New Toxics, New Poverty: A Social Understanding of the Freebase Cocaine/Paco in Buenos Aires, Argentina

Abstract

Included within the field of research on changes in drug use patterns and vulnerability are conditions of emergency related to economic crisis, wars, and political conflict. This study addresses the complex connections between the rapid propagation of freebase cocaine (FBC)—locally known as “pasta base” or “Paco” in Argentina and the normalization of the consequences of Argentina's 2001–2002 political-economic crisis. On the basis of the results of an ethnographic study carried out in three neighborhoods of the Greater Buenos Aires area between 2001 and 2005, this article aims to analyze how changes in the material and social living conditions are interrelated with the high toxicity of FBC/Paco and engender the emerging compulsion of its consumption and deterioration to the bodies, subjectivities, and social activities of active drug users from these shantytowns. By analyzing the changes in transactions directly or indirectly involving drugs—specifically those ranging from cocaine to FBC/Paco—we can argue how structural poverty, “new poverty,” is not only associated with the expansion of FBC/Paco but is also shaped by its use, modes of consumption, associated health problems, and sufferings.

RESUMEN

Nouvelles substances toxiques, nouvelles formes de pauvreté: un regard social sur la pâte base de cocaïne (paco) en Argentine

Au coeur des recherches sur l’évolution des modèles de consommation de drogues et de la vulnérabilité des consommateurs en temps de crises économiques, de guerres et autres conflits politiques, notre étude se propose d'aborder les liens complexes entre la rapide propagation de la pâte base cocaïne (paco) et la normalisation des conséquences de la crise économique et politique des années 2001–2002 en Argentine. Fondée sur les résultats d'une enquête ethnographique menée dans trois quartiers de la périphérie urabine de Buenos Aires (Grand Buenos Aires) entre 2001 et 2005, cette étude a pour but d'analyser comment la dégradation des conditions de vie associée à la toxicité élevée de la pâte base cocaïne provoquent chez les consommateurs actifs de drogues de ces banlieues marginales une compulsion croissante et la déterioration de leurs capacités physiques, mentales et sociales. Analyser la modification des transactions qui concernent directement ou indirectement les drogues, particulièrement de la cocaïne au paco, permet de démontrer que le développement de la pauvreté—ladite “nouvelle pauvreté”—est non seulement lié à la propagation de la pâte base cocaïne, mais aussi déterminé par ses usages, ses modalités de consommation, ses conséquences sur la santé et autres troubles et affections.

Mots clés: drogues, nouvelle pauvreté, transactions et santé.

RÉSUMÉ

Nuevos Tóxicos, Nuevas Pobrezas: Un entendimiento social de la Pasta base de Cocaína/Paco, en Argentina.

Ubicándose en el campo de las investigaciones sobre los cambios en los patrones de uso de drogas y de vulnerabilidad en condiciones de crisis económicas, guerras y conflictos políticos, este trabajo aborda los complejos vínculos entre la rápida propagación de la Pasta base/paco y las normalización de las consecuencias de la crisis económica-política del 2001–2002 en Argentina. Basada en los resultados del estudio etnográfico llevado a cabo en tres barrios del Gran Buenos Aires desde el 2001–2005, el objetivo de este paper es analizar los modos en que las modificaciones en las condiciones materiales y sociales de vida, se anudan con la elevada toxicidad de la PB/paco para dar forma al carácter emergente de la compulsividad de su consumo y al deterioro corporal, subjetivo y vincular de los usuarios/as activos de drogas de poblaciones marginalizadas. A través del análisis de los cambios de las transacciones que involucran directa o indirectamente drogas, específicamente desde la cocaína a la PB/paco, se hace posible argumentar los modos en que la profundización de la pobreza, la denominada “nueva pobreza,” no sólo se asocia a la expansión de la Pb/paco, sino también modula sus modos de consumo, los malestares y problemas de salud asociados.

Palabras Claves: Drogas, Nueva Pobreza, transacciones y salud.

Keywords :

• drugs
• new poverty
• transactions
• health

THE AUTHORS

María E. Epele, Ph.D., from the National University of La Plata, Argentina, is an Independent researcher from the National Council of Scientific and Technological Research (CONICET) and a Professor at the University of Buenos Aires. Her areas of interest include the following: medical anthropology, poverty, marginalization, and health; gender and sexuality; drug use; death and dying processes; body and emotions; and mental health and the medical health system in Argentina, Latin America and the Latino minority in the US.

Notes

1 This research is financially supported by the University of Buenos Aires (Ubacyt, 203-1), CONICET, PIP N° 0565 and AGENCIA (Secretariat of Scientific Research Promotion) PICT N° 1675.

2 The rapid expansion of cocaine consumption in the Greater Buenos Aires’ most vulnerable populations was contemporary with the spread and strengthening of the effects of political and economic reform which began in the late 1980s—unemployment, rise in poverty, growing inequality, and social exclusion; territorial fragmentation; the deterioration of the public health system; etc., as well as with the creation of new strategies of criminalization/rehabilitation of drug consumption.

3 Even considering the variations in academic traditions (marginality, poverty, and underclass), new poverty is a general category that refers to the impoverishment of middle and working classes and the modifications of the living conditions of the existing poor populations, (Fassin, 1996; Kessler, 2002; Wacquant, 1999).

4 A rapid growth in the consumption of FBC seems to have converged in the Buenos Aires province, in particular in the Greater Buenos Aires area. The first province-wide survey of homes on the use of addictive substances (Primer Estudio Provincial en Hogares sobre Uso de Sustancias Adictivas), conducted by the Provincial Ministry of Social Development's Addiction Secretariat (SADA) in 2002, found that a 1.2% lifetime prevalence rate for cocaine paste consumption in the population for people aged 15–24 years who resided in the Buenos Aires province. Meanwhile, a later SADA study (2004) among the youth's aged 16–26 years from the Greater Buenos Aires’ area pointed out to a lifetime prevalence of 3.5%. In both the studies, the prevalence for the last 12 months was 1% and 1.4% respectively. In addition, a study of FBC/Paco consumption in a shantytown of the Greater Buenos Aires (Miguez, 2007) indicated a 13.2% lifetime prevalence and a 12.2% annual prevalence. FBC was cited as the foremost illegal drug consumed by 47.2% users, beating marijuana which used by 35.9%. The profile of cocaine paste consumers in this critical locale indicated that 38% consumed more than once a day, and 29% said to have consumed over 50 cocaine paste doses in one day. Accidents as a consequence of smoking Paco befell on 32.9% of the consumers, and 60.3% had participated at one time in a crime in order to purchase drugs.