Activity 5: Cocaine Kids

          The author describes his research process as a part of the ethnographic process, in which a researcher immerses himself in the everyday life of his research participants. He must observe carefully, as well as take detailed notes of not only how the participants interact with each other but the environment he is in. He takes into consideration how the participants talk to each other and to others. A relationship typically forms between the researcher and participants, in which open-ended “interviews” play out where the researcher can gain more knowledge on the world of which he is temporarily a part of.  In this kind of research process, these relationships can sometimes lead the researcher to be looked at as a friend and even a source of advice, which happened with the author of Cocaine Kids.

            One aspect that I found quite interesting was how the Cocaine kids who were dealing cocaine looked at the individuals who free-based, or those who smoked cocaine base, which was a form of cocaine in which the hydrochloride was removed. For an individual who is not part of that world, to me cocaine was cocaine, and all those who used the drug looked at each other the same with the same addiction. Yet in the book, there is a negative connotation to those individuals who participate in basing. In the book all the Cocaine kids snort cocaine regularly, but do not smoke crack or freebase as they say people who do “tend to become agitated, quickly lose control, and concentration”. Hector, Max’s older brother, began freebasing after he got in trouble with the law and that along with other factors caused him to lose respect within the cocaine selling community.

            Another interesting aspect of the cocaine selling world I learned while reading this book was that yes, people who do sell drugs do it for the money, but the prestige, status, and respect that comes along with being on the top of the game is almost just as important, if not more, in some cases. The book talked about a hierarchy to this world, and explains how individuals in this part of this world, especially teenage dealers, can quickly gain or lose this status. One way to get immediate status, as mentioned in the book, was for a teenager to walk into a club and begin sharing large amounts of cocaine with everyone present. After doing this for a couple of times, the teenager then has the reputation for being a big spender and in order to keep this status, must continue with the lavish behavior.

            A third interesting aspect of this specific drug culture was not only the use of teenagers who seemed to have quite a bit of power in their hands, but how readily they seemed to welcome the author. From a third party outsider looking in, I would have thought the author would have experienced more resistance from the kids, but the impression I got from the book was that they seemed to welcome him and even look to him as a friend. What also stood out to me was Max’s position in this drug trade and how much responsibility and respect he had received from his peers, even though he was so young.

            In relation to our class, both the book and our discussions talked about the different forms of cocaine and the different attitudes people have regarding those who use the different forms. Both also touched on the subject of how a drug, in this case cocaine, impacts the lives of the young people in our generation.