Drug Abuse

THE INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF DRUG POLICY 1993 4 2

BRIXTON LONDON
A DRUG CULTURE WITHOUT A DRUG ECONOMY?

It is a shared belief that in some London inner city areas the growth of drug markets provides high illegal earnings for street sellers and distributors. Among such areas Lambeth, but more particularly Brixton, are deemed to be prosperous drug markets where large illicit profits are p~oduced. Vincenzo Ruggeiro tries to identify the dimension and features of the drug economy in Brixton.

The qualitative research on which this article was based, conducted between June and December 1992, funded by the Lambeth Drugs Prevention Unit (Home Office), was wider in scope than the present article, as it aimed to assess the perceptions of the drug phenomenon among groups of inhabitants in central Lambeth. It focused on a variety of themes such as: the dimension of drug abuse, the availability of drugs, the existence of a drug problem and the drug economy in the area, the causes of drug abuse and preventive drug policies. The following pages are confined to the information, suggestions and perceptions of informants with regard to dimension of the drug economy in the area under investigation.

Interviews were conducted with habitual and occasional users, street dealers, drug agency workers and social workers. A total number of approximately 100 persons was involved in the interview process. Despite the relatively small sample and the limitations inherent in qualitative and ethnographic research such as the present project, in this article an embryonic picture emerges of how those who inhabit the drug economy in Brixton perceive the characteristics of this economy.

DEMOGRAPHIC DATA

Lambeth has the second largest population in inner London, with some 234000 people officially living in; the borough. It is a multicultural community with over 30% of the population coming from black or other ethnic minorities. Almost one in five of Lambeth's households are singleparent families. Almost 80% of Lambeth's employment is in services and public administration. About 33 5 10 people were unemployed in March 1992 - that is, one in four of the borough's work force. The percentage increase in unemployment in the period 1989-91 was 49.3 % (PSI, 1992).

The government considers Lambeth to be the fourth most deprived borough in the country (London Borough of Lambeth, 199 1; Lambeth Services, 1992). Almost 29% of the estimated adult population are claimants receiving income support or supplementary benefit. The percentage is higher when only people aged 60 and over are considered: 35.1 %, which compares with 19.3% in England as a whole. This seems to suggest that deprivation in Lambeth increases during the course of individuals' lives, and afflicts the more disadvantaged in their most vulnerable life period: from retirement to death. Mortality ratios, which are also associated with poverty and deprivation, increased well over the national average between 1977 and 1990 (PSI, 1992). Homelessness rose from 2.4 per 1000 households in 1980 to 6.4 in 1991 (PSI, 1992).
In spite of all the above, financial aid from central government, during the 1980s, declined in real terms.
These figures suggest a deterioration in general social conditions in Lambeth over the last two decades. It is
worth noting that, back in the 1960s, Lambeth was already regarded as a deprived area, suffering from major social and environmental problems, where 'the place and its people have been left behind by prospertry, and this gap has been widening' (Shanklarid et al., 1977, p. 1). The above figures also demonstrate that recommendat ions put forward in the mid- I 970s as regards improvement in the area went largely unheeded.

DEPRIVATION AND DRUG ABUSE

The demographic data may lead one to think that an area such as Lambeth, officially described as a deprived area, is more likely than other areas to be affected by drug abuse. However, the association of drugs with deprivation is far from clear and straightforward. Drug use affects both deprived and affluent areas; social conditions seem to determine, at most, thelmotivation pattern, the effects and the degree of risk related to drug use. It is true that some unemployed youths may find in the drugscene avicarious occupational arenaproviding them with income, sociability and a life structure (Allen and Jekel, 1991). Nevertheless, it seems also true that unemployment may be an outcome rather than a cause of drug use, and that in some classes it is the availability of money rather than the lack of it which may lure certain individuals into the drugs business (Reuter, McConn and Murphy, 1990; Ruggiero, 1992; Ruggiero and Vass, 1992).
If drug use involves diverse social groups and classes, its impact varies. The condition in which drugs are used, their quality, the expectations of users, along with their lifestyle, determine the degree of severity of what is termed a'drug problem'. Disadvantaged individuals may find in drug use a supplementary source of disadvantage, thus adding to their social vulnerability. Others may find in drug use an additional vehicle of group sociability. Some others may discover in the commercial use of drugs a parallel source of economic advantage.
There are drug economies virtually devoid of a drug culture. Here, a well-structured drug business may be in operation which does not foster distinctive, visible attitudes among both suppliers and customers. In some areas, for instance, the supply of drugs occurs in a protected environment, and use takes place in safe conditions. Here, discretion keeps the official agencies at bay (Arlacchi and Lewis, 1991). By contrast, some areas present themselves with a drug culture which is virtually devoid of a drug economy in the sense that suppliers and customers do not participate in a lively, prosperous illegal economy. Here, both dealers may be very visible, unwittingly contributing to the shaping of stereotypes attached to them and the area where they reside. These areas, where well-structured remunerative illegal transactions rarely take place, may become a:' high-profile target for the intervention of official agencies.

