Studies in Conflict & Terrorism

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Recent narcotics and mafia research

Alison Jamieson

To cite this article: Alison Jamieson (1992) Recent narcotics and mafia research, Studies in
Conflict & Terrorism, 15:1, 39-51, DOI: 10.1080/10576109208435890

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Recent Narcotics and Mafia Research

ALISON JAMIESON
San Biagio
Perugia, Italy

Abstract Research into narcotics-related issues is underway all over the

world. No country can afford to ignore the social and economic conse-
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quences of drug production, distribution, consumption, or the laundering of

the profits thereof. The article examines recent and ongoing research in
Latin America, the United States, the United Kingdom, and within the con-
text of the European Community. Latin American studies relate drug produc-
tion to wider problems of economic development, whereas typical "con-
sumer country" studies are more concerned with criminological aspects and
demand reduction policies. The drugs/crime link is seen to be closely bound
up with the illegal context of the drugs market, thus the option for legaliza-
tion is considered. The economic growth of the Italian mafia is explained.
The author describes recent international agreements on money laundering
and precursor chemicals, and concludes by stressing the value of interna-
tional cooperation on all aspects of narcotics research.

Keywords Narcotics, mafia, drug trafficking, European Community.

Introduction
Research on narcotics-related issues and organized criminal groups of drug traf-
fickers now abounds. The stimuli for such extensive research are various, many
of them prompted by U.S. initiatives. They include the pendulum-swing back
from the drugs/peace/flower-power permissiveness of the 1960s toward a censo-
rious condemnation of hedonism, the visible consequences of post-Vietnam her-
oin addiction, the sheer size of the U.S. drug-consuming populationestimated
at around 25 millionthat led to a "war on drugs" declared by then-Pres.
Reagan and continued by Pres. Bush, the introduction of crack to the American
market in the mid-1980s with its devastating effects, and the growth of the HIV/
AIDS problem.
Other countries have since been galvanized into action: the United King-
dom, ever protective of its island status, panicked after a DEA warning to
British police constables in 1989 of an imminent crack invasion, which (so far)
has not materialized, and of AIDS, which has (Britain's hosting of the World
Ministerial Drugs Summit in April 1990 was evidence that drugs had become a

39
 40 A. Jamieson

new priority interest). Many Latin American countries struggling to pay off
external debt burdens have been forced to accept that economic aid is now
inextricably linked to narcotics counterefforts; the European Community (EC)
as a whole has taken comprehensive action on drugs, faced with the prospect of
a post-1992 Single Market of freely available narcotic substances. The financial
peaks reached by the Sicilian Mafia (Cosa Nostra) and by the drug barons of the
cocaine cartels have belatedly forced all economically advanced nations to study
the phenomenon of money laundering and to introduce effective banking and
financial legislation to offset it. The environmental effects on Third World pro-
ducer countries of deforestation and soil and water pollution, combined with
increasing addiction and other health problems among already vulnerable popu-
lations, have made narcotics research an issue of prime importance for the future
stability and well-being of the planet. Quite simply, no country can afford to
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ignore the social and economic consequences of drug production, distribution,

and consumption.

1. Latin America
Well-documented studies of the Andean countries can be found in the monthly
Lima-based journal of the Andean Commission of Jurists, Andean Newsletter. It
deals with politics and political subversion, human rights, and terrorism and
includes a regular supplement, "Drug Trafficking Update." The journal is
edited by Diego Garcia Sayan.1 A good overview is provided by the Institute for
European-Latin American Relations (IRELA) in its Dossier No. 32: Latin
America, Europe and the Drug Problem: New Forms of Cooperation? of May
1991.
Epidemiological research in Peru has mostly been undertaken by nongovern-
mental organizations (NGO) funded by international institutions, such as the
Centro de Informacion y Educacion para la Prevencion del Abuso de Drogas
(CEDRO) in Lima. Dr. Roberto Lerner, deputy director of CEDRO, summa-
rizes and discusses the results of two studies carried out in 1987 and in 1988 in
"Drugs in Peru: Reality and Representation."2 The 1988 study consisted of a
survey of 8106 households, during which interviewees were questioned about 13
psychoactive substances. The results showed the impact of drug use in Peru to
be modest, characterized by "high levels of alcohol and tobacco consumption,
some traditional use of hallucinogens and coca leaf, decreasing use of mari-
juana, a small but increasing use of coca paste, and marginal but stable con-
sumption of cocaine hydrochloride."3 There is an almost total absence of intra-
venous drug use in that country.
Lerner also examines the macrosocial effects on Peru of illicit production
and trafficking of coca leaf and paste in terms of a disintegration of social
institutions and the economy. An enclave economy has emerged, which hinders
integration with the economy of the region. Coca is a buffer crop that provides
consumer goods (often at extortionate prices) without social benefits such as
schools, hospitals, and other fundamental welfare facilities.
 Recent Narcotics and Mafia Research 41

