A Dizzying Array of Substances.pdf - department of anthropology

The opinion of many of the residents about the men supplying drugs in the flats is interesting.Some users who buy from them remember them as cheeky young kids. Others see them as doingwhat they must do to make their money. Some young people see them as ‘all right’ and others as‘stupid’ to be doing what they are doing. Still others would not cross them, as they are afraid ofthe consequences. What is clear, though, is that everyone knows what everyone else is doing. Oneresident described to us a very similar scene, referring to the same block where Tina regularlybought her heroin.As we speak, he looks over his shoulder from time to time, through his window pane... Thereare four or five young men across the green standing outside of one of the flats. Periodically,one of them goes up to the first level and into one of the flats. He explains how they indicateacross balconies when it is safe to get the drugs (from wherever in the hall they have themstashed). It amazes me that he knows in detail the people involved and what they are doing.This resident acknowledges that he would be seen as a ‘vigo’ (vigilante) by the dealers, thoughhe insists that he is not. He says that vigilantism was recognized as not working, though he claimsthere is a core group of about eight residents who, if pushed far enough, could turn again to ‘directaction’. The killing of Josie Dwyer, a local drug-user, at the height of the ‘Pushers Out’ campaign isstill a watershed in the fight against drugs in the community, however. This death was met with muchlocal revulsion, and subsequently, the ‘Pushers Out’ signs were taken down, and legitimate meanswere pursued to stop local dealing. While the Garda Drugs Unit still see it as possible to ‘clean up’this locality, through sustained effort over a longer period of time, they claim that the resources arenot there to do it. 17Many of the residents, of course, despise the dealers and what they are doing, but they also feelintimidated. The business end of drugs is simply too big and risky for the Residents Associationto deal with. Residents have been threatened, homes attacked, and people forced to resign. Onemother of a nineteen year-old man explains that, if she was seen to do anything, she’s sure her sonwould be punished. The papers are carrying stories daily about gang warfare and shootings and, ‘Itjust seems to be coming closer and closer’.Overall, the professionalization of dealing we see here echoes some themes from North America(see Venkatesh 2008). Many research questions remain, however, about the organization of drugdealingin Dublin, particularly about the social organization of these groups of young men andhow they actually interact within and between what are labelled ‘criminal gangs’ by the Gardaíand the press. Such questions, regrettably, were beyond the scope of this study. With respectto our discussion of the changes that have occurred around drug use and abuse in the CanalCommunities, we can assert that this kind of dealing, which is located in known sites and whichdraws customers from outside, seems to have become less routine after the demolition of mostof the local flat complexes. The main new characteristic of this trade is the centrality of non-usingyoung men at a relatively low level. The attraction of this activity, then, is to be found in the accessto fast cash, camaraderie and peer respect that it clearly provides, rather than as a means offunding a personal drug habit.17 Personal Communications with garda from Drug Unit. See also, Cooke 2007 http://archives.tcm.ie/businesspost/2007/02/04/story20801.aspan ethnographic study of drug use in the canal communities area 51