It's funny that they didn't interview any actual neighborhood-dealers. The people sitting on the corner slinging dope have a much more dangerous job than people with clientele who are discreet and wealthy. I suppose it's because they're perceived as so dangerous that reporters never talk to them. But ask a corner man his life story and he'll tell you about serving time, getting shot, and paying off cops to stay alive. Stories like this one really gives you a romantic - and unrealistic - idea of dealing.
Your Friendly Neighborhood Drug Dealer
21–30 of 165 posts
Re: Your Friendly Neighborhood Drug Dealer
#22It's become obvious that laws can't stop drugs. Imagine a world where the level of convenience described here was normal, but without the bullshit. No more money wasted on police trying to stop it. No sales to minors (at least, no more than cigarettes and alcohol have now). Taxes on income by drugs dealers (Colorado is showing a hell of a windfall). Reliability and safety in quality, so that you get exactly what you…
"No sales to minors" If law enforcement cannot stop drug sale en masse, how do you propose that sale to minors will be prevented? The analogy with cigarettes and alcohol is not very apt: a lot of chain stores sell these (although some are pulling out: http://www.forbes.com/sites/matthewherper/2014/02/05/cvs-to-... ). It's clear that such outlets will not be open to drugs like heroin or MDMA.
The pattern that's emerging is for sales to happen at dedicated dispensaries.
Morgan Spurlock had a good episode about them: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9Gx4-wS1nrM#t=337
I'm sure the one they highlighted is among the more professional, but looking at how it's run and the stakes involved I'd imagine it's no more possible for a minor to make a purchase there than at a state liquor store.
Re: Your Friendly Neighborhood Drug Dealer
#23I found this sentence interesting - I surmised that Viktor serves a large segment of the East Coast and personally takes in $24,000 to $32,000 per month after all his other costs are covered. Let's say he takes in an average of $30,000 per month. Does $360,000 annually sound like quite a small amount of money for running a highly illegal business that serves a large chunk of the East Coast? Small-to-medium sized busi…
>>> Small-to-medium sized business owners, Wall Street traders, quants and very good engineers make that much money with none of the associated risk. Of course it's not a lot. The corner boys are earning less than McDonald's burger flippers. But you comment makes it sounds as if a dealer one day can say "screw it, I will be a quant". It's not a lot but it's the best he can get.
We're not talking about the corner boys - I've read Freakonomics too, I know they are earning next to nothing. We're talking about someone running a large scale distribution operation supplying a huge metropolitan region in the US with goods that are in short supply and high demand.
I guess I thought that the guys at the top would be earning more. It's a lot of money, but it's not private jets and weekends in Aspen kind of money.
Re: Your Friendly Neighborhood Drug Dealer
#24"If you get jammed up, you can become a convicted felon and that damns you to do it for the rest of your life, because you won’t get anything but a $7.50 an hour job—if that. You give somebody a felony record for life, what did you accomplish? You’ve just created a lower-class idiot that has to commit more crimes to survive.”
That's the problem right there. We can spend tens, hundreds of thousands of dollars incarcerating a simple marijuana dealer, and then remove most of them from the chance of ever having a productive life.
There are exceptions. I have an old friend who spent a few years in prison for LSD traffic back in college. He's one of the smartest people I ever met. Eventually he got out, finished his PhD in chemistry, and now is the co-founder of a startup doing new chemotherapy drugs. But like I said, one of the smartest people I've ever met.
Re: Your Friendly Neighborhood Drug Dealer
#25I found this sentence interesting - I surmised that Viktor serves a large segment of the East Coast and personally takes in $24,000 to $32,000 per month after all his other costs are covered. Let's say he takes in an average of $30,000 per month. Does $360,000 annually sound like quite a small amount of money for running a highly illegal business that serves a large chunk of the East Coast? Small-to-medium sized busi…
I had the same thought but I doubt he's as big of a player as he makes himself out to be.
Re: Your Friendly Neighborhood Drug Dealer
#26I found this sentence interesting - I surmised that Viktor serves a large segment of the East Coast and personally takes in $24,000 to $32,000 per month after all his other costs are covered. Let's say he takes in an average of $30,000 per month. Does $360,000 annually sound like quite a small amount of money for running a highly illegal business that serves a large chunk of the East Coast? Small-to-medium sized busi…
I had the same thought but I doubt he's as big of a player as he makes himself out to be.
Fair point. I expect the people making serious bank aren't the kind to grant an interview to a journalist at The Atlantic.