Lerner argues the case for a fully integrated regional and global plan, based
not so much on crop substitution as on the progressive elimination of the com-
parative advantages of coca over other crops, indicating that "we should negoti-
ate global strategies that reinforce the legal Peruvian economy and allow in the
medium term a substitution of the cocaine industry's role, keeping in mind the
needs of the real war that Peru is waging against political subversion."4
Lerner admits that successive Peruvian governments have presented few
credible alternatives to U.S. pressure for eradication/substitution and concludes,

There has been no effort to understand the ways and mechanisms of

decisionmaking in Washington and a total absence of a lobbying sys-
tem to inform American politicians and public opinion about the eco-
nomic and social realities involved in the cocaine industry from the
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coca fields to the consumers. Such a process, a realistic program with

mutually acceptable stages and ways of monitoring them, would not
yield results in the short term and would involve substantially more
money than many drugs warriors are ready to think about, but prob-
ably is the only way out.5

Peruvian journalist Gustavo Gorriti, who has covered the drugs trade in
Latin America for years, prefaces his proposals for how to fight the drug war
with the assumption that the U.S. aim of making the cocaine "supply so scant
and trafficking so hazardous that cocaine would become unaffordable for most
potential users . . . has failed completely."6 Like Lerner, Gorriti argues for
economic solutions to the drug problem aimed at improving the legal economies
of the coca-producing countries, backed up by tough interdiction of trafficking
routes. He concludes that an injection of some $2 billion, channeled through
existing institutions such as the IMF or Inter-American Development Bank,
would "mean an opportunity not only for real development and political stabili-
zation but also for strengthening democracy, whose true value is known only to
those who have lost it."7 Gorriti has written a three-volume study of the Peru-
vian Maoist organization Sendero Luminoso (Shining Path) entitled Historia del
la guerra milenaria en el Peru (1990), to be published in a condensed, single-
volume version by Princeton University.

2. The United States

The Case for Legalization

Worldwide support for the 1961 and 1971 UN drug conventions and the ratifica-
tion in Nov. 1990 of the 1988 UN Vienna Convention makes the official legal-
ization of narcotic and psychotropic drugs an unlikely step; however, scholars
such as E. J. Mishan and Ethan Nadelmann may be influential in bringing about
a more pragmatic approach to public policy and to de facto policing and sentenc-
ing. Mishan argues that the chances of winning the war on drugs are negligible;
 42 A. Jamieson

that there are no signs that interdiction and repression have reduced the avail-
ability of drugs; and that even the arrest of the giant cartel barons would merely
lead to the proliferation of smaller trafficking organizations competing fiercely
among themselves.8 He cites Reuter et al., whose simulation model to trace the
potential adaptability of drug traffickers to various strategies available to U.S.
interdiction agencies has led to pessimistic views on the chances of halting the
cocaine trade.9
Mishan rejects the "apocalyptic terms" in which drug consumption is de-
picted by government and media and argues a strong case for controlled legal-
ization and full user accountability. He criticizes the welfare safety net for drug
addicts who "effectively enjoy compassion-endowed rights to prey on the tax-
paying public,"10 but defends their right of access to "free and generous ra-
tions"11 in order to stabilize addiction and to obviate the need for theft and
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robbery. He proposes "legislation to require testing and labelling of such drugs