These hypotheses formed the premise to discussions and interviews with individual or groups of informants. Their views are collected below.

A DRUGS ECONOMY IN LAMBETH?

A group of social workers suggested that drugs are tolerated in Lambeth because they provide an alternative economy where deprived people find a source of income. On the other hand, a very frequent comment of my informants was that the reputation of central Lambeth produces an imaginary magnification of the actual dimension of the drugs economy. It was felt, for example, that because the area is notoriously poor, there is a tendency to think that there must be a lot of drugs around. This may prompt the authorities to act accordingly, thus creating a vicious circle whereby more police activity in the area leads to more arrests being made and more drugs found.

The reputation of Lambeth as a prosperous drugs market may also cause strange incidents. Buyers may be attracted to the demand area and find drug supply insufficient. This leads to the appearance on the scene of improvised suppliers who are incapable of 'doing the job properly'. In the words of a user:

Here, the chances of getting oregano instead of 'grass' are very high. For this reason it's always best to have personal contacts, or to cultivate particular dealers. If you know somebody, you buy from them. The word gets around that there is a serious dealer and you try and contact him.

It may happen that bogus drugs are sold in certain periods because somebody is holding on to the good  a while, with the intention of bringing wards at higher prices. This was said to ve happened around last Christmas, when revellers o were getting ready for partying found unpreceredly high prices. Another user explained:

Many cocaine users would come to this area to score. They think they can find anything they want here. They are usually whites who believe both the hype and the rumour that prices are lower here. They do not know, and probably they are not in a position to cheek, what they are getting. This also applies to cannabis. Those who come from other areas to buy cannabis make us laugh. We call the stuff they get 'Brixton bush'. Young people know that customers come from all over London, and of course they don't always have the good-quality drugs to sell, so they just offer what comes handy.

In effect, some cannabis dealers stock two different qualities - one for their clients and friends, and the other for occasional customers allured by the reputation surrounding the area. Some of the users 1 conted argued that the 'incompetence' and dishonesty of some dealers make the whole drug trade unreliable.

Many resident users go elsewhere to buy, in order both find better deals and to escape what they see as a heavily policed environment.

A social worker gave yet another example of the outcome of the area's reputation. In her experience, car thieves come to this area because they believe that this is a no-go area for the police. They are so instructed by those who commission theft from them. But, she explained:

They are all caught, because on the contrary this area is under strict control. When these youths are arrested, everybody is puzzled. Social workers and the police find it hard to understand, because they think they know all the 'problem' youths who live in the area. Only eventually do they find out that these youths don't live here.

The crime/drug connection has spawned extensive research, but yielded very contradictory results (Inciardi, 1984; Cohen, 1989; Mott, 199 1; Dorn et al., 1992). However, if we concede that a portion of drug users do resort to acquisitive offences, what kind of offences and what type of economy these generate deserve thorough examination. Less than half the users interviewed admitted to committing offences in order to finance their habit. A similar proportion emerged when drug agency workers were asked to estimate the percentage of users/offenders known to them.

In the view of most drug workers, the drug economy in central Lambeth is a domestic, petty, hand-to-mouth economy. In a sense, this informal economy mirrors the regular exchange of things and little amounts of money which occurs in some housing estates. Small quantities of drugs are sometimes exchanged, borrowed or sold, j . ust as sums as low as £10 are sometimes lent to neighbours. A drug worker noted that when drug users turn to burglary, they reveal how hopelessly unskilled they are:

The number of burglars arrested while holding stolen goods at home is perhaps an indication of their professional inadequacy and their little, knowledge of networks where the goods can be circulated.

