Wheeling And Dealing Summary

In the 1970’s Patricia Adler and her husband infiltrated a large drug smuggling and dealing ring located in Southwest County of southern California with the intent of learning more about the covert group. In Adler’s book Wheeling and Dealing: an Ethnography of an Upper-Level Drug Dealing and Smuggling Community, she delves into the multifaceted lifestyle and activities of those in the Southwest County drug world. In this paper, I will look into the factors that initiated their entry into the drug world, their activates that facilitated their smuggling and dealing of drugs, and their exit from the drug world, while applying multiple theories to explain their illegal behavior.
Southwest County drug smugglers and dealers were initially attracted

to the drug world due to their hedonistic thinking and the success linked to attaining materialistic objects. Merton’s Strain Theory is an appropriate theory is describing the Southwest County dealers and smugglers initial appeal to the drug world. Merton describes criminals as those lacking a moral compass who must adapt to the permanent dysfunction in society, particularly the consequences of capitalism. Merton described the United States is an anomic society that promotes material success, while also emphasizing goals rather than means, thus reinforcing individual creativity and innovation. This type of anomie society yields multiple breeds of people who either believe in the goals set by society and the means of attaining the said goal, or a variation of the two. In the case of the Southwest County dealers and smugglers, they are categorized innovators. Merton defined innovators as those who want to reach the societal goal, but don’t want to reach it by the means in which society says you must do so. Those in the drug world are considered innovators because their main drive was to make a mass of wealth in a short period of time with less effort than required of a forty-hour work week at a steady nine to five job. In contrast to the belief that those in the drug world are only poverty stricken individuals trying to stay afloat in a capitalist society, most participants in Adler’s study came from comfortable middle class homes who were drawn to the drug world through desires of nicer things, easy money their current job wasn’t providing them, and thus the freedom to spend their time however they’d like. Ultimately, it was the promise of reaching the American dream through quick money, big houses, fancy cars, and exotic vacations that those in Southwest County sought through their illegal endeavors.
Each introduction into the drug world was unique to the individual and their life before dealing drugs. Nonetheless, as unique as each situation was most often individuals were introduced by their own personal drug dealer, networks of friends or coworkers, or recruited into a smuggling crew based on their previous jobs or skill set. In this case, Sutherland's Differential Association Theory would be relevant in describing how individuals were introduced to the drug world and the illegal activities****. Since most often the individual was introduced to the illegal business through close friends that they regularly associated or worked with. A common theme that resonated with those interviewed was their curiosity of what their drug friends were doing to be able to afford the life they had. These individuals had watched others become successful in terms of reaching the American dream and wanted to partake in whatever get rich scheme they had happened upon. All in all, it was their associations with friends or their networks of associations that provided them with the opportunity to sell drugs for a living.
Once inside the covert group, a dealer or smuggler had to learn through their associations with friends and business partners what was appropriate and expected of them as a Southwest County dealer or smuggler.

Aker’s Social Learning Theory would be suitable for describing how individuals learned to begin dealing and smuggling drugs. By watching their comrades handle business deals, organize smuggling runs, and negotiate prices they learned the tricks of the trade, business associations with suppliers, and how to interact in social settings in order to procure more business deals. Through these intimate relations, they learned what it took to boost their level within the stratified system of dealers and gain respect in the business. They learned what it meant to be a dealer or smuggler and how to act in order to sell enough drugs to make a profit. All of the successful drug runs, extravagant parties, big houses, and materialistic things were perfect examples of positive reinforcement to up and coming dealers or smugglers of what was to come if they worked hard (i.e. sold a lot of drugs) and held out for that big break on the horizon. Of course, there were times when drug runs went bad or someone lost all their possessions to the IRS. These undesirable times served as negative reinforcement to others in the drug world, further teaching them how to avoid bad results. In theory, other’s failings essentially strengthened the group as a whole. As time passed, these individuals imitated the actions of dealers and smugglers they aspired to be like in terms of success, which reinforced the group's norms and values to individuals just starting out in the