to ensure purity . . . , (tax)-free entry and sale at competitive prices with the
usual proviso for minors . . . , more government funding of information and
education, especially in schools, and a ban on advertising of all drugs including
tobacco and alcohol."12
According to Mishan, treatment and rehabilitation would not be subsidized
by the taxpayer, but addicts with persistently antisocial tendencies would have to
choose between going to "some designated area where they could live for the
rest of their life [sic] or else work out their own salvation, encouraged by the
prospect of being able to return and resume a normal life."13
Mishan is aware of the risks involved in his proposals but feels they repre-
sent a lesser evil than continuing prohibition, which, in his view, has caused
untold harm: an increase in violence, deaths more from adulterated drug doses
than from the drugs themselves, and an outpouring of public resources that has
served only to line the pockets of the traffickers.
Nadelmann also argues that criminalization "effectively imposes a de facto
value added tax . . . a virtual subsidy paid to organized criminals,"14 and be-
moans the millions of dollars in extra tax that could be gained through legaliza-
tion. He stresses, above all, the moral cost of prohibition to the innocuous
majority of illegal drug users, which "makes a mockery of an essential principle
of a free society: that those who do no harm to others should not be harmed by
others, particularly the state."15
Like Mishan, Nadelmann disputes the harmfulness of cocaine and heroin
and suggests that a combination of consumption taxes and education would be
effective in controlling patterns of drug use, as has occurred in the United States
with the generalized switch from spirits to beer and wine and from high- to low-
tar cigarettes.

The Drugs/Crime Link

The most extensive work on the connection between narcotics and crime in the
United States has been carried out by Paul Goldstein of Narcotics and Drug
 Recent Narcotics and Mafia Research 43

Research, Inc. (NDRI) in New York.16 Goldstein devised the now-classic separa-
tion of drug-related violence into a tripartite conceptual framework of psy-
chopharmacological, economic compulsive, and systematic violence. He ex-
plains the coding as follows:

The psychopharmacological model suggests that some persons, as a

result of ingesting specific substances, may become excitable and/or
irrational, and may act out in a violent fashion. This form of violence
may also result from the irritability associated with withdrawal . . .
[and] may involve substance use by either victims or perpetrators of
violent events. . . . The economic-compulsive model suggests that
some persons engage in economic crimes in order to finance costly
drug use. Sometimes these crimes are inherently violent, as in the
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case of robbery, and sometimes violence results from an unintended

or extraneous factor in the social context in which the economic crime
is perpetrated. . . . The systemic model refers to normally aggressive
patterns of interaction within the systems of drug use and distribution.
Most systemic violence is posited to arise from the exigencies of
working or doing business in a black market. Examples . . . include
territorial disputes between rival dealers, assaults and homicides
within particular dealing operations in order to enforce normative
codes, robberies of drug dealers, elimination of informers, punish-
ment for selling adulterated or bogus drugs and assaults to collect
drug-related debts.17

NDRI carried out a series of studies of drug-related involvement in violence

between 1984 and 1988. The most recent of these, an examination of drug-
related homicides in New York City, took as a sample 414 incidents, or 23% of
all 1988 New York City homicides.18 Of these, 218 (52.7%) were classified by
both police and researchers as being primarily drug-related, that is, it was
agreed that "drugs contributed to the outcome in an important and causal man-
ner."19 Where drug primacy was in doubt, the researchers rejected it; therefore,
the 52.7% must be considered a conservative figure. Of the drug-related homi-
cides, 162, or 74%, were described as systemic. In 131 cases, or 32% of all the
homicide events and 60% of the drug-related homicide events, the drug con-
cerned was crack. Of these, 44% concerned a territorial dispute between traf-
fickers. Alcohol was the primary drug in 21 homicide cases, all psychopharma-
cological; heroin, in only 3 (2, systemic; 1, "multi-dimensional").
The NDRI team observed that, contrary to popular belief, the crack phe-
nomenon did not seem to have pushed up the overall homicide rate in New York
City but rather to have replaced other sorts of homicides, such as heroin-related
cases, which had fallen compared with previous years.
With the evidence that much drug-related crime is systemic (and, therefore,
stems from the inherently illicit nature of the market), Goldstein goes on to
consider its implications in terms of appropriate policy responses:
 44 A. Jamieson

