Narcotics Sales as a System

Abstract

I showed the inmates a drawing of the distribution system for narcotics. It had four levels, and I asked if they could locate themselves within this system. I also asked whether the system had the correct number of levels, and whether they disagreed with the drawing or would have drawn it a different way. Some said that there were more levels, others said there were fewer. Most of the informants characterized the number of levels in the drawing as correct. It also turned out that those who had started with robbery, theft and violence as children, gradually drifted into the system at a high or low level and had started as users and/or sellers at a high or low level. This means that the distribution system for narcotics has a dominant, structural role to play for those who are involved in various types of criminality. All of the informants could locate themselves within the system.