Du clandestin à l'officieux: Les réseaux de vente illicite des médicaments au Sénégal

From clandestine to unofficial: illicit dealings in medicines on Senegalese markets.- The recent development of an illicit trade in medicines in African towns leads to wonder why a society generates and tolerates illegal practices in order to solve its health problems. A study of the sale of medicines on the markets in Pikine, a suburb of Dakar, provides a double answer. On the one hand, the public authorities are unable to ensure economic access to medicines for the urban poor: hence the multiplication of illicit outlets where drugs are retailed at a lower price. On the other hand, the supply networks and the dealers' training are controlled by the powerful Murid brotherhood whose close political connection with the State authorities hinders official intervention. This results in a policy which, in spite of official denunciations, alternates passive toleration with casual repression.