Stages of Drug Market Change During Disaster: Hurricane Katrina and Reformulation of the New Orleans Drug Market

摘要

In recent years, numerous weather disasters have crippled many cities and towns across the United States of America. Such disasters present a unique opportunity for analyses of the disintegration and reformulation of drug markets. Disasters present new facts which cannot be “explained” by existing theories. Recent and continuing disasters present a radically different picture from that of police crack downs where market disruptions are carried out on a limited basis (both use and sales). Generally, users and sellers move to other locations and business continues as usual. The Katrina Disaster in 2005 offered a larger opportunity to understand the functioning and processes by which drug markets may or may not survive. This manuscript presents a paradigm which uses stages as a testable concept to scientifically examine the disintegration and reformulation of drug markets during disaster or crisis situations. It describes the specific processes – referred to as stages – which drug markets must go through in order to function and survive during and after a natural disaster. Prior to Hurricane Katrina, there had never before been a situation in which a drug market was struck by a disaster that forced its disintegration and reformulation.