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Journal of Drug Issues
http://jod.sagepub.com/content/36/3/719
The online version of this article can be found at:
DOI: 10.1177/002204260603600310
2006 36: 719Journal of Drug Issues
Ross Coomber and Lisa Maher
Organization, Adulteration Practices, Pricing, Marketing and Violence
Street-Level Drug Market Activity in Sydney's Primary Heroin Markets:
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© 2006 BY THE JOURNAL OF DRUG ISSUES
JOURNAL OF DRUG ISSUES 0022-0426/06/03 719-754
__________
Ross Coomber, Ph.D., is a Reader in sociology, School of Sociology, Politics, and Law at the University
of Plymouth. Lisa Maher, Ph.D., is a program head at the National Centre in HIV Epidemiology and
Clinical Research in Sydney, Associate Professor in the School of Public Health and Community Medicine,
University of New South Wales, and an associate of the Burnet Institute.
STREET-LEVEL DRUG MARKET ACTIVITY IN SYDNEY’S
PRIMARY HEROIN MARKETS: ORGANIZATION,
ADULTERATION PRACTICES, PRICING, MARKETING
AND VIOLENCE
ROSS COOMBER, LISA MAHER
This study is a qualitative exploration of two distinctive high-profile street drug
markets in Sydney, Australia. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with 32
street-level heroin dealers about their experiences of selling drugs in these areas,
market organization, drug adulteration and quality assessment practices, and the
extent and impact of violence associated with these markets. Most dealers operated
independently, working for themselves or in loosely defined groups of two or three
with little or no hierarchy while others acted as “runners,” selling for others for a
percentage of sales. A range of “folk” or nonscientific methods were employed for
testing the quality of drugs, and adulteration or “cutting” of drugs was rare. Moreover,
this research suggests that even during periods of heroin scarcity, increased
adulteration is not an inevitable outcome. In contrast to popular perceptions, dealers
in both areas cooperated with each other, and little intimidatory rivalry was reported
or observed. Indeed, most participants considered violence to be fairly rare, largely
avoidable, and not an inevitable consequence of their involvement in the market.
Numerous popular drug market and drug dealer stereotypes about the two locations
were not supported by the findings.
INTRODUCTION
For many, the mere mention of heroin drug markets and drug dealers conjures up
images reminiscent of the crack cocaine markets of 1980s New York. These markets
were characterized by open street selling and selling from rundown properties,
rabid mistrust, instability, and high levels of violence (Johnson, Golub, & Dunlap,
2000). In addition, common images of drug dealers meld well with those of the
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drug market. Heroin selling individuals of a predatory nature are often portrayed as
seeking to expand their client base by pushing their wares onto the uninitiated. Such
individuals are also portrayed as being sufficiently devoid of morals to routinely
cut (adulterate/dilute) the drugs they sell with poisonous substances to make extra
profit and seduce new clients—often depicted as children—with free drugs until
“hooked” (Coomber, 1997a, 2003). By and large they are depicted as untrustworthy,
mistrustful, dangerous, and a menace to the community. It is certainly the case that
the two drug markets under consideration in this paper, one in the center of the city
of Sydney and the other a suburb of the same city, have in recent years had their
respective markets and dealing populations depicted in ways not dissimilar to these
stereotypes by the Australian media, politicians, and law enforcement agencies and
can thus be argued to be understood in this way by the Australian public.
Areas that contain drug markets that have achieved high profiles, such as those
of Brixton in London or Kings Cross in Sydney, certainly do have heightened levels
of violence and more visible street markets. They are also subject to the kind of
critical stereotype outlined above from local media, politicians, and law enforcement
agencies. The extent to which these areas conform to that stereotype, however, is
largely unknown. Little actual research that seeks to better understand these markets
in such terms has actually been undertaken—unlike for those of New York and
some other North American markets. There are two effects to note here: first, this
New York/North American literature along with popular cinema, fiction, and other
media has tended to dominate the literature on drug markets and what they look like;
second, a consequence of this is that an overly homogenous view of how markets
operate and the ways that individuals operate within them has been assimilated by
the media, politicians, and law enforcement agencies who then tend to uncritically
attribute key aspects to markets local to them and elsewhere. Given that this may
well be the case, it may also be reasonable to assume that much of what is known
about a given drug market is often a heady mix of common sense assumption about
how drug markets and drug dealers function, local law enforcement knowledge,
and choice of media focus. A situation not too distinct from the way that it has been
suggested that public perceptions around youth gangs have been formed (Howell &
Decker, 1999). There is increasing research evidence, however, to suggest that not
only is the New York/North American drug market stereotype no longer applicable
(both to many parts of North America as well as elsewhere), but also that many
common assumptions about how drug dealers operate and the kind of people they
are is equally problematic.
Although important differences can be found between and within markets as well
as across time and place, there are a number of aspects of drug markets that have
been argued to be reasonably consistent. In the United States for example,
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SYDNEY’S PRIMARY HEROIN MARKET
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[m]arkets for illicit cocaine and heroin…appear to be different from
legal markets in a number of dimensions: high levels of violence; rapid
turn-over of participants; the association, at the individual level, of
frequent use and selling; and the large variation of prices and quality in
narrowly defined geographic markets at a given point in time. (Reuter,
2001, p. 1).
Although Reuter notes that these characteristics are not fixed, it is perhaps
reasonable to say that the image portrayed in this quote provides insight into what
we might call the relatively homogenized view of drug markets that dominate
public perception, particularly among politicians and the media. In Australia for
example, drawing on the stereotype epitomized by the crack markets in 1980s New
York, Cabramatta has been described as a place where “evil has been allowed to
flourish” and where “[g]ang warfare, executions, even torture has become a way
of life, always against the background of drugs” (Martin, 2001). Cornford sums up
common perceptions of a gang-controlled Cabramatta:
By the end of 1994, the 5T controlled the streets of Cabramatta,
making it the heroin capital of Australia. Through murder, menace
and example, they eradicated or absorbed other teenage gangs; none
exists today except the 5T…. Police estimate a hard-core of about
40 who control at least another 100 hopefuls, using them as street
soldiers. Some are as young as 12, work as street spotters and earn
$5 for each addict they take to a dealer. It is usually these acolytes
who get arrested: police seldom grab a 5T hard-core member.
(“Street Gang’s Culture,” 1995, p. 3)
This is certainly a prevalent view of the drug market in Cabramatta and has been
for some time. To what extent such a fixed view is helpful or even correct, however,
needs consideration because drug markets differ in character, time and place, and
even within the same geographical location over time. One example of this is the
aforementioned crack cocaine markets of 1980s New York. As stated these were
characterized by mistrust, instability, and high levels of violence, but they did not,
and do not, resemble those that emerged in London and other locations around the
same drug. This is because, despite popular mythology to the contrary, drug markets
are not determined by the characteristics of the drug/s bought and sold in them nor
do they follow predictable organizational structure. Depending on whether they are
burgeoning, established, or declining, markets can vary organizationally depending
on the type and degree of organization that is historically or culturally embedded
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in any particular market or geographical location (Golub & Johnson, 1997; Reuter,
2001; Curtis, 2003) as can the violence that emanates from them. Those markets
where gangs, organized crime, or ethnicity predominate, for example, will differ
from those where independent or small-scale operations predominate or are heavily
integrated. Even within areas where gangs inhabit the drug market, the extent to
which this is “organized” (both internally and as controllers of the local market)
differs as does the extent to which violent activity is essentially drug market related
(Howell & Decker, 1999). Levels of rivalry and how that rivalry is played out will
also differ across time and place as will the micro-activity of those involved in selling
drugs. Women drug sellers, for example, may operate in different ways to their
male counterparts (Maher, 1997; Maher & Daly, 1996), and the learned practices
as to what dealers do to the drugs they sell can also differ (Coomber, 1997b), as can
the commodities for which drugs are exchanged (Maher, Dixon, Hall, & Lynskey,
1998). One significant way in which drug markets can differ relates to the level of
violence played out in them. Drug markets in New York are currently significantly
less violent than 15 to 20 years ago and in many important ways unrecognizable to
those they replaced (Johnson, Golub et al. 2000). This has come about partly through
policing activity but just as significantly through shifts in drug market personnel
and their attendant cultural values around violence and drug use (Johnson, Golub
et al., 2000). Policing activity has effectively shifted most drug sales off the streets
(open markets) to closed markets where buyers have to negotiate access to sellers
and where sellers choose to whom they sell. This alone has reduced the level of
the internecine and other violence experienced by drug dealers of the type reported
by Jacobs (2000) appreciably. The general trend it seems in most Western drug
markets is towards closed as opposed to open markets (Hough & Natarajan, 2000).