. . . a policy that decriminalized currently illicit drugs . . . would

likely eliminate or at least reduce the financial rewards inherent in the
illicit drug trade and would give the government at least some regula-
tory control over the crack and cocaine markets. In such a fashion,
systemic (though not psychopharmacological) violence related to the
liquor trade was eliminated through the repeal of prohibition. . . .
Legalization of . . . drugs . . . such as heroin and marijuana could
stimulate policies and programs that shift available resources from
law enforcement, where they would likely have little impact, to pre-
vention and education and rehabilitation and public health concerns,
where they probably would be more effective.20

Although such a policy might be cost effective from the criminal justice
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point of view, Goldstein is reluctant to endorse legalization policies of unforsee-

able social impact, which might bring excessive burdens on the health and social
services sectors.

3. United Kingdom
UK researchers on the drugs/crime relationship have a less meaty subject for
study since the existence of specifically drug-related violence in Great Britain
has not been established. Nicholas Dora and Karim Murji of the London-based
Institute for the Study of Drug Dependency (ISDD), together with Nigel South
of Essex University, have carried out a comprehensive study of UK trafficking
and distribution networks entitled Traffickers.2* The book examines the develop-
ment of the drug market from the 1960s onward, in parallel with the evolution of
new policing and intelligence methods. Some of their findings are anticipated in
Dorn and South, who postulate the existence of seven types of drug distributors
in Britain, the first three being "multi-commodity enterprises," that is, where
drugs are just one of the goods traded.22 This group is divided into

(1) Business sideliners: the illicit business enterprise that begins

to trade in drugs as a "sideline."
(2) Criminal diversifiers: the existing criminal enterprise that di-
versifies its operations to include drugs.
(3) Opportunistic irregulars: individuals or small groups who get
involved in a variety of activities in the irregular economy, including
drugs.
(4) Retail specialists: enterprises with a manager employing peo-
ple in a variety of specialist roles to distribute drugs to users.
(5) Mutual societies: friendship networks of user-dealers who
support each other and sell or exchange drugs among themselves in a
reciprocal fashion.
(6) Trading charities: enterprises involved in the drug business
 Recent Narcotics and Mafia Research 45

because of ideological commitments to drugs (e.g., cannabis) as well

as the profit motive.
(7) State-sponsored traders: enterprises that result from collabo-
ration between control agents and others (e.g., collaboration between
police undercover agents and their informants who may be allowed to
continue to trade).23

The picture that emerges of the UK drugs scene is of a fragmented and

multifaceted market of medium-to-small businesses, in contrast to the popular
image of a single market dominated by a Mafia-type criminal holding company.
The authors of Traffickers maintain this vision but suggest that policing trends
are diverging from it. Whereas a fairly "down-market" form of policing tallied
with the "provincial" level of the traffickers, the increasing centralization and
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computerization of criminal intelligence work, plus a trend toward covert opera-

tions, are leading drug law enforcement "up market" toward greater secrecy
and less public accountability.
Looking at the other side of prevention work, Dorn is skeptical about the
effectiveness of drug-education programs. A major problem of government-
sponsored campaigns is that they do not "mesh in with the regional sub-culture
of the group. . . . The media cannot un-sell anything (be it beans or buggery)
it has to work with the subcultures of social groups, not against them and not
ignoring them."24 The only way to get the message across to the young, accord-
ing to Dorn, is to integrate drug education "multi-discoursively" throughout the
school curriculum.
ISDD publishes a yearly research register entitled "ISDD Drug Questions,"
which (for 1990) lists 222 research projects throughout the UK divided by re-
gion and title, with an outline of the project aims.
Important research projects are underway at the Centre for Research on
Drugs and Health Behaviour in London, including a three-year Home Office/
Department of Health-funded study on "Cocaine and Crack Use." The study
looks at consumption among a group of drug-agency clients (i.e., those who
have sought help from welfare services) and a group of nonagency drug users.25
Of the 412 agency clients, 62% had gone into debt to finance their use, 58% had
sold their own possessions, 51% had sold drugs other than cocaine or crack,
46% had stolen from people other than family or friends, and 31 % had commit-
ted check-writing or credit-card fraud. These activities were also the most com-
mon form of support among nonagency clients, although, for this group, only
partial results were available.
Dean concludes that, "although acquisitive crime does take place to support
cocaine or crack use . . . this is not necessarily the primary response to cocaine
use."26 He agrees with Bean and Wilkinson that "the presence and structure of
the illicit drug supply system provides the best evidence for the link between
drug taking and crime."27
Other UK research, such as that done by Mott and Parker and Newcombe,
suggests that illicit drug use does lead to higher rates of acquisitive crime.28
 46 A. Jamieson

