Determinants of individual drug market patterns: Ecological predictors of where individual drug users buy their drugs.

Abstract

The following research examines why drug users are less likely to purchase their drugs from closed-air drug markets. This research uses a key principle from routine activities theory to further examine closed-air drug market activity. I use both structural and individual level variables to address issues of guardianship and criminality in order to explore what makes drug users less likely to purchase their drugs indoors. The closed-air drug markets that are examined in this research are marijuana, crack cocaine, powder cocaine, heroin and methamphetamine. I incorporate public access data from the U.S. Census Bureau with public access data from the National Institute of Justice's Arrestee Drug Abuse Monitoring (ADAM) program to conduct this analysis. In this research, I find that guardianship is affected by levels of poverty, education, unemployment, female headed households and issues of race and gender. I also find that levels of criminality are affected by race, education, unemployment, current and past arrest record, homelessness, and drug dependency. These findings demonstrate how decreased levels of guardianship and increased levels of criminality make drug users less likely to purchase their drugs from closed-air drug markets.