This example of New York alone—the archetype of the drug market/drug dealer
stereotypes—alerts us to the fact that drug markets are fluid entities and cannot
be assumed to correspond to important aspects of the stereotype, either at all or at
varying points in time.
In the same way that many drug market stereotypes currently struggle to conform
to the research evidence, a number of drug dealer stereotypes have also been subject
to critical scrutiny in recent years. The example of drug adulteration is one such
example. Once again the archetypal view of drug adulteration largely derives from
a New York example. In the late 1960s, Preble and Casey (1969) described how at
each stage—from importation, through wholesalers, to low level dealers—heroin
was cut (adulterated) to dilute the amount available and realize bigger profits. This
view, that drugs such as heroin are cut extensively and routinely—often with highly
dangerous substances such as strychnine or scouring powders—at each stage but
certainly at the street level was an almost uncritically accepted “truth” until fairly
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SYDNEY’S PRIMARY HEROIN MARKET
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recently (cf Coomber, 1997a, 1997c). Such an activity complements the view of
the drug dealer as dealing in death, caring little for those they sell to, and doing so
either because they were essentially evil or because (in the grip of an addictive drug)
they had lost their morals. Recently, however, Coomber has shown how, since the
mid-1990s in the UK and the U.S., the cutting (adulteration) of drugs like heroin
is no longer a routine activity at each stage down through the chain of distribution
(1997a, 1997b, 1997c, 1997d, 1999a). In the UK and many other countries, it may
never have been. Indeed currently, heroin can often reach the street without being
cut at all, or only minimally so, at any stage (Coomber, 1997d, 1999a; Maher,
Swift, & Dawson, 2001) since low level dealers, often assuming that the heroin has
already been cut and operating in a competitive market, choose not to cut the drugs
they sell. Cutting is thus neither predictable nor routine. Some evidence of this has
also been found in the analysis of seizures from Sydney’s drugs markets (Maher et
al., 2001) and elsewhere internationally (Coomber, 1997d) and the extent to which
the cutting of drugs may play out in say Cabramatta as opposed to Kings Cross (a
culturally Asian market as opposed to a more traditionally Western one) was one
issue of interest to this research. Further, as regards the oft believed dangerous
adulteration of street drugs with harmful substances (either through lack of care or
purposive action), extensive forensic analysis and other research suggests that such
a practice is probably mythical (Coomber, 1997b, 1997c).
Other pusher stereotypes such as the predator who stands on street corners,
outside school gates, or out of ice cream vans looking to hook new and unsuspecting
nondrug users—usually portrayed as children—have also been questioned. One of
the premises upon which this stereotype is based is that of instant (or very quick)
addiction. A dealer gives a new user some free drugs and quickly gets them addicted.
Once addicted, the dealer has a new regular client unable to give up the drugs they
have become addicted to. Instant addiction, however, is a drug myth with research
showing that addiction to heroin often takes over six months to a year or more, even
for those that are already heavy drug users (Coomber & Sutton, 2006; Bennett,
1986; Kaplan, 1985). Of course not all experimenters move on to addicted use or
even regular use. Drug dealers simply could not afford to give away free drugs in
this way, particularly low level dealers who often earn small and irregular sums
from dealing in the first place (MacCoun & Reuter, 1992; Hagdorn, 1988; Levitt
& Venkatesh, 2000; May, Duffy, Few & Hough, 2005). A closer analysis of drug
transactions involving free drugs or credit (Coomber, 2003; Jacobs, 1999) shows
that these tend to be used in relation to cultivating existing business with proven
good/reliable customers or as rewards for large purchases (e.g., buy 10 ecstasy tablets
and get two free). Many new and long time heroin users report never having been
offered any free drugs at any time (Coomber, 2003; Pearson, 1987).
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This brief foray into differences between (and indeed within) drug markets
and dealer stereotypes is merely indicative. A more comprehensive review would
include differences between class (middle class dealers may operate differently to
those growing up in communities with greater levels of machismo, criminality, and
street culture) and types of drugs sold (heroin and crack markets have often differed
both in terms of activity and philosophy from cannabis or hallucinogen markets
and even some powder cocaine markets) as well as other considerations such as the
age of sellers/users; the levels of or predominance of dependent, recreational, or
occasional users; and the type/extent/impact of law enforcement activity.
There is a relative paucity of actual research into drug markets in Australia
(as in most other countries) that considers how both the actual markets and those
who participate in them compare to popular and policy-led conceptions of them.
This research attempting to undertake such an approach provides a snapshot of,
and insights into, street-level drug dealing in two of Australia’s heroin dealing hot
spots.
RESEARCH METHODS
The study aimed to explore the nature of two geographically, socially, and
symbolically distinct open street markets. Participants were recruited from Sydney’s
two principal drug markets: Kings Cross and Cabramatta. Both areas host vigorous
street-level heroin, and, to a lesser extent, cocaine markets. The focus of the paper
is on heroin selling, but because these markets are not always easily divisible, some
occasional mention of cocaine is made throughout the paper.
Semistructured interviews were conducted with street-level drug dealers in
Kings Cross and Cabramatta over a three month period in 2002. In order to create
a snapshot of the street market from the perspective of participants, we aimed to
access relatively experienced drug sellers who would be normatively understood
as drug dealers by their peers rather than simply user dealers. Although the line
between the two is often blurred, particularly on the street, the main criteria we used
to distinguish the two related to the proportion of income derived from dealing.
We attempted to interview dealers who were effectively full time, i.e., those for
whom drug sales provided the bulk of their income. The second criterion was that
participants were, or had been, street-dealers and part of the street market.
Snowball sampling techniques based on street and social networks and previous
research contacts were used to recruit and interview a total of 43 street-level
drug sellers—26 from Kings Cross and 17 from Cabramatta (11 of which were
subsequently excluded). Participants were interviewed about their experiences of
selling drugs in these areas, how the market was organized, drug adulteration and
quality assessment practices, and the use and impact of violence in the drug trade.
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Interviews took between 35 and 50 minutes to complete and were conducted on the
street and in restaurants, coffee shops, hotels, and private homes. Ethics approval for
the study was granted by University of New South Wales Humans Research Ethics
Committee. Participants were reimbursed $20 and (Kings Cross only) a further $10
if they provided access to another dealer.
Data were recorded contemporaneously either by using a tape recorder or in
the form of written notes. Where this was not possible notes were made as soon as
possible afterwards. Interviews were transcribed and entered into files using standard
word processing software and coded and analyzed for themes.
While resource constraints partially determined the number of dealers interviewed
in each location, a significant amount of data saturation was achieved. In qualitative
research it is not uncommon for data saturation to be used as an indicator of how
useful the sample is for indicative knowledge. Data saturation is reached when
subsequent interviews fail to provide few new insights and the data tends to merely
confirm earlier information (Sandelowski, 1995).
RESEARCH SETTING, RECRUITMENT, AND SAMPLING
CABRAMATTA
Cabramatta, a suburban enclave in Sydney’s Southwest, provides an important
nucleus of commercial and cultural life for Vietnamese and other South East Asian
immigrant groups (Australian Bureau of Statistics, 2001). Described by the media
as Australia’s “heroin capital,” Cabramatta has been portrayed as a haven for crime,
violence, and gang activity and in recent years has been the target of intensive
law enforcement activity (Maher & Dixon, 1999, 2001; Dixon & Maher, 2004).
