NCJ Number
124471
Journal
Contemporary Drug Problems Volume: 17 Issue: 1 Dated: (Spring 1990) Pages: 31-78
Date Published
1990
Length
48 pages
Annotation
Using data collected in ethnographic research since 1976 on marijuana and cocaine use in the Caribbean islands and in Caribbean immigrant communities of New York City, the author concludes that violence associated with drug use and distribution results from unique impacts on particular neighborhoods that are determined by shifts in the overall political economy.
Abstract
Research findings show that drug use and distribution are not the work of alienated, deviant, or anomic individuals. Activities of drug users and distributors may be viewed as being in perfect accord with transformations in the physical appearance of the study neighborhoods, in local housing conditions, in household composition, in relations between household members, and in the social integration of neighborhoods. The use and distribution of marijuana, especially from 1974 to 1981, became a symbol and an exemplary working model of control, capital accumulation, restrained interpersonal relations, reconciled families, and neighborhood integration at a time when Caribbeans in the United States and abroad were consolidating themselves politically, economically, socially, and culturally. Forced interneighborhood migration since the 1970's has caused overcrowding which, in turn, affects household composition and alters relationships in ways that presage vandalism and a breakdown in authority relations. In terms of neighborhood social integration, forced interneighborhood migration continuously throws strangers together and prevents stable associations from developing. Underlying neighborhood destabilization are the flight of capital from local communities and the role of crack users and distributors in this process. 109 references, 1 table.