Methamphetamine Users’ Perceptions of Exchanging Drugs for Money

• Published date: 01 July 2013
• Author: Deborah Bradford,Jenny Chalmers
• DOI: 10.1177/0022042612471652
• Date: 01 July 2013
• Subject Matter: Articles

Journal of Drug Issues

43(3) 256 –269

© The Author(s) 2013

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DOI: 10.1177/0022042612471652

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Article

471652JOD43310.1177/0022042612471652Journal of Drug IssuesChalmers and Bradford

1University of New South Wales, Sydney, Australia

Corresponding Author:

Jenny Chalmers, National Drug and Alcohol Research Centre, University of New South Wales, Sydney, New South

Wales 2052, Australia.

Email: j.chalmers@unsw.edu.au

Methamphetamine Users’

Perceptions of Exchanging

Drugs for Money: Does

Trust Matter?

Jenny Chalmers1 and Deborah Bradford1

Abstract

Trust, between regular buyers and sellers, is thought to underpin retail-level illicit drug markets,

discouraging sellers from taking advantage of buyers. Although dealers report rewarding regular,

trusted customers with assured purity, less is known about their customers’ experience of trust.

Interviews with 101 methamphetamine users in New South Wales, Australia, confirm that users

establish ongoing relationships with dealers. Irrespective of their level of methamphetamine

use, some users trust their main dealer to supply a fair deal, whereas others expect to be taken

advantage of. The study identified factors other than trust that might regulate dealer behavior.

Methamphetamine use ebbs and flows. Users source drugs from multiple dealers, substitute

other drugs for methamphetamine, and some buy a range of drugs from the one dealer. Our

findings emphasize the complexity of factors that influence decisions about purchasing illicit

drugs and point to a more holistic view of what regulates dealer behavior.

Keywords

illicit drug markets, trust, risk

Introduction

Interactions, or “concrete exchanges,” in the retail-level marketplace for illicit drugs, between

drug user and drug seller (Slater & Tonkiss, 2001, p. 13) are not well understood (Galenianos,

Pacula, & Persico, 2009; Reuter, 2010). Participants in the marketplace are not legally protected

from deceptive practices in exchanges of drugs for money. Because purchasers have no means

of judging drug purity prior to (purchase and) use of that drug, the question of why dealers do

not systematically take advantage of purchasers by supplying a drug that is substantially less

pure than its price, or traded value would suggest, is salient (Galenianos et al., 2009; Reuter &

Caulkins, 2004). The prevailing view is that retail drug markets are sustained by the formation

of long-term trusting relationships between regular buyers and sellers (Dwyer & Moore, 2010a,

2010b; Galenianos et al., 2009; Reuter & Caulkins, 2004). Despite the marked differences in the