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Entertainment starts with an E: the ecstasy market in Greece

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Abstract

The purpose of this article is to provide an account of the social organisation of the ecstasy market in Greece. Concern about ecstasy production, distribution and use in Greece has risen since ecstasy appeared in the country in the early to mid-1990s, and continues to be fuelled by media reports which reinforce the perception that there are huge profits for traders. Moreover, the Greek authorities have adopted a ‘war on drug’ rhetoric when it comes to ecstasy trafficking. Thus, the fact that such mentalities are commonplace, while the knowledge deficit about the particular market remains gaping, makes it an imperative to examine the structure and dynamics of the ecstasy market in the country. We aim here to provide an account of the ‘extent’ and nature of the ecstasy market in Greece as well as a presentation of the ‘actors’ involved. We also explicitly focus on the issue of price of ecstasy tablets in the country, which we regard as key to the understanding of the logic of this particular market. Our investigation of various aspects of the market concludes with a number of more systematic observations regarding the particular business.

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Notes

  1. According to an article appearing in the Greek daily Eleftherotypia, the huge increase in the seized Ecstasy tablets by the Greek police in the 2000s reflects an actual increase in the consumption of Ecstasy tablets in the country (Eleftherotypia 2007).

  2. Relevant data on 2002, 2003 and 2004 is not available.

  3. The British and the Dutch were, for instance, the largest and the fourth largest client group for the Greek tourist industry in 2007 (Business Stories 2008).

  4. No data in relation to the country of origin of Ecstasy is provided in the subsequent Annual Report on Organised Crime (MPO 2006)

  5. We clarify that the account about of the size of the laboratory has been made in the source consulted, Astynomiki Epitheorisi (2000), and not by us.

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Acknowledgements

We would like to thank Klaus von Lampe for handling the review process and the reviewers for their valuable comments and suggestions. We are also indebted to the participants in this study as well as to Ioannis Vassilopoulos and Maria Vetouli for the provision of literature on Ecstasy use in Greece.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Social Sciences & Law, Teesside University, Middlesbrough, TS1 3BA, UK

    Georgios A. Antonopoulos, Georgios Papanicolaou & Mark Simpson

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  1. Georgios A. Antonopoulos
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  2. Georgios Papanicolaou
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  3. Mark Simpson
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Correspondence to Georgios A. Antonopoulos.

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Antonopoulos, G.A., Papanicolaou, G. & Simpson, M. Entertainment starts with an E: the ecstasy market in Greece. Trends Organ Crim 13, 31–45 (2010). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12117-009-9088-7

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