Don't Be Your Own Best Customer - Drug Use of San Francisco Gang Drug Sellers (From Drug Use and Drug Policy, P 403-417, 1997, Marilyn McShane, Frank P. Williams, III, eds. - See NCJ-168395)

• NCJ Number: 168413
• Author(s): D Waldorf
• Date Published: 1997
• Length: 15 pages
• Sale Source: Garland Publishing, Inc.
• Publication Type: Report (Study/Research)
• Language: English
• Country: United States of America
• Note: DCC

Annotation

This article reports preliminary findings of a survey of 300 gang members in San Francisco about the drug use of gang drug sellers.

Abstract

Conventional wisdom holds that most retail drug sellers, those who sell small amounts, use the drugs they sell and that drug selling is undertaken not only for the purpose of making money but to get the drugs they desire or need. There have been a few accounts of groups who rationalized drug sales to maximize profits and as a result did not use the drugs they sold, but the literature on the topic of the drug use of sellers is sketchy. Findings of the San Francisco study reveal that the majority of gang crack sellers, who are usually African-Americans, do not use crack themselves while the majority of marijuana, powder cocaine and heroin sellers do use the drugs they sell. In general, African-American gangs that sell crack in San Francisco have rules about the use of crack by sellers and believe that it is a highly addictive drug that is bad for business and contrary to a gang principle of "being down" for the "hood" and other gang members. Tables, references