Parker and Jarvis examined the drug-crime connection for a group of 46 "new"
heroin users living in the London area.29 Interviews with them over a six-month
period and study of their criminal records indicated that their rate of convictions
more than doubled following the onset of regular heroin use; most admitted to
financing their habit largely through acquisitive crime. On average, subjects said
they spent about 513 per week on heroin (although the spectrum was extremely
wide). Their aggregate outlay on heroin of 23,000 per week was in noticeable
contrast to their approximately 2100 total legitimate income. Sixty-three per-
cent (63%) reported daily offending by petty crime, shop lifting, or "kiting"
(check card or book fraud), 74% of cases prompted by the need to raise money
for drugs. The authors consider that prison sentences tend to exacerbate the
problems of drug users rather than cure them and that, unless a user actively
wishes to give up, he or she will make every attempt to continue the habit in
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prison and will celebrate release with an "immediate toot." Often barred from
legitimate work by a prison record, the offender may find it hard to escape
from illegality. The solution the authors propose, working on the premise that
the new heroin user-offenders are "treatable," is for police not to arrest them
but to "engage with other agencies to provide early social/medical interven-
tion."30

4. Italy
The Italian Parliamentary Antimafia Commission, composed of 20 senators and
20 deputies according to parliamentary party representation, is the major official
research body into organized crime in Italy. The commission subdivides for
specific areas of competence and publishes regular reports for consideration by
Parliament. It evaluates the effectiveness of the state response to organized
crime and proposes new legislation where appropriate. Whereas the commission
once concentrated on the regions of Sicily, Campania, and Calabria, since 1989,
considerable attention has been devoted to the spiraling rate of organized crime
in Apulia and in Lombardy. Indeed, the Milan City Council formed its own
Antimafia Commission in 1991.
Leading independent Italian scholars are Pino Arlacchi of Florence Univer-
sity and Umberto Santino, director of the Centro Siciliano di Documentazione
(CSD), Palermo.31 For general studies, see Jamieson.32 However, the most au-
thoritative work to date on organized crime in the Naples area has been done by
Isaia Sales, who explains the diversity of Neapolitan criminality:

Illegality is a popular sphere, a mass area considered legitimate which

lives in close contact with legality and works on the principle that
illegality is tolerated and legitimized up to the point where it does not
go beyond the threshold that guarantees survival[in other words],
as long as the hegemony of the political class over illegality is not
jeopardized.33
 Recent Narcotics and Mafia Research 47

Pino Arlacchi's Mafia Business, published in Italian in 1983 with an English

language update (1988), remains a standard work on the economic development
of Cosa Nostra. His studies of the heroin markets and consumption in the cities
of Naples, Rome, Bologna, and Verona are also useful. The Verona study (1989)
describes a market characterized by predominantly local organized crime groups
and by the absence of a violent tradition: "A mix of restrictive practices, com-
petitive efficiency in supplies and pricing, police effectiveness in intercepting
big-time criminals, local chauvinism and an antipathy towards southerners and
foreigners has led to a drastic restriction of the possibilities of colonisation from
below of the Veronese heroin market."34
Raimondo Catanzaro's // Delitto Come Impresa: storia sociale della mafia
gives a more recent sociological overview of Cosa Nostra in terms of character-
istics (structure, ideology, and culture), genesis (the rapport mafia/state and
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social cohesion), and evolution (transformations in the postwar era).35

