Introduction
Towards the end of the twentieth century and in the first decade of the twenty first century, the world has undergone a drastic change. This has been, in a large measure due to the tremendous advances in transportation technology and internet communication technology. Goods and services from any corner of the world are accessible to anyone in any other part of the world. The rich and the middle class all over the world have access to latest in fashion, food and electronics. However, in every country, a considerable fraction of the population live in abject poverty and the modern amenities are out of bounds for them. In the developed as well as developing countries the rich-poor divide has only been widening. Periods of agricultural famine and industrial recession have always disproportionately affected the poor. Added to this, the ethnic diversity and the immigrant status of poor in many countries relegate them to the status of second citizens, which is true even in countries like America which professes to uphold democratic values very highly. All these factors combine to create an economically and socially backward, ethnically diverse class who are vulnerable to disease, drug abuse and crime.
What follows is a comparative analysis of two books written by different authors, which discuss the problem of substance abuse in the context of social and economic deprivation as outlined above. Clearly, both the authors are of the opinion that the poor are more prone to fall into the habit of substance abuse. In essence, the argument put forth is that the drug addicts and drug dealers at low level are victims of the circumstances and hence deserve to be dealt with sympathetically. The legal and illegal drug industry which both thrive by the “drugging the poor” manage to perpetuate themselves by exerting their heavy influence on the corridors of power. While the drug addicts and the underground drug industry are vehemently condemned, the rich owners of these industries are well respected in the society. Corporate criminals like Enron are rarely punished. Respected, well-to-do financial professionals all over the world cheat the governments by evading taxes to the tune of millions of dollars. They are not forced to do this out of any survival instinct. On the other hand, the majority of the poor commit offences out of helplessness. So there is a need to look at every offence from the right perspective.
About the two books
The first book, “In search of respect: selling crack in El Barrio” is written by Philippe Bourgois and gives firsthand information about the drug usage among the poor people living in East Harlem (El Barrio in Spanish). He was brave enough to move to the locality with his wife to study the street life of the local people closely. So his accounts can be considered authentic. It was during his three year stay in this locality that he confronted the overwhelming reality of racial and class- based apartheid in America. He managed to befriend many of the key players and gather authentic information about how the drug economy worked. Mr. Ray, the chief character in the story actually attempted to do some legal businesses initially. However, he could not comply with the requirements insisted by the bureaucracy and had to wind up all his businesses. When he turned to dealing in drugs, he gained power and position in the small society of El Barrio. According to the author, the majority of the residents of El Barrio consisted of ethnic minorities (51 % Latino/Puerto Rican and 39 % African-American), and were in constant danger of being attacked by each other. The remaining 10% whites were actually spared most of the time because they were assumed to be either police officers or drug addicts or both. Violence was a daily routine in the streets of El Barrio and the police dealt with it very brutally, bashing up the people involved with inhuman sadistic pleasure. The Puerto Ricans left their jobs in sugar plantations in their home country to find work in the New York City. These immigrants found jobs in the manufacturing sector, mostly in garment factories. As factories moved to locations around the world, with cheaper labor, more than 50% of the immigrants lost their jobs in the 1980s. This made them the poorest among the residents. They could not stick with the office jobs which required them to be educated and well mannered. Most of them were forced to become part of the underground drug economy. In the author’s opinion, institutional racism which tailored the cultural norms and job requirements to suit the ethnic group in power was responsible for cutting off the Puerto Ricans from the mainstream jobs. Though the characters in the story talk about their wrongdoings; gang rapes, ill-treatment of their family, violent behavior etc remorselessly, it is evident that they would like to do legal jobs and live normally, if they had a chance.
The other book, “Drugging the Poor: Legal and Illegal Drugs and Social Inequality” is written by Merrill Singer and deals with how both the legal and illegal drug industry affect the poor more than the rich. In the author’s opinion, the problem of substance abuse must be analyzed in the broader context of socio-economic and class disparities which predispose the poor towards substance abuse. Americans use many types of drugs, legal as well as illegal. Among the illegal drugs, marijuana and cocaine are popular. An estimated 70 percent males and 60 percent females in the US drink alcoholic beverages. Among these the poorer sections tend to drink more to escape from their frustrations and miseries. They can less afford the treatments available to get cured of alcohol addiction as compared to the rich. In the case of tobacco use also, they may initially start smoking to get relief from the stress of daily life, but soon they become regular smokers to get over the stress of nicotine withdrawal. According to Singer, smoking “functions as a coping mechanism for handling the daily indignities and injuries of social inequality (Singer 2003:3).” Singer examines drug abuse from the stand point of critical medical anthropology (CMA), which looks at health issues as rooted in the broader context of inequitable socioeconomic, class, ethnic, and gender relationships that create vulnerabilities. The conditions of poor housing, lack of economic opportunity, racism and violence, inadequacy of resources and access to power together promote the existence of HIV/AIDS and a host of other diseases. Singer goes on to say that the state of affairs is neither an unintended bye product of development nor due to the moral failure of the affected persons, but part of “an arrangement that materially benefits some, while harshly punishing others (17).” According to the author the dividing line between legal drug pushers (the corporations in alcohol, tobacco and prescription drug business) and the illegal drug pushers (underground mafias dealing in heroin, cocaine and other illicit drugs) is blurry. Many of the prescription drugs are illegally procured from regular shops and used in larger doses or mixed with illicit drugs. Sports persons use legal drugs illegally to boost performance. In the matter of drugging the poor, there is no distinction between legal or illegal drugs. Big corporations often have resorted to illegal activities like smuggling cigarettes to third world countries and producing quantities of legal drugs in excess of declared figures (obviously to route through illegal channels).
