Opioid of the people: the moral economy of tramadol in Lagos

This article provides an in-depth examination of the illicit tramadol market in Lagos. It draws on interviews with tramadol regulators and traders to explore the moral narratives that state and market actors adopt to legitimise their work. Using a moral economy lens, we show how these narratives are linked to wider power struggles in the pharmaceutical market and between regulatory agencies. The article argues that the ambiguous moral nature of tramadol is critical for an understanding of a drug that is officially despised and yet so widely used and traded.