business.
Southwest County drug dealers and smuggler’s activities were centered on making money to support the perfect lifestyle they had imagined or created. The pricing of drugs depended on several factors such as relationships, location, potency, or even whether or not they were high that day. While these are only a few of the factors that determined the prices of drugs, the central goal was to bring in a profit, again enforcing how intertwined Merton’s Anomie Strain Theory was to all their activities. No sale, money loan, business trip, or business deal was ever done without the forethought of it bolstering his or her status, reputation, profits, or future sales. Often dealers would ‘loan’ drugs to someone they were well acquainted with or who had an honest and integrative reputation while they flipped the drugs for more profit. While this may have been interpreted as a favor, this loan, in fact, served the purpose of increasing the dealer’s reputation as considerate and easy to work with, subsequently attracting more buyers. Every action served a purpose, which was ultimately to make more money.
Many of those interviewed by Adler expressed the same initial motivation for entering the business: the desire to make a great deal of money and ‘retire’ within a couple years. However, this delayed gratification was short lived and replaced with immediate that drugs, sex, and excitement the drug world offered. Greed for more money compounded with frequent drug use led to downward spirals for several dealers resulting in great debts and commitments owed to distributors and other dealers. Many often expressed the same demand to constantly spend money in order to keep up with their lifestyle and impress others to uphold their status. They had grown comfortable with the luxurious lifestyle their endeavors had afforded them and weren’t willing to settle into the meager life of law-abiding citizens. It similarly wasn’t unusual for individuals who were flashy with their money, had unpaid debts, or bragged about their lifestyle in ‘straight’ settings to be regarded as irresponsible and forced out by other dealers or smugglers by refusing to do business with them. In this case, it was the individual's ego that ultimately put them out of business. In some instances, individuals just entering the drug world subconsciously acted on others conceptions of them as failures, making the self-fulfilling prophecy an appropriate concept in these particular examples.
Social scenes also were problematic for a dealer or smuggler’s business. Often times those at parties would snort large amounts of cocaine with friends that greatly impacted their overall profit from a recent run. Not only did their usage at parties affect their behavior, but those in the Southwest Country drug community often tested the cocaine they were selling to demonstrate to buyers that the product was good quality and not ‘cut’ for the sake of large profits. The excessive use of drugs eventually had devastating effects on those in the business. The paranoia of getting caught by the government, the IRS pursuing them, or the simple agitation from the overuse of drugs eventually resulted in a fork in the road; either cope with the paranoia and fear or leave the business.
As some watched their close friends or acquaintances go to prison, die (though rarely), lose their family, or completely go off the deep end from drug use, they experienced wake up calls that commanded to an ultimatum. Once faced with this ultimatum, dealers and smugglers had to choose if the drug life was worth the risk of imprisonment and losing the empire they had built. It was essentially other’s failures that served as negative reinforcement and persuaded other’s to leave the business before getting caught. Therefore, Aker’s Social Learning Theory is useful in describing how dealers and smugglers reverted back to their legitimate jobs because of the fear of punishment or losing everything from these acts of negative reinforcements. For those that did choose to return to normal society, the reintegration did not come easy. Often times those in the drug world oscillated between the drug world and conventional society. The comfortable life that the drug trade had provided them proved difficult to give up. However, the ease of transition depended on the level of hierarchy and time committed to the business, or lack thereof. Another factor that affected a dealer or smugglers deportation from the drug world was whether they held social bonds to conventional society, like a spouse, children or a legitimate job.
Adler’s book Wheeling and Dealing shed light on many misconstrued ideas about individuals in the drug world and their levels of sophistication. Unlike traditional organized crime groups such as gangs and the mafia, the drug world is a rather complex organization disinterested in territorial spaces or capitalizing on an entire market. Instead, it is characterized by numerous groups of individuals, within an organization of loose, flux associations and networks, capable of adapting to environmental and legislation changes for the sake of money. Although the drug world is rather lax in some regards, those within it have adopted and carried out subtle mechanisms of self-control that concealed their illicit activities, and subsequently enhanced their profits and the stratification of the hierarchy system. Southwest county dealers were ultimately driven by hedonism and the desire to reach materialistic success, warranted by the idea of the American Dream. From there they pursued the drug world through their own associations and began their illegal, yet exciting life of selling drugs by imitating the actions of successful former dealers and smugglers. The Southwest County drug world could be best summarized as a favor system centered on shielding their illicit businesses from law enforcement in order to ensure profits for all involved, which only increased the power and arm of the drug world.