Cabramatta presents a very different picture to Kings Cross. Cabramatta is a town in
and of itself and the street drug market has any number of dealing hotspots. Rather
than consisting of fixed locations, the market shifts according to the ebb and flow of
commerce and other activities such as policing. The main shopping area or central
business district has the equivalent of an English High Street and a pedestrianized
area where people shop, eat, meet, sit, and rest. We identified and located participants
in this area as they were going about their daily business, hanging around or on the
job. The feel of this area during the day is indistinguishable from busy, bustling
shopping areas in many towns and cities. Unlike Kings Cross where strip joints, porn
retailers, and prostitutes clearly mark out the area as a red light district, a day trip
to Cabramatta could pass without being aware that this is one of Australia’s leading
drug (and other crime) hot spots. Cabramatta is also Australia’s most densely mixed
ethnic melting pot, representing 13 Asian nationalities (Fairfield City Council, 2002).
Part of the Fairfield Local Government Area (LGA) which has the highest number
of overseas migrants of any area in Australia, 69% of Cabramatta residents aged five
and over speak a language other than English, and 40% of residents were born in
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Asian countries, including Vietnam (24%), Cambodia (7%), China (5%), and Laos
(2%) (Australian Bureau of Statistics, 2001). The unemployment rate in the Fairfield
LGA (22%) is substantially higher than other local government areas in Southwest
Sydney and almost twice the state average. In some age and ethnic groups in the
area—most notably among young people in the Vietnamese, Lebanese, Cambodian,
Chinese, and Aboriginal, and Torres Strait Islander communities—unemployment
is endemic, with rates up to four times the state average (Maher, Dixon, Hall, &
Lynskey, 1998).
Access to dealers in Cabramatta was far less problematic than Kings Cross
given that it constituted a primary field site for one of the lead researchers (Maher)
who had been conducting ethnographic and epidemiological research in the area
since 1995. This researcher had developed a number of appropriate contacts in the
course of previous research and was fortunate enough to be able to conduct initial
interviews with four mid-level dealers, two of whom had operated in both Kings
Cross and Cabramatta. A further 13 dealers were approached directly and recruited
by the researcher and her staff, including peer workers. Interviews were conducted
by the lead researchers with the exception of three interviews, which were conducted
by assistants overseen by the researchers. The well-established nature of this field
site and the trust and rapport established with this group facilitated both access
and disclosure. Ongoing observational fieldwork in the study site post interview
confirmed the veracity of the sample. One participant was subsequently excluded
because analysis of the interview transcript revealed that this participant did not fit
the eligibility criteria.
KINGS CROSS
Located in inner-city Sydney, Kings Cross has long been Sydney’s red light
district. Since the 1970s the area has characterized by persistent drug use, drug
dealing, strip clubs, prostitution, and violence (Wood, 1997). Dominated by Anglo-
Australians and marked in recent years by rapid gentrification, Kings Cross also
hosts Australia’s Medically Supervised Injection Centre (van Beek, 2003). While
one of the lead researchers had contact with a number of drug dealers at varying
levels in Southwest Sydney, neither had carried out any significant research in Kings
Cross. Accessing and recruiting dealers in Kings Cross was initially perceived to
be more problematic, particularly as gaining access to drug dealers is typically a
relatively time consuming activity involving the garnering of trust and proving
that the researcher does not represent a threat (Jacobs, 1999). Given the short
time frame for the project, long-term familiarization gained through ethnographic
fieldwork was not an option. Following preliminary field observations, permission
was sought from the director of the Kirketon Road Centre, a primary health care
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facility that enjoys an excellent reputation with local drug users, to approach staff
familiar with the social organization of drug use and distribution in the area. This
produced a number of leads that resulted in the recruitment of two dealers who were
well known on the Kings Cross strip. From these index participants we initiated
respondent-driven sampling chains or “snowballs” that resulted in the final sample1
of 16 within three weeks of the first interview. Initially, a total of 22 dealers were
interviewed within just a few days. The rapid turnover of participants meant that
dealers were coming to us, rather than the other way round. Data consistency across
these 22 interviews and the interviewer’s extensive experience of interviewing drug
dealers on these issues indicated that even the 10 that were excluded as essentially
users had some experience of selling drugs. These 10 were excluded on the basis
of further observations of the Kings Cross dealing scene in the weeks following
the initial interviews and triangulation with confirmed dealers about the status of
others who had been interviewed. This process resulted in a further four interviews
and a final sample of 16 interviews.
LOCAL USER DEMOGRAPHICS
According to demographic information from the 2002 Australian Needle and
Syringe Programme (NSP) Survey, the average age of injecting drug users in Kings
Cross and Cabramatta was 32 and 28 years, respectively. Heroin was easily the
most injected drug in both areas at the time of the survey, with 86% of respondents
reporting heroin to be the most recently injected drug in Cabramatta (cocaine being
second at 7%), decreasing to 55% in Kings Cross (amphetamine second at 20%)
(MacDonald, Zhou, & Breen, 2003).
RESULTS
DEMOGRAPHIC AND DRUG USE/SALES CHARACTERISTICS
A total of 32 drug dealers (16 in each site) were included in the final sample. Of
the 32 participants, seven (22%) were women; three were from Kings Cross and four
from Cabramatta. The mean age of participants in the Kings Cross group was 32
years (range 20 to 42 years) with Cabramatta participants being, on average, slightly
younger (mean = 26 years, range 21 to 51 years). Table 1 presents demographic and
characteristics for participants by site.
The Kings Cross group was predominantly of Anglo-Australian or Anglo-
Celtic background (n=10) but included two indigenous Australian females and one
indigenous Australian male, a woman of Spanish origin that had been resident in
Australia for 30 years, a Latin-American male, and a UK male who had only been
in Australia for three years. While the Kings Cross group was predominantly Anglo
Celtic, the Cabramatta sample was exclusively of Asian background apart from one
indigenous Australian male. Twelve of the 16 identified as Asian Australians. The
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remaining participants identified as Chinese Asian Australian (1), Cambodian (1),
and indigenous (1).
Participants had similar levels of education, having left school on average at age
15. Between them participants had a cumulative total of 233 years selling drugs, and
experience of drug selling was comparable in each site. The majority of participants
had sold drugs for five or more years and none had less than two years experience,
indicating that there were few novices in our sample. Drugs sold were typically
heroin and/or cocaine, although some participants also had experience selling other
types of drugs. The majority had only sold drugs in the location in which they were
recruited; however, two had previously sold drugs in other parts of Australia and
five had sold drugs in both Kings Cross and Cabramatta. Most of the Kings Cross
sample (13 of 16) had a history of heroin or cocaine dependence with half currently
abstinent or in methadone maintenance treatment. All but two of the Cabramatta
participants reported that they were currently dependent on either heroin or cocaine.
Five participants reported that they had sold drugs during periods of abstinence, but
for the majority, selling drugs meant using them as well.
MARKET ORGANIZATION
KINGS CROSS
Street-level sales operated in a variety of ways along the Kings Cross strip. In
many ways Kings Cross’s reputation is larger than the area itself. Visitors may be
surprised to find that it (the main strip itself) consists of little more than two or
three hundred yards of main street on the Darlinghurst Road and a few side streets
off of it. This section is a lively, bustling High Street with “common-and-garden”
TABLE 1
DEMOGRAPHIC CHARACTERISTICS BY RECRUITMENT SITE
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shops regularly interspersed with strip clubs, hotels for working girls, bars, and
shops selling various erotica/pornography. Interspersed with the above, and visible
only to those on the lookout, are the numerous dealers that can be found in the area
almost any time day or night. In addition to these street dealers, drugs can also be
obtained through those providing sexual services.
