and the reasons for its survival. For financial investigation operations, unknown or unrealized economic parameters are quantified. For development agencies, the need to implement alternative development programs for producers is evidenced. Finally, for health authorities, we highlight the consequences of seizures and prohibitions of hashish trafficking on the deterioration of the quality of hashish and the subsequently added health hazards for end-users.
... Social supply and "social dealing" drug markets effectively represent "closed" drug market structures (May & Hough, 2004), with transactions embedded in "friendship" constructs emphasizing reciprocity rather than commercial gain between transaction partners (e.g., Parker, 2000;Potter, 2009;Werse, 2008). To take part in these drug supply networks, participants must be socially linked-meaning "friends" and "friends of friends" (Chatwin & Potter, 2014;Potter, 2009). ...
... Recent reports suggest their involvement may be increasing and becoming more sophisticated, particularly in relation to the local drug trade and methamphetamine import, manufacture, and supply (Breetzke et al., 2022a;Wilkins et al., 2018). Historically, gangs have been linked to particular types of retail-level drug markets in New Zealand, such as "tinny houses," a type of open drug market (May & Hough, 2004) where drugs-typically cannabis, but sometimes also methamphetamine-are sold from a house that is accessible to the public (Gilbert, 2013;Wilkins & Casswell, 2003;Wilkins et al., 2005). Their alleged presence on accessible Discord drug servers highlights what may be the changing interplay between different segments of New Zealand's local drug market. ...
... The traditional process of "vetting" prospective buyers and sellers through already-trusted parties continued to form the basis of drug trades in social media drug market contexts (see also, van der Sanden et al., 2022a). This "traditional" process of establishing trust in closed drug markets (May & Hough, 2004) was complemented by visibility and association affordances, which increased the amount of personal information people could access and use in forming judgments of potential drug contacts: Its sorta weird messaging "C*** B***" who has a pfp (profile picture) of him and his girlfriend at a nightclub and he "Went to school at Rangitoto College". (P12, GD25, buyer/seller) The participant above describes the additional information communicated as part of a drug trade with a distant social connection on Facebook by virtue of their public profile. ...
Background
Existing studies have highlighted the potential for increased drug market risks from buying drugs via social media involving strangers, such as receiving adulterated drugs or being robbed. However, social supply-driven social media drug markets may also offer enhanced social dealing and harm reduction opportunities.
Aim
To explore how social media platform features that enable expanded social networking may also support safer social drug dealing and other harm-reduction behaviors.
Method
Thematic analysis of anonymous online interviews with 33 people who buy and sell drugs via social media in New Zealand.
Results
Participants (median age 24; 22 male, 10 female, 1 gender diverse) accessing drugs via social media mostly utilized established social networks. These personal networks offered many benefits commonly associated with social media drug trading (i.e., safer and secure drug purchasing). Benefits included reducing the risk of receiving adulterated substances and being victimized. Social media affordances, which participants used to expand their everyday social networks, could also increase participants’ ability to leverage a broader social drug supply network and access related harm reduction benefits. Some participants used darknet markets to buy drugs, which they then resold to “friends” via social media platforms, facilitating supply channels that were largely “separated” from local physical drug markets and associated problems of fraud, violence, and organized crime.
Conclusion
Social media drug markets offer a range of harm reduction benefits that contribute to a lower-risk local drug market. We suggest this may reflect a closer alignment between social media platform affordances and their adaptation to social supply drug trading.
