@article{ref1,
title="Stages of drug market change during disaster: Hurricane Katrina and reformulation of the New Orleans drug market",
journal="International journal on drug policy",
year="2012",
author="Dunlap, Eloise and Graves, Jennifer and Benoit, Ellen",
volume="23",
number="6",
pages="473-480",
abstract="BACKGROUND: In recent years, numerous weather disasters have crippled many cities and towns across the United States of America. Such disasters present a unique opportunity for analyses of the disintegration and reformulation of drug markets. Disasters present new facts which cannot be &quot;explained&quot; by existing theories. Recent and continuing disasters present a radically different picture from that of police crack downs where market disruptions are carried out on a limited basis (both use and sales). Generally, users and sellers move to other locations and business continues as usual. METHODS: The Katrina Disaster in 2005 offered a larger opportunity to understand the functioning and processes by which drug markets may or may not survive. Utilizing a variety of qualitative data including ethnographic field notes, in-depth interview transcripts, and focus group transcripts, we investigate the operation of the New Orleans drug market before, during, and after Hurricane Katrina. RESULTS: Our data clearly indicate that drug markets go through a series of stages in the wake of disaster in which they disintegrate and then reconstitute themselves. In the case of New Orleans, the post-Katrina drug market was radically different from the pre-Katrina drug market. CONCLUSION: Ultimately this manuscript presents a paradigm which uses stages as a testable concept to scientifically examine the disintegration and reformulation of drug markets during disaster or crisis situations. It describes the specific processes - referred to as stages - which drug markets must go through in order to function and survive during and after a natural disaster.<p /> <p>Language: en</p>",
language="en",
issn="0955-3959",
doi="10.1016/j.drugpo.2012.04.003",
url="http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.drugpo.2012.04.003"
}