Umberto Santino's dense two-volume study forms part of CSD's research
programme, "Mafia e Societd." The first volume, La Violenza Programmata,
looks at homicides and mafia wars from 1960-1988, analyzed on a matrix basis,
taking into account the conflictual situation; the economic, social, and profes-
sional profile of victim and perpetrator; and motivation. Two seven-year time
periods are studied (1960-1966 and 1978-1984), with a concluding update to
1988. The two periods make for an interesting comparison with each other (each
involves a bloody mafia war) and with the most recent period, in particular, for
motivation and choice of victim.
Santino defines the Mafia as

a segment of the dominant class or tending to become such ("bour-

geois mafia") which, making more-or-less open and direct use of
violent and illegal methods, succeeds in accumulating quantities of
capital and in acquiring and maintaining a position of power within
the command structure in alliance-competition-conflict with other
dominant sectors, developing its own model of domination/hegemony
directed at the creation of consensus.36

Mafia murders are categorized into

(1) Internal (consumed within the mafia world);
(2) External
(a) political-mafia: against anyone committed to the antimafia struggle
who tries to block strategic mafia interests;
(b) economic-mafia: against businessmen or other economic operators.
They stem from a clash with the mafia world (e.g., resistance to
extortion, refusal to enter partnership); and
(c) demonstrative mafia murders: against those who may not necessar-
ily be prominent in the antimafia fight but who are considered
"guilty" for providing medical help to the "wrong" people, for not
 48 A. Jamieson

showing enough respect to the "right" ones, or for displaying too

much curiosity.
(3) Murders against the army of the criminal government: thieves, burglars
or petty criminals who break the rules fixed by the mafia.
(4) Transversal mafia vendettas: against relatives or friends of mafiosi as a
way of creating a vacuum around the real target, for example, to dis-
courage collaboration.
(5) Nonclassifiable murders of mafia matrix.

Summing up the most recent period, Santino isolates new trends, especially
with regard to external victims. These include a former mayor of Palermo
"who, in taking a stance with a clamorous denunciation to the Antimafia Com-
mission, betrayed the very people who had supported and elected him"37; a
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police infiltrator of drug-trafficking groups so effective that even colleagues

were suspicious of him; and local businessmen and industrialists.
Targeting of small- and medium-level businessmen intensified with the pass-
ing of the Rognoni La Torre law of 1982, which insisted on greater financial and
personal accountability in business dealings and effectively forced many mafia
companies to cease trading. The result has been increasing pressure on clean
businesses. In the first instance, this may come in the form of "protection" but
moves with the force of intimidation into demands for increasing participation
and, eventually, to full partnership. Those who resist subjugation and takeover
risk economic and physical elimination.
Santino sees no paradox in the coexistence of tradition with sophistication in
what he describes as the "transculture" of the Mafiaa complex hierarchical
society that fully accepts the social goals of power, money, and success but,
nonetheless, depends on ritual and respect and "valorizes" aggression and si-
lence (omertd) as manly attributes.
The second work in the study, L'Impresa Mafiosa, considers the entrepre-
neurial activities of the Mafia in light of its interface and integration with the
market as a whole, with the public sector, and with centers of decisional power.
The field of study is seen as a polymorphous economy or multidimensional
market structured by one series of relationships based on family/friendship/joint
interests, and by another series of economic relationships where legal and illegal
cohabit to varying degrees.
One section of the book traces the development of organized crime in the
United States; the extent of mafia penetration within U.S. business, industry,
and trade unions; and the introduction of antiorganized crime legislation. The
findings of the Kefauver enquiry of 1950, the McClellan Commission (1963-
1964), and the (Kaufman) Presidential Commission on Organized Crime (1983-
1986) are discussed.
With the support of the EC Commission, the Centro di Documentazione
Siciliano has joined forces with another Sicilian research organization, Coopera-
zione Internazionale Sud-Sud (CISS), on a research programme entitled "Pro-
getto Droga." The study began in October 1990 and aims (1) to study a number
 Recent Narcotics and Mafia Research 49

of drug producing areas, (2) to promote meetings between scholars and those in
the social services in different countries to study the socio-economic roots of the
drug problem and of the criminal organizations involved in drug trafficking, and
(3) to produce a multimedia program in four languages for teachers and those in
the social services to use in educational projects. The three main areas under
study are Sicily, Lebanon, and parts of South America (Bolivia, Colombia,
Peru, and Ecuador).