The predominant form of selling was also the most visible—existing clientele
approaching known dealers. To an unknown user these dealers would have been
fairly conspicuous and thus approachable; however, in this situation it is up to the
user to convince the dealer—with style, attitude and the appropriate presentation of
self—that they are safe. Half of the dealers interviewed were freelance dealers who
worked for themselves only, bought the drugs they sold from a primary supplier, and
then sold them on. A few worked in essentially the same way but with a partner. Three
of those interviewed were street sellers, sometimes called runners, who worked for
a boss. One was a (relatively small-time) boss of a team of three who also worked
the street himself. Whereas a freelance operator assumes all profit from each deal,
a runner is given a certain amount of drugs to sell and then only receives a fixed
percentage of a fixed price deal. In the case of those interviewed, variation existed
depending on the amount sold and in terms of how they were paid. In Kings Cross,
when given $20 AUD and 50 caps, one runner retained the profits of the deal or kept
five caps for themselves (25%). Another received $20 AUD for each $100 AUD
sale (20%), while a third (who described himself as an independent) retained $20
AUD for each $70 AUD cocaine cap sold (29%).
CABRAMATTA
The large open air drug market in Cabramatta specializes in high grade heroin,
the bulk of it imported from Southeast Asia. Data from the Australian Government
Analytical Laboratories indicate that a type known as Chinese Number 4 dominates
the local market. Contrary to media reports, heroin is distributed at the street level
under a freelance model by individuals and multiple units of small entrepreneurs
(mostly user-dealers) rather than by large organizations or businesses (Australian
Bureau of Criminal Intelligence, 1999).
While entry to the market is relatively easy to accomplish, participation is often
short lived and sporadic (Maher et al., 1998). The structure and approach to street-
level dealing in Cabramatta was similar to that observed and recorded in Kings
Cross. All participants claimed to be freelancers, but there was a tendency to work
with others or at least to engage socially with other dealers. This may also reflect
kin and fictive kin ties among Asian Australians involved in street life and the drug
economy (Maher, Nguyen, & Le, 1999). There was almost a sense that many of
these people were “hanging out” as much as they were selling drugs. The two were
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not mutually exclusive with young Vietnamese, using the term “ra choi” (coming
out to play) to describe the process of entry to and immersion in street life (Maher
et al., 1999).
PRICE AND PACKAGING
Heroin in Kings Cross and Cabramatta is typically sold in caps. The term
“cap” is a literal reference to the use of empty over-the-counter drug capsules2 (for
example, paracetamol) to hold powdered drugs. A cap is generally described as a
small amount typically used for a single injection (Illicit Drug Reporting System
[IDRS], 2003). Heroin in Kings Cross is typically sold in this form. Although heroin
sellers and buyers in Cabramatta adopted this terminology, caps in Cabramatta were
packaged in small pieces of foil and sealed in plastic water balloons (Maher et al.,
1998). Some participants were also of the opinion that the use of pharmaceutical
packaging was declining in Kings Cross, possibly due to the diffusion and uptake
of water balloons as preferred packaging.
During the study period, the typical price for a cap of heroin at Kings Cross
was $50 AUD; however, in Cabramatta, caps had been replaced by “quarters” as
the most common unit of sale. As the term suggests, quarters ostensibly consist of
a quarter of a gram of heroin (Maher et al., 1998), and participants reported selling
these units for between $70 and $100 during the study period. Although caps may
be said to approximate quarter gram units, the IDRS does not provide data that
shows the typical bought weight of caps from either area.
I would go home, open it, cut it into small rocks, like caps, put it
on the foil then wrap it up then put it into a balloon, tie that up.
(22-year-old Asian-Australian female, Cabramatta)
Well like up there [in Kings Cross] a cap is a cap—a capsule. Like
they take a capsule, put it in a panadol capsule. But not all the
time now. Before it to be every time like that …Or they just roll
it in a piece of plastic and tie it in a knot and put it in a balloon.
[Interviewer: What about foil? Do they use foil up there?] No. But
sometimes they wrap the coke in the swab packets, which is like a
foil on one side and paper on the outside. And then they put it in a
balloon. (51 year-old Indigenous Australian male, Cabramatta)
An IDRS survey of user perceptions regarding how much heroin or cocaine is
actually contained in a cap showed varying views: 54% believed it contained 0.1
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grams with the rest providing guesses from a quarter to even half a gram. In this
sense users know that a cap is what they are paying for but many are unaware of
its true weight or even the weight it is meant to be (IDRS, 2003). According to
Australia’s national illicit drugs surveillance system, the median purchase price
of a cap of heroin in Sydney in 2002 was $50 or $300 per gram, reflecting a slight
decrease from $320 per gram and $50 per cap in 2001 but still significantly higher
than the median price of $220 per gram and $25 per cap in 2000 (IDRS, 2003). By
contrast, the price of cocaine remained stable in Sydney between 2000 and 2002
($200 per gram and $50 per cap) (IDRS, 2003).
QUALITY ASSURANCE
Few studies have systematically examined the methods by which users or dealers
assess the quality of drugs despite the fact that these are often intricate and entail
a number of basic empirical tests involving sight, smell, taste, touch and “hit”
(Best et al., 2004; Decorte, 2001). Decorte, looking at cocaine user strategies to
avoid buying or to test for poor quality cocaine, found that while nearly 60% of his
respondents did not test at all, the remainder employed one or more of an array of
tests. These normatively included the visual (what it looked like, how it reacted to
preparation), tactile (what it felt like), the experiential (“waiting for the freeze”—a
quick numbing was interpreted as a good sign) with a distinct minority (3.6%)
relying on pharmacological assays to detect cocaine and, in some circumstances,
certain adulterants. However, for most, avoiding poor quality drugs involved finding
a reliable dealer and testing related to basic sensory perceptions (look, taste, and
drug effect) (see also Best et al., 2004). Here we report the methods that dealers in
our sample perceived to be effective in providing insights into drug quality. In both
Kings Cross and Cabramatta, discussions of methods for assessing drug quality
almost exclusively related to heroin.
TESTING TECHNIQUES: TASTE, SMELL, COLOR, RUN, AND HIT
Although the appearance of heroin is commonly characterized as being in rock
form, both heroin and cocaine in Sydney are almost exclusively hydrochloride
or powder. In both locations, participants relied on similar indicators that can be
summarized as relating to taste, smell, color, observations on how the drug behaved
while being prepared (how it heated when smoked or chased, how it ran, changes in
color, amount and type of residue left), and the quality of the hit itself. Approaches
to assessing product quality varied among participants and according to context.
Sometimes a single indicator would suffice, while at other times participants reported
using a range of tests.
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OBSERVATION
Fumes/vapors. Administration of heroin by “chasing” (from “chasing the dragon,”
the name derives from users chasing or following the fumes of the heroin that is
being heated, usually on some aluminium foil) allows the user to observe the fumes
or vapors prior to inhalation. This form of administration is also known as smoking
heroin. Some of those who used in this fashion suggested that they could detect
relative quality by discerning the color of the vapors produced. Participants who had
smoked heroin reported that relatively uncut, high purity heroin was indicated by
fumes that “burn a dark red. It’s yellow, yellow-white at first, then red.” Heroin that
gave off clear or white fumes was considered to have been mixed with something
else. All but one of the heroin smokers were from Cabramatta. The chasing of heroin
is a rarity in Kings Cross, and only one respondent there—a 33 year-old indigenous
Australian female—made claim to this as a mode of administration.
The “run.” Participants who were familiar with smoking or chasing heroin
also reported that quality was indicated by the drug “running clear” or “clean”
and “burning yellow” when heated. As one dealer described it, if it runs rather
than collecting in one spot like a wart, then purity is high and the heroin is less
likely to be cut. Some participants believed that if the run was cloudy and milky,
this indicated the presence of panadol (paracetamol). Previous research indicates
that that panadene is sometimes added strategically as a marketing tool to make
heroin burn yellow when it is smoked (Maher et al., 2001). This was confirmed by
a participant in the current study.