General structure of Singer’s book
Chapter 1 of Singer’s book gives an overview of the system that promotes and supports drugging the poor. Chapter 2 further examines this system in the context of globalization, demonstrating that legal and illegal drug production and distribution channels both meet the consumer need for psychotropic drugs. Chapter 3-5 discuss the legal tobacco, alcohol and pharmaceutical industries, while Chapter 6 looks into the underground drug corporations responsible for marketing illicit drugs like heroin, cocaine, methamphetamine and Ecstasy. In Chapter 7, the demand for the drug is discussed. Based on research about everyday lives of street drug users, it reveals the social motivation for drug consumption. It also reveals how the dual drug industry creates and maintains the inequalities in the society. It also speaks about the war for drugs co-existing with the war against drugs. The concluding chapter examines efforts to build a people’s war at the grass root level against drug capitalism to obtain freedom from drug abuse as well as the official war on drugs.
Build up of Burgois’ story
Burgois builds his story starting from how he managed to get friendly with the drug operators of El Barrio. He goes on to give the background history of the El Barrio, which has a bearing on the way things happen there. He then describes how the crackhouse is being managed, just like a business and how discipline and dignity are part of it. In the next chapter he describes the attempts of the residents at finding legal work. They are unable to stand the insults and reprimands at their workplace, especially because they have suffered similar insults right from school days. Added to it, the recessions make the jobs insecure. So they have given up all hopes of being part of the legal economy. They are even less sure of getting recognition and dignity in legal jobs. Burgois’ work also provides insight into the reversal of gender roles and the consequent ego clashes and the family sufferings.
Comparative analysis
Unlike Bourgois’ book, Singer’s work “is organized around the development and presentation of a unified framework for all kinds of drug use, from tobacco to alcohol to heroin and cocaine, among the low income and impoverished populations in the United States (Singer 2003: 5).” It also addresses the above ground and underground markets for mood and mind-altering drugs. Bourgois’ book deals only with underground drugs. Singer discusses the problem of free drug availability from legal and illegal sources on a macroscopic level all over America and the world. Bourgois, on the other hand, confines his discussion to one small region, El Barrio and records in detail the events happening there over a period of nearly four years and the interviews he had with the key players there in the drug market. Both the books throw light on how the poor are disproportionately affected by substance abuse.
While reading through Burgois’ book, the impression we get about drug business is that of a normal retail business, where strategies are employed, good employees are retained and non-performing employees are sacked. Rather than challenge the legal economy, the underground drug economy seems to offer a substitute for it. When the legal economy appears to offer no solution for the poverty and unemployment of the local residents, the drug economy seems to offer a viable solution for the time being, though it leads to delusion and destruction. In fact, the drug dealers are well aware of the negative role they are playing and would like to get out of it if they can.
Likewise, Singer also speaks about the socio-economic disparities and other unfavorable conditions, which create vulnerabilities. This means that he also subscribes to the view that the poor are forced into drug abuse and drug business because of the inherent socio-economic problems. He goes one step further to explicitly state that the drug capitalists want the social inequalities to be perpetuated, so that their business can sustain. So he provides a unified framework which assesses how tobacco, heroin, alcohol, cocaine and other drugs including those diverted from the legal sources lead to the maintenance of inequality among the rich and poor in the American society.
According to Singer, “many of the drugs that reach the poorest sectors of American society are used to self-medicate overt and hidden injuries and daily indignities of social marginalization, discrimination and poverty (Singer 2003:15).” He also feels that globalization has enhanced the wound of subordination, caused by work devaluation, falling wages and other benefits. In a similar vein, Burgois also points to the humiliations in school and work place and the work culture designed to be disadvantageous to the ethnic groups, which alienates them from the mainstream legal economy. They find solace in using drugs, and the underground drug business gets them some amount of respectability in their limited social circles. Burgois further states that many of the immigrant Puerto Ricans subsequently lost their jobs due to globalization. So both the authors consider globalization as a major reason for the deteriorating condition, though viewing from different angles.