The success claimed by the police in fighting burglaries may be the result of the increasing professional inadequacy of burglars rather than of 'Police patrols, both uniformed and plain clothes, together with extensive use of our Scenes of Crime staff' (Metropolitan Police, 199 1, p. 2). A number of informants confirmed that many drug users who turn to burglary are more likely than other burglars to confine themselves to this professionally inadequate milieu.

The limited scope of the drug economy is with regard to heroin in particular, whose consumption is felt to be as steady as the money circulation connected to it. The development of a genuinely commercial spirit within the heroin economy seems therefore unlikely. Furthermore, heroin still requires users to adopt a set, albeit vague, of 'counter- values'. Heroin users often feel they have something in common, and in the name of their tacit complicity, social, racial, and sometimes even gender differences among them may blur.

The cocaine market is generally seen as more conucive to a commercial spirit and thus to harsh competition. Because the drug suits diverse lifestyles and! social groups, conflicts emerging in the cocaine milieu resonate with or mimic the conflicts in law-abiding milieu. Race differences are strongly felt, and hierarchies identified and respected. In sum, the cocaine scene is more problematic because it is more conformist. In the view of a drug worker:

Cocaine may constitute a realistic career choice - more so than other drugs. It is true that there are probably still some old-style bohemian-type cocaine dealers, who use the substance and share it with their peers. But in general commercial relationships prevail in the cocaine market and very ambitious individuals force their way into it. For these reasons perhaps the cocaine economy is more problematic.

The prevailing feeling among my informants was that little money is accumulated in the area through drug selling. The paucity of the drug economy was interpreted as a sign that profits go to other city areas where police control is not as strict. In other words, nvestors and large distributors are said to reside out of central Lambeth. If large distributors operated in central Lambeth, this would result in more money circulation being visible. This would also be apparent in more licit businesses being set up with the proceeds of drug selling.

A group of youth workers argued that, as distribution becomes more hidden and dangerous, more professional people are needed especially among the highand middle-rank dealers. These preferably move out of central Lambeth, if they have ever lived in the area. In Lambeth, instead, they may find young people who are prepared to 'work'for them at street level. As a social worker stressed:

Some youths do not get much ogt of it. They are exploited. All they get is prison.

The role of these vulnerable street workers seems exactly that: to be arrested. They are there to feed the criminal justice system. This was the opinion, among others, of some occasional cannabis users:

Only the small fish are left here. They are very well known, and are exposed to high risk. Even we know them, although we only buy drugs occasionally. This tells you how well known they must be around here. They are probably left alone because the police try to see if they lead them to someone bigger, like their suppliers. They have a very stressful life, and hate their work, because theirs is not a career.

Some dealers are also engaged in other activities which supplement their income from drugs. Claiming state benefits, selling stolen goods and petty theft are among them. Although periodically apprehended, they are forced to inhabit this petty economy, especially if they are users as well as dealers. Some of them may start a career with the desire of escaping the boredom of a regular low-paid job. In this sense, most of the users 1 talked to thought that a residual 'glamour' is attached to the drug world, as it appears to be a'free'and exciting world. But, as they soon realise, 'In fact it also involves a lot of work'.

Speaking from personal experience, a crack dealer described the drugs economy in central Lambeth in the following terms:

There are about 12 middle-range distributors who never go on the street in this area. They take between 50% and 70% of the street value of the substances sold. In turn, they buy in other areas. It is very rare that distributors here are in direct contact with importers, or are importers themselves. These middle-range distributors are in contact with street sellers, and it is here that problems start. Those who operate at street level are unreliable, and what is happening now is that many users go somewhere else to choose their own supplier. It is also happening that users prefer to buy from white dealers, who are seen as more serious. Among dealers you now find ordinary people who just get up promptly in the morning to do their job. They have a mortgage to pay, children to maintain.

