Stages of drug market change during disaster: Hurricane Katrina and reformulation of the New Orleans drug market.
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 "explained" 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.


CONCLUSIONS
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.
National Development and Research Institute, New York, NY 10010, USA.
Eloise
E
Dunlap
Jennifer
J
Graves
Ellen
E
Benoit
D003132:Commerce / Q000191:economics*; D003365:Costs and Cost Analysis; D003415:Crime / Q000191:economics* / Q000517:prevention & control; D055867:Cyclonic Storms / Q000191:economics*; D004190:Disasters / Q000191:economics*; D004335:Drug and Narcotic Control / Q000191:economics*; D055868:Floods / Q000191:economics*; D006801:Humans; D013287:Illicit Drugs / Q000191:economics* / Q000600:supply & distribution; D035846:Law Enforcement; D055820:New Orleans; D011157:Population Dynamics; D036301:Qualitative Research; D012931:Social Environment; D019966:Substance-Related Disorders / Q000191:economics / Q000517:prevention & control; D013997:Time Factors; D014186:Transportation / Q000191:economics*
D013287:Illicit Drugs