You stick panadene in it if you smoke. If I know you smoke I mix it
with panadene, if I know you shoot-up I mix it with sugar. Depends
on who you’re selling it to or what their customer is gonna do. (28-
year-old Asian-Australian male, Cabramatta)
It runs, that’s why people call it chasing the dragon, because once
you put it on the foil when you light it, it’ll burn yellow and that’s
how you can tell too, when it burns yellow and sort of runs a bit
but then if you were to get shit gear it would just stay in one spot
and then it’ll just sort of lump up. (24-year-old Asian-Australian
female, Cabramatta)
Heroin prepared for injecting produced not dissimilar comments, and another
participant reported that the addition of panadene (paracetamol and codeine) made
the drug “run yellow and then become red but when you add the water it will become
milky. That’s how you tell it’s cut with panadene.”
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Foil/residue. According to participants, another way of determining whether
heroin had been cut was to examine both the residue and the foil on which the heroin
had been chased. Heroin was considered to have been cut or mixed with sugars
if the foil turns black and both the amount and color of residue were perceived as
being related to the presence of sugars, i.e., the more residue and the blacker it is,
the more sugar that is considered to be present.
SMELL
Observation was but one of the senses used by dealers in our sample in attempting
to assess the quality of heroin and again, was more likely to be relied upon by Asian
participants familiar with chasing the drug. Participants familiar with injecting heroin
referred to a distinctive smell. While one dealer referred to this as “the sweet smell
of heroin,” most found it difficult to pinpoint the precise odor other than describing a
kind of familiar “sweet-sour” smell that arises when the heroin is mixed with water on
a (normally) plastic spoon while preparing the drug for intravenous administration.
A strong or pungent sweet-sour smell is believed to indicate good quality heroin
and conversely a weak or nonexistent odor to indicate poor quality:
You can smell the h and water on the spoon. If it’s shit gear it
wouldn’t have much of a smell at all. (33-year-old Anglo-Australian
male, Kings Cross)
Similarly, in relation to cocaine, another participant noted:
“There’s no way for me to taste but I smell it. If it smell strong
then it’s good. Then I taste it. (21-year-old Asian-Australian male,
Cabramatta)
TASTE
Other experiential tests related primarily to injecting drug users, particularly,
taste and quality of the hit (the drug induced experience). Injecting users looked for
a particular bitter taste to heroin and, as with smell, the extent or type of bitterness
was thought to relate to the quality of the heroin.
[on cocaine] As soon as your tongue goes numb you know [and
for heroin]…taste, look for bitterness, that’s a sign. (33-year-old
indigenous Australian female, Kings Cross)
It’s just got this kind of bitter taste—you get to know what’s good
or not. (24-year-old Anglo-Australian male, Kings Cross)
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As intimated by the respondents and like some of the other tests described above,
the taste test relied to some extent on the experienced discretion of the dealers.
PHARMACOLOGICAL EFFECT: THE HIT
Assessing quality through use and the quality of the hit requires experience.
[I]t’s a fallacy [that beige/brown heroin is poor quality], the more
beige the better…get a feeling for it, experience, the time it lasts.
(24-year-old English male, Kings Cross)
[referring to cocaine] I shoot [inject] first to test, bad one give you
headache. (30-year-old Asian-Australian male, Cabramatta)
If it mixes up nice and white it’s mother of pearl, it’s top grade…
how long it take to hit and how long it stays. (35-year-old Anglo-
Australian male, Kings Cross)
However, it is likely that indicators observed prior to use, e.g., how the heroin
runs/mixes/smells/tastes may unduly affect expectations and thus the experience
of the hit itself.
Unlike some of Decorte’s (2001) cocaine users, the street dealers in this study
had little inclination to test the heroin they obtained beyond normal approaches
to preparation and/or use. More consistent with Coomber’s (1997b) findings, our
Sydney dealers demonstrated little desire to involve themselves in activities over
and beyond obtaining the drug, dividing it up and selling it on. Thus the idea of
elaborate testing or quality control at this level may be something of a misnomer,
particularly given that the outcome of such testing is unlikely to affect purchase or
sale (e.g., dealers are unlikely to opt not to purchase). The quality assurance strategies
described above are not sophisticated enough to do more than distinguish extremely
poor quality heroin. Assuming that the heroin they obtain is heroin, the assessment
of quality has little impact on the outcome given that, in most instances, it appears
that they will still sell and use it. However participants indicated that if the heroin
was not deemed sufficiently pure (that is, absolute rubbish and likely to have users
coming back to them) they would return it to their supplier.
Although many of the dealers used these “rough and ready” methods to ascertain
the quality of the drugs they bought and sold, there is good reason to doubt the
validity of these methods, even those of taste and experiencing the hit first hand.3
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DRUG ADULTERATION PRACTICES
As noted above, the approach to street-level dealing was similar in both locations.
On the one hand, this might not appear to be surprising. However, Cabramatta is
often considered to be relatively distinct from other areas, and it has been speculated
that this might be reflected, for example, in a propensity towards routine drug
adulteration, a more cavalier approach towards pushing the product and a context
of greater conflict and violence:
The men behind the 5T teenage gangs bring their heroin in from
the so-called Golden Triangle via Vietnam and Hong Kong. The
heroin is usually smuggled in compressed block “units” weighing
about 700 grams. At that stage the heroin is 80-90% pure. It is then
cut to as little as 12% pure, usually using sugar and glucose-based
additives, and then sold on the street, where a “taste,” the usual
street deal––equal to .2 of a gram or about the size of a shrivelled
pea––sells for about $50. (Martin, 1997)
Participants in the current study were asked about their beliefs and practices
regarding dangerous adulteration in such a way as to encourage valid or honest
responses. It was assumed that dealers would not admit to dangerous adulteration but
would want to substantiate their beliefs and knowledge to the researchers. Questions
were thus asked in such a way that if a dealer stated that they believed in dangerous
adulteration, an opportunity was then provided for them to substantiate this belief
by supplying information about their first-hand knowledge of the events but that
preserved their innocence, e.g., by referring to a specific witnessed or known act
by an other. This is a method previously used to good effect in Coomber (1997b).
As will be seen, none of the dealers interviewed chose to substantiate their beliefs
in dangerous adulteration with reference to first-hand knowledge.4
Forensic analyses of street-level seizures in Cabramatta carried out by the second
author indicate that heroin in Cabramatta is relatively free of harmful adulterants
(Maher et al., 2001). These samples had an average purity of 66% and adulterants
and diluents were similar to those commonly found in the UK and Europe, and to
a lesser extent, the US. Approximately one third (36%) of the samples contained
caffeine, 41% contained paracetamol and related compounds, and two thirds (65%)
contained sugars. The absence of dangerous contaminants is consistent with previous
research based on interviews with drug dealers in the UK which suggests that,
contrary to common perception, dangerous adulteration is largely mythical and that
very little cutting actually takes place (Coomber, 1997a, 1997c).
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Although nearly all of the Kings Cross dealers had heard of dangerous
adulteration, none claimed to have first-hand knowledge of such practices. One
dealer, asked whether he believed these stories, replied: “All. Whatever stories you
hear are true plus more.” Not everyone believed these stories however:
Hundred percent of the guys do take care of their customers, it’s
a social myth that authorities put out to put people off…believe
it or not we do have standards. (24-year-old English male, Kings
Cross)
Sometimes [they cut heroin] with ketamine that’s what I heard. Like
if there’s a lot of people dropping its because they put the ketamine
in it. (51-year-old indigenous Australian male, [Cabramatta] who
had worked Kings Cross)
While a number of participants believed reports of harmful adulteration practices
to be true, most agreed that relatively harmless substances such as paracetamol
and gyprock (plasterboard) were more commonly used as “dodgy” cutting agents:
“The desperate cunts sometimes sell ‘imos’ [imitations] like gyprock.” Even those
who believed in dangerous adulteration indicated that this was not routine and
was usually attributed to either a dealer wanting to purposely hurt someone as
some kind of payback, or “idiot” dealers that will get found out and “moved on.”