From this testimony, it seems that the more disadvantaged people in central Lambeth are not only denied an official and acceptable legal occupation, they are even denied the possibility of a career in illegal activities. The majority of my informants felt that the community does not benefit from the drug economy operating in the area. The proceeds of drug distribution, it was argued, may at most feed individual flashy consumption. As a social worker lamented:

What we see here is a few big cars and some portable phones. But this is not big money, as some are inclined to think. What annoys me is: all right, drugs are producing a lot of money, but none of that money is then invested in this community. All we've got left here is some gold and gaudy clothes for a few dealers.

That lament alluded to the notion that a criminal trade is a true economy only when it converts some of its proceeds into legal enterprises. This is, in effect, the case in countries where prosperous illegal economics exist, and where an indicator of the dimensions of struc, tured criminal activities is the degree to which these activities establish links with legal activities. Most of my informants suggested that disadvantaged people in Brixton are doomed, as they lack opportunities and infrastructures to change their condition. When trying to venture into some sort of business, frequently they are denied bank loans. This lack of infrastructure and finance reverberates in the illegal economy, which remains sloppy, amateurish.

For example, is it not surprising that a market of counterfeit goods is non-existent in the area? This is a typical feature of deprived areas in most European cities, where goods such as designer-label clothes are in high demand, In these cities, underground economies flourish, both at retail and production level, and they service a vast client≤ who cannot afford the original variety of those goods Wasillo, 1990; Ruggiero, 1993). Label clothes, and also other 'good-brand' commodities, are thus available at low prices. None of this happens in Brixton, where, as a cannabis dealer noted:

We don't have a chance to set up a business like that, firstly because we are refused bank loans, and secondly because we would be immediately caught. That's why you either buy expensive goods or just get trash. As for clothes, this is a general feature in England: you can only be smart if you are rich... look how easy it is to tell class differences in this country.

My informants also disputed another assumption which is frequently put forward by both the local and the national press. This regards the increasing use of firearms as an indication that a real drugs economy has by now developed in Lambeth, and that a war is being waged for territory control. A recent barrage of media coverage on this issue conveyed the notion that a wellstructured market has taken shape where groups cornpete with a view towards establishing monopolistic conditions (Guardian, 10 August 199 1; Mitchell, 199 1; South London Press, 1 May 1992; Zilkha, 1992; South London Press, 16 October 1992). The reality in central Lambeth seems to be different. Here, the use of firearms is either independent of the drug market or marks a phase which precedes the involvement of organised groups in it. Some armed robberies, my informants emphasised, are carried out because they allow a sort of preliminary accumulation of funds, which will eventually be invested into drugs. Sometimes the investors contact experts in armed robberies and commission the operations. Only afterwards do some of these tentrepreneurs'try to buy quantities of drugs with a view to launching them on the market. This market is still far from being rigidly structured, let alone presenting with monopolistic features or tendencies. The drug market seems as chaotic as drug use, and allows for ventures of diverse individuals, often improvised dealers, and unlikely firms.

Violent episodes occurring in the drug economy are not perceived as symptoms of the increasing stakes involved in it. It is felt that there is no rational relationship between risks and benefits forthose involved in the drug economy. Nor does the degree of violence observed in this economy tend itself to accurate calculation on the part of those who deploy it (De La Rosa et al., 1990). This is also the case with predatory activities in Brixton. Even robberies do not necessarily bring large amounts of money. The local press describes, in thorough detail, armed robberies which yield average sums of E50. Details are not spared even when, as it frequently happens, robberies are only attempted. Mugging, given the modest amounts of money involved, is becoming a sort of violent begging.

A drug worker argued that the degree of violence in the drug business is just a reflection of the increasing level of violence in society as a whole. He also argued that this produces self-images among users and small dealers which are disproportionate with their actual calibre:

Among my clients I don't see any Dillinger or Al Capone, but they all think they are gangsters. Somebody made them think they are - perhaps the media or the police. In fact they delude themselves: they think they are making a career, but they are just setting up the scene for themselves. They are vulnerable and obvious, they'll never make it to the top.

Among my informants, violence was more associated with alcohol rather than with drug use.