5. Other Research Activities

In July 1989, the 15 major industrialized countries set up a Financial Action
Task Force (FATF) to investigate the laundering of illicit profits and to make
recommendations. It has reported twice, on Feb. 6, 1990, and on May 13, 1991.
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The 1990 report detailed the extent and nature of the money-laundering process
and programs already in place to combat money laundering and made 40 recom-
mendations to strengthen international cooperation against it. FATF 2 (1991)
assessed the implementation of the existing recommendations and made further
suggestions for their enhancement, including measures to be directed at nonco-
operative countries. The work of the FATF has influenced both the European
Community Directive on Money Laundering and the Council of Europe Con-
vention, due to come into force in the near future. All the major drug law
enforcement bodies now have sections devoted to economic crime and money
laundering. Italian magistrate Gherardo Colombo has done a detailed evaluation
of national legislation38; J. D. McLean of Sheffield University is working on
mutual legal assistance in civil and criminal proceedings; Alison Jamieson is
looking at the effects for the Single European Market of the accumulation,
circulation, and investment of illicit profits from the drugs trade on behalf of the
Research Institute for the Study of Conflict and Terrorism, with EC Commission
support.
In the wake of FATF, a Chemical Action Task Force has been set up to
examine the use of precursor chemicals in the illicit drugs traffic and to advise as
appropriate; a report was presented to the G7 Summit in London in July 1991.
Research into the practicability of establishing an international criminal
court with responsibilities for terrorism and narcotics crimes is being led by
Prof. M. Cherif Bassiouni at DePaul University Law School, Chicago.
Claire Sterling's study of the development of the Mafia is to be followed by
Crime without Frontiers, which will look at scenarios for international organized
crime and terrorism in a barrier-free Europe.39

Conclusion
The research described above reflects only a tiny proportion of the work being
undertaken across the world. What emerges is a partial picture with at best
tentative conclusions. The tendency for drug users in an illegal market to finance
their habit through acquisitive crime and by dealing in drugs themselves, thus
 50 A. Jamieson

stimulating demand, is an argument, not the argument, for legalization. Antipro-

hibitionists rarely offer reliable predictions of future consumption and of long-
term effects, particularly for the young; nor do they take into account potential
developments in synthetic drugs, which could create demand where none previ-
ously existed and which would bypass labelling and product control of permitted
substances. The continuance of cigarette smuggling in Italy shows that a black
marketand, therefore, illicit profitsdo not automatically cease with legaliza-
tion, nor would organized crime groups fade awaythey would merely fight
more ferociously in other markets. Yet, the "legalizers" are right to separate
catastrophism from realism: health and law enforcement policies lend them-
selves all too easily to manipulation from those with vested interests to protect.
Perhaps the one conclusion that can be drawn without fear of contradiction
is the perennial but urgent cry for international cooperation. This means devel-
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oping compatible data bases for medical and social scientists; devising uniform
criteria for assessing "drug-related" events; and dropping the self-interested
national propaganda of cliche and spectacularity in favor of sober assessments of
cause and effect. Research is useful only if it can be applied and shared.

Notes
1. D. Garcia Sayan, ed., Estados de emergencia en la region andina (Lima, Peru:
Comision Andina de Juristas, 1987); and Coca, Cocaina y Narcotrafico: Laberinto en
los Andes (Lima: Comision Andina de Juristas, 1989).
2. R. Lerner, "Drugs in Peru: Reality and Representation," Ph.D. dissertation,
Catholic University of Nijmegen, Netherlands, 1990.
3. Ibid., p. 181.
4. Ibid., pp. 183-184.
5. Ibid., p. 170.
6. G. Gorriti, "How to Fight the Drug War," The Atlantic Monthly (July 1989):70.
7. Ibid., p. 76.
8. E. J. Mishan, "Narcotics: The Problem and the Solution," The Political Quar-
terly, vol. 61, no. 4 (1990):441-462.
9. P. Reuter, Sealing the Borders (Santa Monica, CA: The RAND Corporation,
1988).
10. Mishan, "Narcotics," p. 450.
11. Ibid., p. 461.
12. Ibid.
13. Ibid., p. 462.
14. Ibid.
15. Ibid.
16. Until recently, Paul Goldstein was deputy director of Narcotics and Drug Re-
search, Inc., 11 Beach St., New York, NY 10013. He has now taken up the post of
associate professor, School of Public Health, University of Illinois, Chicago, IL 60680.
17. P. Goldstein, H. H. Brownstein, P. Ryan, and P. Bellucci, "Crack and Homi-
cide in New York City, 1988: A Conceptually Based Event Analysis," Contemporary
Drug Problems, vol. 16, no. 4 (Winter 1989):651-687. A 1990 reprint is also available
from Federal Legal Publications, Inc.
 Recent Narcotics and Mafia Research 51