Cabramatta participants were less familiar with reports of harmful adulteration,
possibly reflecting reduced exposure to urban myths and stereotypical media images.
While most dealers in Kings Cross had heard stories relating to the cutting of drugs
with substances such as strychnine, ground glass, or talcum powder, none of the
Cabramatta participants related accounts of such practices.
I don’t know because I’ve never heard about it, any of those stories.
I’ve heard about, I’ve heard people say “hot shots” and all of that but
I don’t know what’s in them so yeah I’ve never heard anything about
that so I don’t know. (22-year-old Asian-Australian female)
Not only were such tactics seen as counterproductive but they were also bad for
business.
I don’t see anyone do like that before. I wouldn’t do it. That’s slack.
Not good for business. You see me now, not like before, just sell
small ones but my caps are still large. You remember how many
customer I had before. Well now they remember me and they know
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my cap is still the same [size]. (28-year-old Asian-Australian male,
Cabramatta)
In relation to nonharmful adulteration, while only one Cabramatta participant
reported either “always” or “mostly” cutting drugs, another participant reported that
he had previously cut heroin when purchasing it by the block (12.5 ounces).
[When you were cutting heroin what is it that determines whether
you cut it or not?] Ah, it depend on whether you want to sell fast
or slow. No it’s like before when I do it, I get it and it depend on
the area, I get rid of it quickly, get the money back, you know what
I mean? Like I got, like this area, around Cabramatta before with
heroin I gotta find out the quality first before I give to them, yeah.
Because different place has different quality. If the quality is too
high might be trouble or people will start O-Ding [overdosing].
(28-year-old Asian-Australian male)
Before when I am doing big, I use this medicine powder. Its like a
special powder, they mix it with the medicine. You can only get it
in the hospital. Its like a diabetic sugar. [What is the name called?] I
think its called mannitol…. I have a friend, a thuoc thay [pharmacy]
in Cabramatta, she can get this medicine powder. She order it from
overseas in 60 or 70 kilo lots because that’s what they use—the
people up there [gestures to indicate those higher than street level].
(28-year-old Asian-Australian male)
Both these participants, who had previously been higher level suppliers, reported
cutting the heroin with mannitol and pressing it using a custom made vice.
You have to compress. Like this thing, I don’t know how you call
it, its like a metal thing with a heavy wood and you clip it on the
table and screw it down really hard and it makes a block. And when
I make it its like really hard, like a brick. My one you can chuck it
against the wall and it doesn’t break. I did it for a friend for a while
because my one is so hard. And before I press it I take like vinegar
and water and make a spray, spray it so it smell like trang [heroin],
you know that trang smell. (28-year-old Asian-Australian male)
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Oh, before I had some friend down in Cabramatta and if they call
up then I know the quality that they want, so I just cut it and, yeah...
with icing sugar. Oh, well, there’s say one ounce and I probably put
seven grams of sugar, like to make it less, like 25% less, strong. I
mix it all in a blender then I take it out, put it in a bag and then I’ve
got this block like to compress it. (28-year-old Asian-Australian
male)
Nine Cabramatta participants reported “never” having cut the drugs they sold, two
had done so in the past and one reported that her partner had cut the drugs they
sold.
Um, he’d just make, um, it would depend on the gear too. If the gear
was good then he’d most probably make like an extra three point
five [grams] or something added onto it, you know what I mean?
(24-year-old Asian-Australian female, Cabramatta)
Of the participants who sold heroin and/or cocaine in Kings Cross, the majority
(9) reported that they “never” cut the drugs they sold with any substances. A further
four “almost never” or “rarely” cut the drugs they sold; however, this group indicated
that they would cut drugs considered to be too pure in order to “protect” their
customers. Only one dealer reported consistently “stepping” on the drugs he sold,
a veteran of 15 years who used glucose to cut his drugs 3:1. Two other participants
reported “mostly” cutting the drugs they sold. One participant said that he only cut
his drugs if he had “good gear” and the other claimed to cut cocaine “one to one”
with base amphetamine that “I don’t have to pay for.”
Most participants in the current study who reported having cut drugs at some
time in the past claimed that they had not done so for some time. Some participants
alluded to a humanistic rationale for not cutting that is rarely accorded drug dealers
in the media:
Believe it or not, we do have standards [on why he doesn’t cut the
drugs he sells. (24-year-old English male, Kings Cross).
[referring to dangerous adulteration] Um, I don’t think that anybody
can be that evil, know what I mean? (27-year-old Asian-Australian
male, Cabramatta)
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It’s dangerous as it is already and you could kill people. You will lose
your customer. (30-year-old Asian-Australian male, Cabramatta)
Consistent with previous research (Coomber, 1997a, 1997b), the two
(Cabramatta) dealers in the current study who claimed to always cut drugs were
higher level operatives who had recently fallen upon hard times. Participants who
had cut drugs reported doing so with relatively benign substances such as sugars,
although one reported cutting cocaine with amphetamine that he obtained at no
cost. More sophisticated cutting, where it takes place, is likely to occur either prior
to or just after importation (cf Coomber, 1997e). Despite the perception that drug
adulteration, and even harmful adulteration, would be commonplace in an open
market like Cabramatta, there is little evidence to support this belief, either from a
forensic perspective (Maher et al., 2001) or from the current study—even during
a supply shortage.
THE HEROIN SHORTAGE
In early 2001, reports emerged of a dramatic decline in the availability of heroin
in Sydney, Australia (Day et al., 2003). The 2001 IDRS revealed a similar pattern
across Australia, with an overall reduction in the availability and purity of heroin
concurrent with a marked increased in price for all major Australian heroin markets
(Topp et al., 2002). Changes in heroin supply from December 2000 resulted in an
increase in price (Day et al., 2003) and changes in the patterns of drug use (Maher,
2002, Topp et al., 2003).
The cause or causes of the shortage remain unclear. Poor crops in the Golden
Triangle region due to drought and flood, the low value of the Australian dollar
relative to other markets, a deliberate stockpiling of heroin by sellers in an attempt
to drive up prices, and the success of law enforcement efforts both locally and
internationally have been among the explanations advanced (Dietze & Fitzgerald,
2002; Day et al., 2003). Within this context, it is arguable that incentives for street
sellers to cut drugs and, in particular, heroin, increased as supplies dwindled.
However, the relative shortage in heroin—relative because not all of the dealers
interviewed in this study reported that access was a problem during the shortage—
meant that it was a sellers’ market for those who had the drug. While this group
of dealers were clearly in a position to get away with diluting heroin to make it go
further, our data suggest that this did not happen. The dealers we interviewed did
not report changes to their cutting or adulteration practices during the shortage. As
noted previously, the majority had never cut the drugs that they sold, and the heroin
shortage did not induce them to do so.
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MARKETING: ENTICEMENTS, LOYALTY, AND TRUST
THE PROVISION OF “FREEBIES” FREE DRUGS AND/OR CREDIT TO CUSTOMERS
The belief that drug sellers (particularly street sellers) routinely attempt to entice
new customers with free drugs (“freebies”) and/or use such devices along with credit
to lock in existing clients is widespread (Coomber, 2003). Whilst it has been found
(Jacobs, 1999; Coomber, 2003) that the provision of freebies can happen regularly
to those purchasing sufficient quantity (often at the wholesale level), for the dealers
we spoke to, often selling one or two caps at a time, there would be no incentive.
As one dealer explained:
Not with like when you’re dealing small, you don’t give a sample.