A dealer suggested that even so-called (alleged professional criminals and illegal immigrants from Jamaica) would find it hard to put some kind of order into what seems a very low-profile and confused economy (Headley, 1992). He hypothesised:

The Yardies don't have a chance to develop their business because other gangs of white professional criminals would not allow them to. 1 also suspect that the white gangs themselves fuelled the panic about the Yardies, because they saw them as dangerous competitors. They must have informed the police, who in fact got information about the Yardies that they would never have picked up by themselves.

This informant added that traditional white groups already involved in the underground economy contributed to the creation of the Yardie phenomenon and the scare attached to it. He concluded that'this country is a bastion of racism', and the blacks are nor even given the opportunity to improve in alternative or illegal businesses.

This point also emerged among both habitual and occasional users. As mentioned above, many black dealers are regarded as cheats, and therefore they find it hard to climb the criminal career echelon. Those who make it are highly stigmatised, not so much for being drug dealers as for being entrepreneurs. The moral disapproval of relatively prosperous black drug distributors hides a subtle resentment against the black population, rather than against drug barons. The blacks who succeed, even in crime, are somehow seen as overturning the'natural'order of society. They are not expected to become suppliers but confine themselves to the role of users, as the whites are 'naturally' to occupy the leading positions in the drugs and other economies.

A dealer claimed that even in the crack business, allegedly controlled by black entrepreneurs, the position of the blacks is in fact confino41 to the lower strata of the distribution chain. They would buy cocaine from white large suppliers, and then 'wash it' before selling on the street. The good stuff, he said, is kept outside of Lambeth:

Good cocaine is found in areas with a better reputation than this one. If a police raid in Lambeth seizes £800 worth of crack, this means that the same raid in Hampstead would seize £1 million worth of cocaine. Some time ago, for example, the local place where 1 used to buy was raided. But those who supplied my suppliers were not; they still operate undisturbed. They have both the good stuff and the money.

The disorganisation of the drug market in central Lambeth is confirmed by a number of episodes. People without any previous experience may be approached and asked if they want to be involved in drug selling even before they are asked to buy drugs. What commercial efficiency can neophytes offer? Lacking apprenticeship, they are inevitably caught, and often do not know why: they do not envisage this possibility. As an ex-usersaid:

The principle used to be: if you can't do the time, don't do the crime. Nowadays, they cannot do the crime and cannot do the time either. They don't plan what they do; they don't calculate the effects. My boyfriend, who was a small dealer, had a big shock when he was brought to prison; he never imagined his life ending up like that.

Users may be incapable of committing remunerative offences, and resort to stealing from people who are most close to them. Their victims include relatives, friends, and other users. However, most of the users I talked to claimed their'honourability' in the choice of targets. Attacking a person on the street, for example, was said to be a taboo, whereas shoplifting was presented as a favourite activity. Moral principles mixed with a vague political awareness were implied in this claim: stealing from large companies (big stores and the like) is not regarded as so socially damaging as stealing from vulnerable people.

Many users do not like the drug scene; they just like drugs. Therefore, the choice as to which illegal activity, if any, they engage in is promoted by their unwillingness to be bogged down in the drug market. Their dislike includes images and stereotypes superimposed on them by outsiders, who tend to see them as callous and indiscriminate predators. Is this one of the reasons why they keep a low criminal profile? At Mainliners, a local drug agency, this point was endorsed as follows:

Drug-related crimes are not as many as people think. In this area we didn't have a real hard drugs epidemic, one which would be visible through the dramatic increase of property crime. Property crime is relatively independent of drugs. In this sense, the ordinary residents in Lambeth may not perceive the existence of a drug problem in their area. However, it's also difficult to draw precise boundaries, because people are mobile. Some may go to other areas both to steal and to score. This perhaps happens because central Lambeth is heavily policed.

It may happen that youths are'hired'by adult groups to commit offences. These groups, a social worker said: 'know juvenile law and youth courts, and calculate that the youths, when apprehended, will only be cautioned or get a community order'. But again, these offences were said to be very selective, as they do not target passer-by strangers and normally are not associated with drug use. Drug-related offences may be directed against the very enclave of users, or even by users against themselves.   
Prostitution, for example,in the words of a drug agency manager:

Re-establishes sex roles within a setting that one would think less conservative than the official society. The sex industry in this country is now bigger than it's ever been. Some female drug users continue their career as prostitutes even after coming off drugs. This is degrading and dangerous, and explains how people who most suffer the consequences of drug-related crime are users themselves and their limited milieu.

