'Flexible Hierarchies and Dynamic Disorder': the drug distribution system in Frankfurt and Milan

Abstract

The paper reconstructs the illegal drug distribution system in Frankfurt and Milan, by synthesizing the findings of a study that was financed partially by the European Monitoring Centre on Drugs and Drug Addiction. It shows that in both cities the great majority of drug deals, even those involving large quantities of drugs, are carried out by numerous, relatively small, and often ephemeral enterprises. In other words, referring to Adam Smith's famous saying, the 'invisible hand of the market' - and no large-scale organization - runs the drug exchanges. A previous finding of Roger Lewis's pioneering studies on local drug markets is thus confirmed. 'Flexible hierarchies and dynamic disorder' - to quote the title of one of his articles on the matter - dominate the trading and distribution of the major illegal drugs in local (and probably not only local) Western European contexts.