When you deal small you don’t give a sample, only when you deal
big…sometimes I just give them some free one because you know,
if they get like four or five times a day I give them a free one. (2-
year-old Asian-Australian male, Cabramatta)
[On credit] Only to regulars. Regulars I can trust, you know? (28-
year-old Asian Australian female, Cabramatta)
None of the dealers in the current study reported enticing new customers with
free drugs and those who reported providing credit did so rarely and even then
only to established customers. However in Cabramatta, it was not uncommon for
dealers to allow regular customers to “go short,” i.e., allow those who were short
(of money) two or three dollars off the purchase price.
Another reason that the idea of street sellers pushing to anyone that walks past is
unlikely relates to the inherent danger and foolhardiness involved in such an approach
to selling drugs. Open drug markets and street sellers do not just sell to anyone and
the image of them concentrating on nonusers to get them hooked is not supported
by the available evidence (Jacobs, 1999; Knowles, 1999; Jacobs & Miller, 1998;
Mieczkowski, 1990; Chitwood, Rivers, & Inciardi, 1996) where potential buyers
need to display sufficient knowledge of street and drug terminology and dress and
carry themselves appropriately. Indeed, when asked if they ever turn down potential
sales the common response from our dealers was that they do if they are suspicious
of the buyer in any way:
If I feel funny about them...if police...can just tell. (33-year-old
indigenous Australian female, Kings Cross)
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Didn’t look like a user––a user can tell a user. (28-year-old Asian-
Australian female, Cabramatta)
Soliciting business from those that do not appear (through presentation of self)
to be drug users is thus problematic for at least two reasons: the individual may be
a police officer, or if they are not, they may take umbrage at the offer and be more
likely to report the incident (e.g., children to parents). Such activity is thus rife with
danger. Moreover, the idea that drug dealers push free or cheap drugs to nonusers to
get them hooked also demonstrates an ignorance of addiction (it is never instant) and
also market economics. Street sellers cannot afford to subsidize a potential addict
in the hope they will buy from them in the future.
VIOLENCE
In general, participants in both Kings Cross and Cabramatta reported that the
majority of drug transactions were peaceful, and most considered that they had
good relations with their customers and with other dealers. Violence appeared to
be relatively peripheral to their day to day experience.
You don’t make any trouble then no one give trouble back. Just
do your own business and stay out of people’s way. (29-year-old
Asian-Australian male, Cabramatta)
Now, not much violence. People leave each other alone. (25-year-
old Asian-Australian male, Cabramatta)
A number of Cabramatta participants were at pains to point out that the reputation
of this market for violence was not deserved.
No, not a big problem [violence] not for me. It’s a stereotype
because of the drug problem in Cabra. They wanna get more police
and have to say is very violent. (30-year-old Asian-Australian male,
Cabramatta)
I think Cabramatta’s a very safe area actually...the media
exaggerates all suburb shootings. (22-year-old Asian-Australian
female, Cabramatta)
It’s not true that Cabra is what people see it as...it’s just newspaper
and rumors ‘cos Cabra is a nice place. (21-year-old Asian-Australian
male, Cabramatta)
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Participants clearly attempted to make sense of the violence that did occur by
linking it to violence initiated or instigated at a level higher than the street market or
unrelated to the drug trade. While two Kings Cross participants referred to sporadic
violence as an irregular feature of this market, others claimed to have experienced
little violence during their tenure as street dealers.
All the runners for different crews all quite friendly and score
off each other. The problems are with the bosses...their attitude
determines what happens. (39-year-old Anglo-Australian male,
Kings Cross)
Competition gets out of hand three or four times a year at the Cross
in a big sense but this doesn’t affect me. I’m good with who I sell
to. (33-year-old Indigenous male, Kings Cross)
By and large, not only did our respondents not experience much violence in
their day to day activities in the drug market, they also suggested that avoiding it
was reasonably straightforward and that it was largely avoided through association
with other street dealers:
No, no violence, not with [other] dealers. (25-year-old Asian-
Australian male, Cabramatta)
No not much violence...people leave each other alone...shootings not
about drugs. (25-year-old Asian-Australian male, Cabramatta)
Nah, my buyers are cool...I got good...I get on with them good.
No violence...easy to avoid. (33-year-old Indigenous Australian
male, Kings Cross)
Most Cabramatta participants also felt that violence was not an issue during the
study period. This may reflect the fact that most of our participants were street-
level operatives with little or no experience at higher levels of the trade. However,
it is important to note that an outbreak of violence in 1999 and 2000, involving
more than 40 shootings, was attributed to internecine warfare between rival drug
networks in Southwest Sydney (NSW Legislative Council, 2001). Research by the
New South Wales Bureau of Crime Statistics and Research indicates that in 2000
the Fairfield-Liverpool area (which includes Cabramatta) together with Canterbury-
Bankstown accounted for 55% of all handgun shootings in NSW (NSW Bureau of
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Crime Statistics and Research, 2001). A police strike force established in 2000 to
investigate these shootings and other acts of violence in the Cabramatta area resulted
in 36 offenders being charged with 83 charges including murder, attempted murder,
kidnapping, and drug supply (NSW Legislative Council, 2001). As described in
the media,
[R]estaurants were shot up or burnt down and there were tit-for-tat
shootings as rivals plugged each other, in the groin, in the shoulder,
in the leg and in the face. One man was disembowelled with a pool
cue. In the words of one businessman, in late 1999 and early 2000
the streets of Cabramatta were burning, and no one seemed to be
trying to douse the flames. (Mercer & Gibbs, 2001)
Despite being active participants in the street-level heroin market for (on average)
over five years, our participants appear to perceive themselves as relatively protected
from outbreaks of drug-related violence, suggesting that such violence may be not
so much connected to the market per se but to long standing and deep seated local
gang conflicts. Most participants reported that they had not been directly exposed
to violence as a result of their participation in the market. Their experiences confirm
the findings of earlier research which suggests that, despite gang involvement, heroin
in Cabramatta is primarily “distributed under a freelance model by individuals and
multiple units of small entrepreneurs (mostly user-dealers) rather than by mega-
organizations or businesses” (Maher et al., 1998, p. 8).
DISCUSSION
How a street market is perceived to operate is important as these images may
be used to justify various political and/or criminal justice interventions. For many
Australians, the street drug markets in Sydney’s Kings Cross and Cabramatta are
synonymous with violence and perceptions that some of the worst dealing practices,
such as dangerous drug adulteration and the provision of freebies to entice the young
and innocent, are widespread and commonplace (Cornford, 1995; Martin, 1997).
Images such as these are used to justify police “crackdowns” regularly employed
in these areas, which themselves often result in collateral damage to both the
community and the drug market participants (Maher & Dixon, 1999, 2001; Maher,
Nguyen, & Le, 1999).
This research had modest aims: to explore two of Sydney’s most notorious
street markets and to provide a snapshot of how these markets operate and are
experienced by those who sell heroin on the street. Our results contradict much
that is commonly assumed about the nature of street-level drug sales in both areas
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by law enforcement, the media, the public, and some academics in the drug field.
One of the key findings was that, at the street-level, similarity rather than difference
characterizes these two markets––despite the very different ethnic make up of
the two markets and the belief that Cabramatta in particular was gang controlled.
Organizationally, the street scenes in Cabramatta and Kings Cross were revealed
to be relatively cooperative, and violence was perceived as largely confined to
higher levels of drug distribution (although we have to be careful about attributing
violence as drug related as opposed to being about how such individuals do business
regardless of the product/s involved) (cf Pearson & Hobbs, 2001). The dealers in
this study reported relatively little experience of violence and that, on the whole,
relations between themselves and other dealers were nonconflictual as were those
with the majority of their clients. Violence was in fact seen as fairly peripheral to
their general experience of the drug market. Overall, the experiences of those on
the front line suggest that violence is relatively rare and largely avoidable, and the
social (and sometimes supportive) relations among sellers belie the idea that these
particular markets are dog eat dog, rendering them “no go” areas except to the brave,
ignorant, or the foolish. Further, rather than “gang controlled” and thus “violence
riven” as suggested by some media, the organization of open street selling in both
locations was freelance, largely independent, and all that that often means. We use
the definition provided by Curtis and Sviridoff (1994) as indicative:
Freelance markets are defined by a lack of formal hierarchy among
street-level distributors. Alliances are made on a strictly ad hoc basis
and are typically short-lived. Relationships between street-level
distributors are “egalitarian”...no one owes anything to anyone
else and every man (sic) is his own boss. Reciprocity guides daily
interactions between distributors; they generally acknowledge
that their peers should reciprocate in line when done favours.
