Days with Drug Distribution: Which Drugs? How Many Transactions? With What Returns? (From Drugs, Crime and the Criminal Justice System, P 193-214, 1990, Ralph Weisheit, ed., -- See NCJ-123316)

• NCJ Number: 123324
• Author(s): B D Johnson; M A Kaplan; J Schmeidler
• Date Published: 1990
• Length: 22 pages
• Grant Number(s): 1 R01 DA01926-07
• Sponsoring Agency: New York State; National Institute on Drug Abuse
• Sale Source: Anderson Publishing Co
• Publication Type: Survey
• Language: English
• Country: United States of America

Annotation

The sale and distribution of illegal drugs is one of the most frequently committed and economically lucrative crimes in American society today.

Abstract

This study of 201 heroin abusers, called the Economic Behavior Project, was designed to collect detailed data about daily patterns of criminal and drug-using behavior. One central finding was how extensive and important various forms of drug distribution were to the lifestyles of heroin abusers. Heroin abusers commit a variety of drug distribution crimes involving several drugs, particularly heroin, cocaine, and marijuana. Virtually all these drug crimes occurred without any contact with police. Most distribution crimes occur during a relatively small number of days, but involve several transactions per day from which relatively limited returns in cash are realized. Most transactions are "paid" in drugs which the person consumes. Such frequent, but small, drug transactions by heroin abusers at the street level have become the major crime problem in many cities in America. New efforts to greatly improve enforcement practices and make treatment widely available to drug abusers are badly needed. 2 tables, 3 notes, 48 references.