Both the authors approach the problem of drug abuse in a way which shifts the responsibility for the state of affairs from the drug addicts and low level drug peddlers to the organized legal and illegal drug capitalism and the government authorities who make policies favoring them. Burgois presents a close analysis of the past and present lives of the people on a particular street, where the drug economy reigns supreme. From the very words of the characters in the story, we can make our conclusions about how and why they became drug addicts or drug dealers. It will become obvious to the reader that anyone born into that group will naturally drift towards a similar lifestyle. The hopelessness of doing anything different will impress upon them sooner or later. The reader may gradually be able to understand the other point of view and tend not to blame the individuals involved for the state of affairs. Burgois’ work actually presents examples from the real world to substantiate what Singer wants to say.
Even though Burgois’ descriptions are confined to a small geographical area, it is typical of what happens under similar conditions, elsewhere in the world. The organized drug capitalism mentioned in Singer’s book is seen to operate through the crackhouses in the area. Their business strategies mimic those of large corporations. The race and class distinctions and the social inequalities discussed by Singer are seen to operate in full in El Barrio. The official perpetuation of these inequalities is evident from the fact that the authorities consider the African-Americans and Puerto Ricans inherently vulnerable to disease and drug addiction, almost as if they have these attributes by birth.
According to Singer, alcohol and drugs are commodities like tea or coffee. Their acceptance for use by any society is a historic event. The social and economic conditions influence the extent to which these are used. At the same time, the reverse is also true; the society is also influenced by the use of these commodities. It affects family and social relationships and power equations within the society. What we see in Burgois’ work is the real life example of how commodities are changing social life and family relationships. In fact, the institution of family itself is endangered. Wives and husbands freely engage in relationships outside the marriage and children also are influenced by this culture. In essence, both the authors advocate positive changes in society and social structures for eradicating the evil of drug abuse.
According to Burgois, Puerto Ricans have always suffered under US government. The US government maintained control of Puerto Rica mainly for strategic military advantage. They did nothing to strengthen it economically. In fact self respecting farmers and land owners were converted to wage- earners and laborers. When the bulk of the Puerto Ricans migrated to the American mainland, their status was that of second citizens. Their economic conditions grew worse after globalization due to wide spread unemployment. So it is no wonder that they were thoroughly dissatisfied with the legal economy and had no qualms about becoming part of the underground economy. Dual drug capitalism referred to by Singer took control of the society. This clearly reinforces the view that failure of social structures is responsible for the evils in society.
Both Singer and Burgois have sincerely attempted to change the popular opinion about drugs and drug addicts. Burgois has tried to achieve this by narrating the true stories of people directly involved in the drug business. At every point he tries to emphasize the fact that they were left with no alternative. In spite of all the disruptive and violent behavior and flouting of accepted social norms, Burgois feels that the residents of El Barrio are normal people. According to him, the fact that they respected him and never forced him into drugs, shows that they were fully aware of their wrong doings. If presented with a viable alternative, they were willing to change. Singer also says the same thing differently. The system creates social inequalities which cause distress and disappointment among the poor. The drug capitalists take advantage by selling remedies for all the sorrows in the form of alcohol and drugs. Once the people get addicted to the drugs, they become weak mentally, physically and morally and they cannot aspire to improve their socio-economic status. The social inequality and consequently the market for drugs are perpetuated, much to the advantage of the dual drug capitalists.
Conclusion
There is a popular thinking that individuals are personally responsible for their actions and the good or bad they endure in return. If people are poor or drug addicts, it is their fault. The society conveniently absolves itself of all responsibility. The two books discussed above attempt to alter that mind set. Burgois actually establishes an intimate contact between the reader and the players in the drug market, so that the reader can discern for himself the various factors contributing to drug abuse. After reading the book, the reader is more likely to subscribe to the view that the society and social structures are, to a large extent, responsible for substance abuse. As the author intended, the reader is likely to take a more sympathetic view of the drug addicts. The author advocates removal of the social inequalities and class and race distinctions to cure substance abuse. Singer also convincingly argues that social inequality, lack of opportunity and poor living conditions contribute to substance abuse. The official war against drug addiction is not actually against the root causes, but is against the drug addicts themselves. According to him, the government, the legal and illegal drug industries connive to perpetuate the inequalities which maintain the appropriate climate to enhance the use of drugs. In his opinion, what is required is a people’s war at the grass root level against the dual drug capitalism.
In the past, every society had its own customs, traditions and norms. Members were assured of subsistence and protection within the society as long as they followed the rules. Today we have democratic governments in most countries of the world, which are supposed to guarantee equal opportunities to all citizens irrespective of caste, creed or ethnicity. Yet, we find that a large proportion of the world population is without even the basic necessities of life. Inequalities and racial discriminations are more prevalent than ever. Individuals and groups are therefore attracted towards organizations which offer them protection and power and of course, respect. “In Search of Respect” is an apt title for Bourgois’ book, because the characters in his story are in fact looking for respect as human beings.
References
Burgois, Philippe
2003 In Search of Respect: Selling Crack in El Barrio. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Singer, Merrill 2008
Drugging the Poor. Illinois: Waveland Press.