Leadership positions among freelance distributors, though often
fleeting, are determined by longevity, skill and generosity. (1994,
pp. 157-158)
Our results suggest that other commonly attributed images of street dealers in
these areas that add to the perception of them as essentially bereft of morals may
also be inaccurate in a number of important respects. Consistent with a growing
body of international and local evidence, adulteration of heroin was neither routine
nor prevalent amongst our sample despite press reports declaring the opposite.
Most reported never cutting the drugs they sell and a range of rational and even
humanist reasons were given as to why they did not, such as wanting to be known
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for providing quality drugs and a belief that the drugs were already cut and would
not sustain further dilution. In direct contrast to the underlying rationales for the
existence of dangerous adulteration, many of our sample (consistent with Coomber,
1997b) reported astonishment at the idea that they would cut the drugs they sell with
substances that would harm others from both a humanitarian (why would I want to
hurt someone else) point of view to the rational (why hurt/kill your customers). In
fact, the Cabramatta sample even displayed a relative ignorance about the stereotypes
of dangerous adulteration that portray the cutting of heroin with rat poison (as
strychnine) as relatively common. Generally there was a concern to be perceived as
dealing in good quality heroin and to not get a “rep” for poor drugs. As for methods
to ensure this quality control their means were generally limited. Sellers in both
locations relied essentially on experience using sensory skills to determine the
quality of a given batch. The methods used were based on folk knowledge and were
likely highly unreliable. Too poor a level of received quality was reported as likely
to lead to return of goods to their supplier and in a competitive (i.e. nonmonopoly
or oligopoly) market context probably militated against too much cutting before
heroin reaches the street level. Culturally, the cutting of drugs was not something
that most of the sample was comfortable with, and this was perhaps borne out by
the fact that even during a period of heroin scarcity there was little reported change
of behavior in this regard.
As has been argued elsewhere (Coomber, 1997c), many of the popular assumptions
about what dealers do are reinforcing and circular. Thus a dealer that cuts the drugs
they sell with poisonous substances would probably think little of enticing nonusers
to addictive drug use for their own benefit and vice versa. Once we start to question
some of the behaviors, however, other common assumptions surrender to greater
scrutiny. This is also true in this research as regards the use of freebies and other
credit to entrap new users. Again, consistent with research elsewhere where extras
were sometimes given as rewards for good custom—almost exclusively to extant and
proven clients—our sample did not report enticement with free drugs and indeed at
the level they were operating at with such slender profit margins it was impractical
and not expected. As in the broader literature, the notion of targeting nonusers or
even approaching anyone they felt were not obviously drug users was considered
to be too risky in terms of exposing themselves to arrest.
Thus, there are real difficulties in knowing just what any drug market looks like
at any point in time, particularly if research is largely absent. Changes in personnel
(sellers and buyers), types and degrees of organization, and even location mean that
drug markets are fluid rather than fixed entities. Despite this there is a tendency for
perceptions of drug markets to be relatively fixed in terms of their characteristics
and for particular geographical areas to acquire stereotypical reputations.
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It is also important to note that there is not one drug market in Kings Cross
or in Cabramatta but many. The focus of this research has primarily been on the
street-level heroin markets. We have not explored the closed markets that no doubt
operate within and around these more open markets, or markets for other drugs
such as ecstasy, or even those that operate above the street level. Our focus on
the open street heroin markets in these areas is justified by the fact that it is these
markets that often provide the defining characteristics of what the drug market is
considered to be like.
Overall, we are left with a snapshot (albeit one informed by an average of over
five years dealing in those areas) of the street heroin markets in Kings Cross and
Cabramatta that is at apparent odds with many popular, media, and enforcement
perceptions of them. This is highly problematic. Approaches to dealing with drug
markets cannot be based upon supposition and reference to images characterized by
particular examples in particular moments in time such as the volatile crack markets
of 1980s New York (cf Curtis, 2003) and yet arguably, such characterization often
takes place in this way.
We are not suggesting that the drug trade and related crime in these areas is not
significant or that it does not involve higher levels of intimidation and violence
than locations without drug markets. However, these are perhaps much lower than
often assumed and are as much about disaggregating drug market violence from
other types of violence such as that related to local gang conflicts. As such, what we
have presented is in no sense an apologia for street drug sellers in these locations.
Rather, the findings suggest that perceptions of drug markets in these areas may
overstate the threats that they represent to public order, perpetuate unreliable drug
dealer stereotypes and as a consequence exacerbate community fears that result in
calls for hard-line enforcement responses.
NOTES
1 A number of issues need to be considered when reflecting on the success of the
model employed and the likelihood of its replication elsewhere. Perhaps the
most important consideration is that the drug using community of Kings Cross
is a heavily researched community. Whilst it is true that little if any research has
previously tried to access dealers at Kings Cross, familiarity with both research
and researchers is well ingrained among drug users, sex workers, and others
in the area. This was not a research naive population. The second important
consideration was the esteem with which workers connected to KRC were
held. As the interviews progressed, it became increasingly evident that KRC
(and adjunct) staff were highly trusted, and the fact that they were backing the
project gave the researcher valuable credibility. A third factor that contributed
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to successful recruitment was the relatively sociable nature of the environment
in which these individuals operated. Operating on the same street for many
years means that they become known to others and others become known to
them. Each dealer interviewed was able to provide an introduction to at least
one other dealer. Sometimes this would be their partner (in sales), sometimes
an ex-partner or an acquaintance. In most instances these contacts were close
by and, once reassured by their fellow dealer, happy to participate. The $30
AUD paid to participants provided some incentive, but most expressed the view
that they were happy to assist. Goodwill towards the project was surprisingly
evident, with one participant declaring that he had enjoyed talking about the
issues covered, whilst a few others saw their participation as helping in some
way (one, towards drug legalization). In at least four of the initial 22 interviews,
dealers who had just completed an interview and who were unaware of the $10
being offered for a further introduction returned with someone else that they
had convinced the research was bonafide (and one assumes, as worthy). Only
one individual scheduled for interview declined at the last moment. As the
number of dealers participating increased, it was clear that the researcher was
considered bonafide. Access to the final four dealers interviewed was achieved
without providing any payment.
2 The use of capsules that once contained other substances such as paracetamol
and all of the adulterants and diluents that were contained in that powdered
substance means that forensic analysis would find these as adulterants and
diluents of the heroin tested. This is highly problematic because although trace
amounts of these substances would be present, it is inappropriate to suggest that
they were put there to dilute the heroin for purposes of increasing volume and
thus the amount to be sold. Much forensic reporting only reports the existence
of various substances and not the amount/proportions found.
3 Some cutting agents are purposely added to provide a bitter taste (see Coomber,
1997a), and, as such, a test for bitterness may be quite unreliable as an indicator.
The experience of the hit, moreover, can be significantly affected by a range of
factors beyond the pharmacological makeup of the drug, such as set and setting.
Also, drug users notoriously believe that quality is always “worse than it used
to be” even when purity levels have risen and often attribute particular reactions
to cutting agents even when they are not present. A further confounding twist
to such indicators was brought up when one dealer referred to the addition of
paracetamol to help produce the kind of yellow burn associated with high purity
drugs.
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4 Substantiable in this sense merely meaning the claim by the user to have
witnessed such an act. Merely knowing about a dealer “who does that kind of
stuff” or other such rumors were not considered to be first-hand knowledge.
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