18. Ibid., pp. 659-660.

19. Ibid., p. 662.
20. P. Goldstein and H. H. Brownstein, "Research and the Development of Public
Policy: The Case of Drugs and Violent Crime," Journal of Applied Sociology, vol. 7
(1990):77-92.
21. N. Dorn, K. Murji, and N. South, Traffickers: Drug Markets and Law Enforce-
ment (London: Routledge, 1991). Nicholas Dorn is development director of the Institute
for the Study of Drug Dependence, 1 Hatton Place, London EC1N, 8ND, Great Britain.
22. N. Dorn and N. South, "Drug Markets and Law Enforcement," British Journal
of Criminology, vol. 30, no. 2 (1990): 171-188.
23. Ibid. The groups listed in items 4-7 are considered to be drug "professionals."
24. N. Dorn, "British Policy on Prevention," in Drug Misuse and Dependence,
eds. Ghodse, Kaplan, and Mann (1990), p. 144.
25. A. Dean, "Cocaine and Crime in Britain: An Emerging Perspective," paper
Downloaded by [Wilfrid Laurier University] at 02:05 24 June 2016

presented to UNICRI Conference, Rome, Italy, Mar. 20-23, 1991. Alan Dean is project
manager for the "Cocaine and Crack Use" program at the Centre for Research on
Drugs and Health Behaviour, 200 Seagrave Rd., London SW6 1RQ, Great Britain.
26. Ibid., p. 11.
27. P. J. Bean and C. K. Wilkinson, "Drug Taking, Crime and the Illicit Supply
System," British Journal of Addiction, vol. 83 (1988): 533-539.
28. J. Mott, "Opoid Use and Burglary," British Journal of Addiction, vol. 81
(1986): 671-677; H. Parker and R. Newcombe, "Heroin Use and Acquisitive Crime in
an English Community," The British Journal of Sociology, vol. 38, no. 3 (1987): 331-
350.
29. H. Parker and G. Jarvis, "Young Heroin Users and Crime: How Do the 'New
Users' Finance Their Habit?," British Journal of Criminology, vol. 29, no. 2
(1989): 175-185.
30. Ibid., p. 184.
31. P. Arlacchi, Mafia Business: The Mafia Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism
(London: Oxford University Press, 1988); and "Sociologia della Droga: Il Caso di
Verona," Micromega, vol. 4 (1989):59-98. U. Santino and G. Chinnici, La Violenza
Programmata (Milan, Italy: Franco Angeli, 1989); and U. Santino and G. La Fiura,
L'Impressa Mafiosa (Milan, Italy: Franco Angeli, 1990).
32. A. Jamieson, The Modern Mafia: Its Role and Record (London: The Centre for
Security and Conflict Studies, 1989); "Mafia and Political Power, 1943-1989," Interna-
tional Relations, vol. 10, no. 1 (1990a): 13-30; Global Drug Trafficking, Conflict Stud-
ies no. 234 (London: Research Institute for the Study of Conflict and Terrorism,
1990b):23.
33. I. Sales, La Camorra, Le Camorre (Rome: Editore Riuniti, 1988).
34. Arlacchi, Micromega, p. 78.
35. R. Catanzaro, Il Delitto Come Impressa: Storia Sociale della Mafia (Padua,
Italy: Liviana Editrice, 1988).
36. Santino and Chinnici, p. 196.
37. Ibid., p. 353.
38. G. Colombo, Il Riciclaggio (Milan, Italy: Giuffr Editore, 1990).
39. C. Sterling, The Mafia (New York: Norton and Co., 1990). Crime without
Frontiers is scheduled for publication by Simon and Schuster in 1993.