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Scoring Smack: The Illicit Heroin Market in London, 1980–1983
Author(s) -
Lewis Roger,
Hartnoll Richard,
Bryer Susan,
Daviaud Emmanuelle,
Mitcheson Martin
Publication year - 1985
Publication title -
british journal of addiction
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 2.424
H-Index - 193
eISSN - 1360-0443
pISSN - 0952-0481
DOI - 10.1111/j.1360-0443.1985.tb02541.x
Subject(s) - heroin , inflation (cosmology) , business , economics , demographic economics , agricultural economics , monetary economics , medicine , drug , theoretical physics , physics , psychiatry
Summary An illicit heroin market has existed in London since the 1960s. From 1970 illicit supplies from Southeast Asia and subsequently Southwest Asia increased. Two hundred and twenty‐four reports on ‘retail’ and ‘wholesale’ illicit heroin prices were collected between 1980and 1983. Over that period the average retail price reported was £7 8 per gram, almost twice the average wholesale price of £41.00. Between October 1980 and June 1983, retail and wholesale prices fell by 20–25 per cent relative to inflation. Reports from heroin users and other indicators over this period suggest that heroin availability increased and that dilution (‘cutting’) was much less significant than in the United States. The distribution system and the effect of price fluctuation on consumption are discussed. It is argued that retail and wholesale heroin prices provide a useful indicator of market conditions. The evidence points to a flourishing and expanding market in illicit heroin.