The article analyzes the enter into and the agency within local drug economies drawing on classical ethnographic studies. It also links the a symbolic interactionist perspective to structural influences and social inequality using perspectives on gender, class and ethnicity/race. In order to understand illegal street economies it is of major importance not to see them solely as comprising of individual actors and networks that commit crimes and organize themselves on the street. A more comprehensive understanding requires a perspective on how agency on the street is created and limited by structural factors and dimensions. It further requires an awareness of the restrictions and oppurtunities provided by overarching economical structures that operate on global, national och local levels.