Friendly business – International views on social supply, self-supply and small-scale drug dealing, edited by Bernd Werse and Christiane Bernard, Wiesbaden, Springer VS, 2016, 245 pp., ISBN 978-3-658-10328-6.
This anthology collects 10 different perspectives on the small-scale retail drug supply that occurs between “friends”. It serves as a good introduction to the issue and raises a number of difficult questions, most importantly: Should criminal sanctioning distinguish between social supply and drug dealing proper? The authors of the various chapters note that the criminal justice system could accommodate this distinction by accepting some key principles of social supply in sentencing guidelines. Doing so would require a better understanding of the phenomenon and a clearer definition of what characterises illegal transactions that are not primarily for profit. Specific elements that are identified are irregular frequency of sales and short supply of stock. The most important element, however, is the subjective motivation of the dealer, whether social or commercial.
It is illustrative that the characteristics of the phenomenon are largely identical across the different national contexts from which the contained studies originate: Germany, Australia, Czech Republic, US, UK and Finland. Central findings from the various chapters show that heavier users are less likely to receive drugs for free, while women are more likely to do so, even expensive drugs like cocaine. Cannabis purchases made from friends are typically more expensive per gram because higher quality products are sold in social networks.
Social supply also limits the risk of fraud, and selling to friends is explained as a strategy to reduce the risk of criminal prosecution or to fund own use. Not-for-profit sellers often start as brokers and then more or less unintentionally, they drift into social supply of a group of buyers who are seen as friends, but this group tends to expand over time as friends introduce their own friends. Those who sell to friends also report an increase in their own use, and many turn out to be their own best customers.
The anthology also introduces the concept of “minimally commercial supply”. It is clearly difficult to define exactly when profits are above minimal, which illustrates the complexity of the problem seen from the perspective of legal authorities. The same problem applies to defining the social aspect. The various chapters demonstrate the amorphous and constantly evolving character of the group of friends who buy from the seller. If legal authorities are to make a distinction between commercial and social sale, they must make more efforts to assess the motivation of the seller as a factor in sentencing. Again, this assessment will unavoidably include a large subjective component.
The above problem does not only pertain to court decisions on sanctioning; it is also a dilemma that relates to the general effects of deterrence and illicit drugs. While prohibition keeps law-abiding people from becoming too deeply involved in drug dealing, it enables others to make quick money, fund heavy use. An unresolvable duality is found in the effects of legal sanctions. Law enforcement drives retail supply into social networks, but this also drives dealers out of dealing. In several chapters, dealers explain how they matured and found a way out of dealing after experiencing social stress or seeing others being criminally sanctioned: “In the end fear won over greed” (p. 129). This is a critical dilemma for the central proposition of the anthology. If social supply was to be sanctioned less severely, what would stop social suppliers from drifting into drug dealing proper?
Most of the chapters are based on qualitative semi-structured interviews, but quantitative analyses of questionnaires are also included, as well as two chapters using network analysis. A few chapters are based solely on literature studies, and one chapter is a reprinted published peer-reviewed article. Half of the chapters are based on two large research projects on the distribution of illicit drugs in Germany and global cannabis cultivation.
This reviewer would have liked a concluding chapter that summed up the diverging points made throughout the book and maybe suggested future avenues for research. As it stands now, the book leaves it largely up to the reader to connect the dots between the various chapters. The introduction is good, and the first chapter provides the historical context, but as a whole, I think the anthology raises as many questions as it answers as regards the proportional criminal sanctioning of minimally commercial supply.
Kim MoellerDepartment of Sociology and Social Work, Aalborg University, Aalborg, DenmarkE-mail: [email protected]