The adulteration of drugs: What dealers do to illicit drugs, and what they think is done to them

The notion that street drugs have been adulterated/diluted by all seas of dangerous substances such as Vim, Ajar, ground-glass, brick-dust and even rat-poison is a common one. Moreover, it is in fact a practice believed to be true by those involved with the researching of drug issues, the treatment and rehabilitation of drug users, the policing of drug users and the educating of drug users (cf: Coomber 1996) as well as by the users themselves. As this paper will show it is also thought to happen and be perpetrated by those who are deemed to be responsible for such adulteration/dilution, the dealers themselves. This however does not accord with the forensic evidence, or, as are the concerns of this paper with the practice or experience of individual drug dealers. This paper suggests, on the evidence of interviews with drug dealers at different levels of the drug distribution chain that less adulteration/dilution actually occurs than previously thought and that when it does happen 'on the street' it is of a relatively benign character.