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- Title
Drugs and Development: Exploring Nuances Based on the Accounts of Nigerian Retail Dealers.
- Authors
Nelson, Ediomo-Ubong Ekpo
- Abstract
The production, distribution, and consumption of drugs has long been seen as a threat to social and economic development. On the other hand, conditions of unemployment and poverty foster expansion of illegal drug markets. In this study, I offer a nuanced view of the drugs/development connection where poverty and unemployment incentivise participation in the illegal drug market as a response to the failure of state-led development. The study is based on 31 in-depth interviews with male retail drug dealers in Nigeria. Findings revealed various ways the participants framed retail drug trade in connection to development. This includes, drug dealing as a pathway to social and economic mobility, drug dealing as way of mitigating youth crime, drug dealing as a response to failed development promises, and drug dealing as a means of capital formation for legitimate investment. The complex relationship between drugs and development revealed in these accounts troubles the narrow emphasis on counter-narcotics that dominate Nigerian drug policies. They indicate a need to view illegal drug trade, especially low-level distribution, as grassroots dissent from exclusionary development. Social policies designed to provide skills and opportunities for legitimate, gainful employment for at-risk youths offer scope for curbing involvement in retail drug trade.
- Subjects
NIGERIA; AT-risk youth; DRUG development; SOCIAL mobility; DRUG traffic; SOCIAL policy; JUVENILE delinquency; PHARMACEUTICAL policy
- Publication
Journal of Illicit Economies & Development, 2024, Vol 5, Issue 3, p47
- ISSN
2516-7227
- Publication type
Article
- DOI
10.31389/jied.180