About the project
Large-scale drug dealers and traffickers are often portrayed as being members of large, hierarchical, mafia-style syndicates. Similarly, several studies of large-scale dealing and trafficking have emphasized rational, entrepreneurial modes of organization. Drug dealing and trafficking have often been regarded as the result of a combination of individual preferences and responses to opportunities in a market.
Studies of street-level drug dealing, on the other hand, emphasize the importance of marginalization and exclusion. Studies from both the U.S. and the Nordic countries reveal how street-level drug dealing can be understood as a response to socioeconomic marginalization. In this project we explore the structure of the illegal drug economy and the trajectories of the actors involved.
We are also interested in the cultural and social aspects of drug use and the narrative dimension of both drug use and drug dealing. We seek a better understanding of drug use by analyzing the life stories of drug users. Interview data allow us to explore how and why some individuals begin using and dealing illegal drugs - and why some are able to quit. Public representations of drug dealing and how they influence both policy outcomes and actors in the illegal drug economy are also under scrutiny.
Data
We have conducted qualitative interviews with 70 imprisoned drug dealers in Norway. They were interviewed in six different prisons. All interviewees had experience with drug distribution in some form, and the sample covered a broad spectrum of drug offenses, from lower-level heroin dealing to large-scale, international smuggling of cocaine, amphetamine and heroin. Most of those interviewed had long histories of substance abuse, and amphetamines or opiates were their primary drugs of choice.
Objectives
- What are the characteristics of imprisoned large-scale drug dealers in Norway?
- How is the illegal drug economy organized?
- What are the symbolic differences between different illegal drugs (including amphetamines, heroin and cannabis) and drug users?
- What stories do large-scale drug dealers tell, and what are their implications?
- What would a rational drug policy towards large-scale drug dealing look like?
Background
The project period is from 2012 to 2015. "The project is connected thematically and organizationally to the NFR-funded research project Cannabis: Subculture, Economy and Social Marginality
Victor Lund Shammas (MA Sociology) is in charge of organizing data collection and coding, and he plays a key role in coordinating the project.
Professor Willy Pedersen, Associate Professor Sveinung Sandberg and PhD student Heidi Grundetjern are attached to the project.