Illicit markets and violence: what is the relationship?

            As modern perceptions of drug use change to view addiction as a medical problem rather than a poor decision we sometimes forget that drugs still have a sinister side.  Although marijuana may never have killed someone due to overdose and the assumed health problems from cocaine are often exaggerated by the media and society at large, these drugs and many others traded on illicit markets do take a large number of lives every year.  The cause of these deaths; violence connected to the illegal drug trade.

             Peter Andreas and Joel Wallman set out discuss the role of violence within the drug trade in their 2009 article “Illicit markets and violence: what is the relationship?” published in Crime, Law, and Social Change.  Andreas and Wallman begin by pointing out that violence is often the factor that really defines an illicit market.  Without the violent component illegal markets, such as the pirated film market, tend to be ignored by the public and not greatly frowned upon.  However, when markets turn violent the media jumps on them with fervor, from the nightly news to Hollywood.  For the drug markets the concentration of violence can be bizarre, as can the media attention.  When is the last time you saw a movie about violent marijuana smugglers?

             Andreas and Wallman mostly intend their piece to be a call for more research and to serve as an introduction for the other articles in the September, 2009, issue of Crime, Law, and Social Change.  The points they bring up and the questions they raise are nevertheless poignant.  Among these questions, and most important to consider, is why are certain drug trades fraught with violence, such as the cocaine and heroin markets, but others like MDMA and LSD see very little violence?  Also, why some nations like Colombia see much higher rates of organized drug violence than Bolivia though both act as major suppliers for the cocaine trade?

Andreas, Peter and Joel Wallman. “Illicit markets and violence: what is the relationship?”  Crime, Law, and Social Change 52.3 (Sept. 2009): 225-229.  Web. Springer Science + Business Media. Accessed 9 June 2010.