Re: Your Friendly Neighborhood Drug Dealer
#27It's become obvious that laws can't stop drugs. Imagine a world where the level of convenience described here was normal, but without the bullshit. No more money wasted on police trying to stop it. No sales to minors (at least, no more than cigarettes and alcohol have now). Taxes on income by drugs dealers (Colorado is showing a hell of a windfall). Reliability and safety in quality, so that you get exactly what you…
> We might even get there soon. I don't think the country, as a whole, will, but I do believe the more liberal areas will get there much quicker (as we're already seeing). I live in Indiana, the only state where one cannot buy alcohol on a Sunday. I don't think marijuana is gonna be legal here anytime in the near future.
> I live in Indiana, the only state where one cannot buy alcohol on a Sunday.
I'll allow that it's been 14 years since I lived in the area, but NC and TN still had dry counties where you couldn't buy liquor at all, let alone Sundays.
Born and raised in Indiana, where you could buy hard liquor in one of two places: the liquor store (duh) and the drug store. I'd love to know the origin of _that_ law.
"What about the grocery." "Nah, too accessible." "Drug store?" "Well, ya know, alcohol has been known to be used for medicinal purposes. And Osco Drugs just dropped twenty grand in my campaign fund, so why not?"
Warm beer? Buy it in a ton of places. Oh, you wanted it pre-chilled? Liquor store only.
Not to derail the conversation, but my point being that if 80 years after the end of prohibition we still have whacky liquor laws like IN does, some places just aren't going to get to enjoy a nice bowl of Purple Kush anytime soon.
Meanwhile, here in WA, I feel majorly inconvenienced because Winterlife Coop won't deliver to the Eastside.
Re: Your Friendly Neighborhood Drug Dealer
#28It's become obvious that laws can't stop drugs. Imagine a world where the level of convenience described here was normal, but without the bullshit. No more money wasted on police trying to stop it. No sales to minors (at least, no more than cigarettes and alcohol have now). Taxes on income by drugs dealers (Colorado is showing a hell of a windfall). Reliability and safety in quality, so that you get exactly what you…
"No sales to minors" If law enforcement cannot stop drug sale en masse, how do you propose that sale to minors will be prevented? The analogy with cigarettes and alcohol is not very apt: a lot of chain stores sell these (although some are pulling out: http://www.forbes.com/sites/matthewherper/2014/02/05/cvs-to-... ). It's clear that such outlets will not be open to drugs like heroin or MDMA.
This would be the effect of legalizing the sale of drugs to adults: legal dealers would be able to offer lower prices than illegal ones (assuming that the taxes are not sky-high), so would price illegal dealers out of the market. However, for legal dealers (who are also risk-averse, like most businesses), it's very risky to offer drugs illegally (e.g. to minors) - they get all the disadvantages of illegal dealers (risk of jail/closing down the business) with few of the advantages (high price, but only on the amount of drugs sold to minors, which is presumably not a lot).
Therefore, your market would partition into two groups: illegal and legal dealers (who would follow the law to the letter, like most businesses). The first group would also be extremely tiny - unless the state's taxes are higher than the risk premium illegal dealers are charging, which is unlikely.
Re: Your Friendly Neighborhood Drug Dealer
#29Earlier quoted context omitted.
"No sales to minors" If law enforcement cannot stop drug sale en masse, how do you propose that sale to minors will be prevented? The analogy with cigarettes and alcohol is not very apt: a lot of chain stores sell these (although some are pulling out: http://www.forbes.com/sites/matthewherper/2014/02/05/cvs-to-... ). It's clear that such outlets will not be open to drugs like heroin or MDMA.
When I was a kid, it was much easier to get illegal drugs than alcohol. I assumed this was because one of them was only available to those over 21.
That's basically correct, with a bit more nuance.
There's no profit in selling alcohol to kids. Not only does the law come down on you if you get caught, but they can't provide enough demand to make it worth the risk. Plus, a chunk of your clientele will get antsy about it.
Illegal stuff, on the other hand, already has fully-operational structure measuring risk versus reward. The law is going to come down equally hard, so there's no increased risk, just more customers. Plus, the clients who find out are already incentivized to keep quiet.
tl;dr, prohibiting something to a minority is ridiculously more effective than prohibiting something to a larger group.
Re: Your Friendly Neighborhood Drug Dealer
#30See, I've always wanted someone like this, but never found it. I've always found people that sell one thing only (cannabis), or maybe a couple, but not the "drug supermarket". I mean, it makes sense as the article points out, if you're going to take on a big risk you might as well not do it halfway. I probably travel in the wrong circles, to put it lightly.
> if you're going to take on a big risk
It's not only the risk, it's also finding the right whole-sale provider, which I imagine is not the easiest thing to find.