The “oven”: creating confidence between dealer and client

If drug dealing were to rely exclusively on fear, it would not be possible to understand why sales between dealers and clients happen so easily. This article is based on a six year period of fieldwork in a suburb close to Paris. It describes the two patterns of drug dealing in Montrimond: the “oven” and the in-door. The relations that make the deal possible rest on trust. It shows how this confidence in others is grounded on a socially codified sequence of actions, through which dealing places, dealers and clients are rendered morally invisible.