Abstract

This article explores young people’s involvement in illicit drug markets in England. It focuses in particular on why young people become involved in illicit drug distribution, the extent to which their involvement is predicated on adults’ use of threats and violence, and how young people frame the morality of drug dealing. The article’s findings are based on a unique dataset generated by a six-month period of online social media platform analysis, alongside additional data drawn from periods of observation, focus groups and interviews with young people and professionals. In short, I argue that drug prohibition, consumer capitalism, severe levels of inequality, and emerging problems associated with the rise of online social media are combining to produce a toxic trap that is dragging tens of thousands of young people into street-level drug dealing. Considered in this context, the inadequacy of the UK government’s response to some of the main harms associated with illicit drug markets is clear: children and young people will continue to be coerced and exploited until either drug markets are legalized and regulated, or they have realistic opportunities to pursue lives that offer genuine meaning, decent levels of income, and levels of status and respect that are comparable to those provided by drug distribution.

Details

Title
Illicit Drug Markets, Consumer Capitalism and the Rise of Social Media: A Toxic Trap for Young People
Author
Irwin-Rogers, Keir 1 

 Department of Social Policy and Criminology, The Open University, Milton Keynes, UK 
Pages
591-610
Publication year
2019
Publication date
Dec 2019
Publisher
Springer Nature B.V.
ISSN
12058629
e-ISSN
15729877
Source type
Scholarly Journal
Language of publication
English
ProQuest document ID
2330018442
Copyright
Critical Criminology is a copyright of Springer, (2019). All Rights Reserved., © 2019. This work is published under http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ (the “License”). Notwithstanding the ProQuest Terms and Conditions, you may use this content in accordance with the terms of the License.