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Your Friendly Neighborhood Drug Dealer

theatlantic.com

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Re: Your Friendly Neighborhood Drug Dealer

#81

Post by CocaKoala »

collyw wrote: post #76
chc wrote: post #50

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The idea that anybody you'd label an "entrepreneur" can pull money out of thin air legally, without any capital, without any connections and without working for anyone else is rather peculiar.

Is the American dream not based on that?

...no? To my understanding the American Dream is based on the idea that anybody from any background can come to America, build something, and become successful; the freedom and opportunity to start small and build up. It's not about pulling money from nowhere, it's about turning sweat into capital.

Re: Your Friendly Neighborhood Drug Dealer

#82

Post by CocaKoala »

kittycow wrote: post #75
cnp wrote: post #44

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I've personally seen MDMA fix two marriages, with one session each. Its divine stuff. I'm very happy that new studies have been completed or are being planned to further explore the psychotherapeutical side of the drug. But aside from that, I agree. It's the best. No hangover (if it's pure), short duration, music sounds amazing, an amplified sense of intellectual focus and compassion, and good times with friends. You…

agreed. I take one whenever i go to a job interview. Without it I'm a stuttering idiot during an interview. where as with ecstasy I turn in to the dos equis beer guy.

How often to you go to job interviews? If you have lots of them and take MDMA before each one, I think it might not be as helpful as you feel it is.

Re: Your Friendly Neighborhood Drug Dealer

#83

Post by librethrowaway »

corin_ wrote: post #68

In the UK (at least in my anecdotal experience, I know people in London, Oxfordshire and Cambridgeshire) it seems there's hardly any money to be made in selling weed any more. I'm sure further up the chain there is, but at actual dealer levels (I've never come across a "street corner" sort of person, just those who either sell from their home or travel to deliver) there's very little profit available. I don't know ho…

I disagree somewhat, dealing marijuana is still quite profitable, even in west coast USA where ubiquitous medical/legal marijuana has driven down prices a lot. As for east coast? From what I hear, the markup is still huge, with retail prices roughly double of west coast.

The only people I know of making a living exclusively selling marijuana (on the west coast) are small-time growers, though.

You're definitely right about crack/molly, the profit margins on those are ridiculous - because what's truly valuable there are the connections.

Re: Your Friendly Neighborhood Drug Dealer

#84

Post by corin_ »

librethrowaway wrote: post #83
corin_ wrote: post #68

In the UK (at least in my anecdotal experience, I know people in London, Oxfordshire and Cambridgeshire) it seems there's hardly any money to be made in selling weed any more. I'm sure further up the chain there is, but at actual dealer levels (I've never come across a "street corner" sort of person, just those who either sell from their home or travel to deliver) there's very little profit available. I don't know ho…

I disagree somewhat, dealing marijuana is still quite profitable, even in west coast USA where ubiquitous medical/legal marijuana has driven down prices a lot. As for east coast? From what I hear, the markup is still huge, with retail prices roughly double of west coast. The only people I know of making a living exclusively selling marijuana (on the west coast) are small-time growers, though. You're definitely right…

It may be that it's different in the UK (where I am), apart from anything weed generally travels much shorter distances here. I heard from friends in one region here that after the police busted a local farm with a few million £ of weed grown there, there were a couple of months where every dealer had incredibly limited supplies, mostly coming in from Holland rather than elsewhere in the UK. There definitely isn't as much growth here as west coast USA.

Of course it's also possible that there are dealers making good money off weed here and I just haven't come across them. But my anecdotal data points are at least reasonably varied, from well off people in good jobs to a couple living off benefits in council estates.

Re: Your Friendly Neighborhood Drug Dealer

#85

Post by badman_ting »

josefresco wrote: post #47
badman_ting wrote: post #15

See, 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.

Sometimes your "weed guy" will actually sell much more but simply not tell you. If you ask (the right way) they might reveal this, or connect you with another guy but I would suspect a lot don't want you (or anyone) to know they deal in the "harder stuff".

I have had that happen once or twice. But also I've encountered a lot of people who "aren't drug dealers", who only sell weed to their friends, basically so that they can smoke for free. This type takes the "not a drug dealer" thing seriously, and if you ask for large quantities or other stuff they will say no.

Re: Your Friendly Neighborhood Drug Dealer

#86

Post by swalkergibson »

wmeredith wrote: post #66
swalkergibson wrote: post #52

Earlier quoted context omitted.