Self-inflicted crime and harm were also part of the argument put forward by an ex-drug user. After being arrested, he addressed the youths with a message depicting drug offenders as their own main victims. In a letter to a local paper he wrote:

I write this letter from a cage of my own making. At the beginning of 19911 embarked upon my first venture into crack [ ... ] I am not stupid, I knew of the dangers. I'd heard the stories and even knew people whose lives had been destroyed - and ended - by crack. No one put a gun to my head and said take a 'lick' or smoke. 1 did so freely, thinking I could control it. 1 was different. I was not going to fall into the trap of those weak-minded souls who get themselves shacked to the drug, I thought. In my arrogance I did not notice my life slipping away
from me [ ...] I Don't use crack. Do not fall into the trap. No one controls crack. It controls you (The Voice, 24 December, 1991).

It is worth adding that 'control', as described by the above ex-user, should be understood as a process which compounds users' dependence on drugs with their dependence on the drugs economy. Do drugs act as employers of last resort, the equivalent of MacDonalds (Davies, 1990)?

CONCLUDING REMARKS

All users and dealers interviewed agreed that the drug economy in Brixton and Lambeth is not as prosperous as it is widely assumed to be. Here, those who supply users, in turn, are supplied by larger distributors who reside outside the borough. This may be the result of former institutional intervention during the mid1980s, which presumably displaced large drug distributors to less 'suspect' areas. This may also indicate, as some of my informants argued, that not only do impoverished areas fail to set up legal businesses, they also find it hard to establish illegal ones. There is a drug culture in Brixton, there is also a visible drug scene in the area, although this is devoid of a real drug economy. This is true if we accept the notion that prosperous drug economies are able, and in a sense are forced, to invest illegal proceeds in legal enterprises. In Brixton, this occurs to a negligible degree.

The relative deprivation of Brixton, and the poverty of its drug economy, also reverberate in the pattern of its illegal activities. Social disadvantage is reflected even upon the very pattern of drug use in the area. It is not by chance that the most harmful drug used in Brixton is temazepan, a very cheap drug, which is legal to possess and use, though not to supply. According to the drug outreach worker for West Lambeth Health, Authority, there are two particular problems associated with this drug. Firstly, arrest, as the users are unaware of the obvious disturbance of their speech and behaviour caused by thisdrug, while these effects of thedrugdonot,~ escape police attention. Secondly:

Temazepan, despite assurances to the contrary from manufacturers, remains injectable and is fte-' quently injected. Recent changes in the constitution of the gel within the capsules has made the drug more hazardous. Injection causes severe problems with circulation, severe abscesses and often results in the loss or permanent disabling of limbs and digits. This is caused by the gel re-solidifying within the body (HIV/Drugs Outreach Worker, 1992, p. 5).

In a marginalised situation, and within a petty drug economy, also the use of cocaine and its derivatives may be more problematic than in affluent contexts. For example, a paradox is apparent whereby crack users are increasingly vulnerable also because the price of cocaine is increasing. In other words, marginalised crack users are affected by the consumer demand of middle-class cocaine users (Williams, 1990). The former are constantly forced to step up their earning in order to catchup with prices. Inbrief, problematicuse is also fostered by non-problematic use. Finally, marginalisation also affects the way in which drugs are administered and the effect they produce. In Brixton, for example, many cocaine users who cannot buy large quantities of the substance may resort to injecting it. Because these users tend to associate risk exclusively with hero-; in use, and because they are sexually active and likely to share syringes, it would come as no surprise if HIV soon spread faster among cocaine users than among opiate users.

Many literary classics have explored the magic properties of drugs. The exploration of the 'mediocre' human condition showed that the humans are not mediocre creatures after all. This seemed to apply to everyone: drugs were deemed 'democratic'. They were supposed to offer revelations without regard to the merits of the person using them (Paz, 1990). The reality today seems more mundane. The dreams induced by drugs in poets and in ordinary people are increasingly different.

Vincenzo Ruggiero

Reader in Criminology and Social Studies, School of Social Work, Middlesex University

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