Chasing the Scream Chap 5

What is the central focus of Chapter 5 of Chasing the Scream?

Experiences of people involved in the drug war and violence created by prohibition

Hari argues that eliminating one major drug dealer usually causes the illegal drug market to disappear.

2. False

According to the argument developed in this part of the book, what can happen when a drug dealer or organization is removed from an illegal market?

3. Other individuals may compete to take over the market

Hari connects violence in the illegal drug trade primarily to:

4. Competition within an underground market where legal dispute resolution is unavailable

The violence associated with illegal drug markets can be used to support Hari’s broader criticism of drug prohibition.

5. True

Why might people operating in an illegal drug market use violence to settle conflicts?

6. They cannot normally rely on courts and legal contracts to resolve illegal-market disputes

Hari suggests that tougher enforcement against drug organizations always permanently reduces the supply of illegal drugs.

7. False

Which idea best describes the “balloon effect” associated with drug enforcement?

8. Pressure on the drug trade in one place can cause it to shift or expand somewhere else

Which statement best fits Hari’s argument about the relationship between prohibition and organized crime?

9. Prohibition can create profitable illegal markets that criminal organizations compete to control

Hari’s discussion ultimately challenges the idea that increasing punishment and enforcement alone will eliminate the illegal drug trade.

10. True

Main idea of other reading

The main idea is that U.S. drug prohibition, beginning with the Harrison Act, was shaped by racism and fear and has failed to stop drug use while creating serious social problems such as mass incarceration and racial inequality.