As someone whose sister just died of a heroin overdose, I hope that we will get to the point that all drugs are legal. My sister died alone in a locked bedroom because of the shame and stigma associated with her addiction and related mental illness. I have no doubt that if there was a safe place she could go to use pharmaceutical grade heroin with clean needles that she would be alive today.

You're probably right. One of the most interesting things about heroin is that there are no long term negative side effects other than the addiction itself. This is as opppsed to something like meth that will make your teeth fall out with regular use. All the pitfalls of heroin addiction are socioeconomic. I'm sorry for your loss.

Thank you. It has been a challenging couple of months.

She was also a methamphetamine user (as a bipolar person she used meth when she was depressed and heroin when she was manic) and suffered no such "meth mouth" complications. The generally accepted reason for that side effect is a failure of dental hygiene and chronic dry mouth when dosed improperly, not necessarily the drug itself. If that were the case, the thousands and thousands of people prescribed Adderall would be toothless.

The major problem with the illegal "hard drug" market is that these substances are synthesized in abhorrent conditions and it is impossible to know what you are getting and in what concentration. For instance, there has been a recent rash of heroin overdoses across the country due to it having been "enhanced" with Fentanyl, an anesthetic designed for exclusive use in a closely-monitored hospital setting.

It took her death for me to change my stance on all of this. She found drugs that made her feel better. Heroin, meth, MDMA, etc. are no different than Seroquel, Xanax, Prozac, or any of those psychoactive drugs.

Re: Your Friendly Neighborhood Drug Dealer

#87

Post by chenelson »

mikestew wrote: post #70

"Customers in Colorado and Washington State no longer need to pay a premium for black-market marijuana." Colorado, maybe. Since the retail operations are not open for business yet in WA, we still don't know if retail is going to be cheaper. That's the part that worries me. I look at the tax structure (25% on each of the three players involved: grower, processor, retailer) and wonder how they're going to keep it under…

Ha. I've seen $22/gram recreational with a max of 3 grams, and people are lining up in downtown Denver. Things aren't much better in Boulder, where the city is dragging their feet on recreational. You can get 1 gram of wax (concentrate) for $25 black market (the bicyclists love their sativas), or from $40 to $65 in one of the shops (lower price typically medical).

I think the pie is probably growing. Good number of senior citizens are waiting patiently in line for 15 minutes; favorite line: "Sativa edible? I can't wait for bingo tonight."

Re: Your Friendly Neighborhood Drug Dealer

#88

Post by greedo »

ddoolin wrote: post #49
jlgaddis wrote: post #4

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 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.

Technically not the same, but in NC you can't buy it on Sunday before noon.

Used to be that way when I first moved to Nebraska in the mid '90s.

Re: Your Friendly Neighborhood Drug Dealer

#89

Post by stronglikedan »

mikestew wrote: post #70

"Customers in Colorado and Washington State no longer need to pay a premium for black-market marijuana." Colorado, maybe. Since the retail operations are not open for business yet in WA, we still don't know if retail is going to be cheaper. That's the part that worries me. I look at the tax structure (25% on each of the three players involved: grower, processor, retailer) and wonder how they're going to keep it under…

I purchased a quarter on the street for $100. It was a medical strain that came in a jar labeled with all of the manufacturers information - somewhere out in California. I looked it up on the manufacturers web site, and they were charging $200 to customers with a card. If that is the standard, then they are going to have a hell of a time overriding the street market with retail.

Re: Your Friendly Neighborhood Drug Dealer

#90

Post by morgante »

mcherm wrote: post #34
blhack wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Marijuana is probably going to be federally legal very soon. What's currently happening in Washington and Colorado is a good example to the rest of the world that marijuana is not the devil-drug that they thought it was. The best thing that will come out of all of this, imho, is that people will stop looking at marijuana and methamphetamine like they're the same thing. We might actually get sane drug policies, and we…

> What's currently happening in Washington and Colorado is a good example to the rest of the world that marijuana is not the devil-drug that they thought it was. This raises an interesting point: it is very useful to have a diversity of government because then one can see the effects of a variety of different legal and governmental structures and learn from them. Except for stubborn stupidity. Diversity in how heath…

> This raises an interesting point: it is very useful to have a diversity of government because then one can see the effects of a variety of different legal and governmental structures and learn from them.

Federalism at work. :)

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