Metropolitics

Can Cannabis Be Legalized in France Without Inflaming the Banlieues?

Christian Ben Lakhdar & Aymeric Reyre & translated by Oliver Waine — 2019-07-05T05:00:00Z

France is a place of paradoxes: cannabis is widely consumed, and yet legalization does not seem to be on the cards, despite successful measures implemented elsewhere. This reluctance is linked in particular to a fear of destabilizing local economies in working-class neighborhoods. Aymeric Reyre and Christian Ben Lakhdar highlight the unfounded nature of this argument, and use evidence from other countries to underline the potential benefits of such reforms.
While the wind of legalization has

- Debates / drugs, drug dealing, legalization of cannabis, urban economy, banlieue, housing estates, housing projects, social housing

On Being Black and Poor in a Small City

Peter Moskos — 2016-05-24T06:00:00Z

No Way Out, Waverly Duck's recent examination of how African Americans in an impoverished small city construct a social order, joins a long tradition of poverty research in sociology. In this review, sociologist Peter Moskos discusses why this book deserves to stand out in a crowded field.
No Way Out, by sociologist Waverly Duck, is the story of a neighborhood: a poor neighborhood, a black neighborhood, a neighborhood with public drug dealing, and also a stable neighborhood.
Somewhere

- Reviews / drugs, ethnography, poverty, race, drug dealing, small cities

Drug-consumption rooms in the city?

Laurent El Ghozi & Nadine Roudil & translated by Oliver Waine — 2011-05-04T05:20:00Z

Following a number of experiments in Geneva and Bilbao, the question of whether supervised injection centres should be opened in France recently shook the nation's political scene, giving rise to lively discussions on the subject. In April 2010, the association Élus, Santé Publique et Territoires (literally "Elected Representatives, Public Health and Territories") initiated a public symposium with the aim of encouraging debate on this issue.
Could you give us a brief outline of the history

- Interviews / public space, health, drugs, safety, Spain, Genève, Bilbao, Switzerland