Mainly due to my area of study and activities with Students for Sensible Drug Policy, I spend a lot of my time writing and talking about drugs, government policies, and the effects of these on societies in general. I do this with little firsthand experience; I choose to keep my personal life separate from illicit drugs. So I thought I’d ac- tually try meeting people involved with 'illegal' drugs. Aſter making a number of phone calls, I managed to arrange to meet a cannabis dealer at a location that was neutral to us both.
I must admit, I was a little worried as I was travelling to meet them, I didn’t really know what to expect. When I arrived at the location I was met by “Joe” (name changed to hide iden- tity), a rather friendly individual in their early 20s. For obvious reasons, at the beginning of our conversation Joe seemed a little reserved as he tried to gauge me, but aſter a while began to be more open with me.
By his own admission, Joe is not your stereo- typical drug dealer. He was brought up in a middle-class family and had started dealing cannabis whilst at university due to financial difficulties. I’m told he wouldn’t have been able to finish their course if he had done the usual 20-hour a week, minimum wage job, especial- ly aſter having spent time working as a non- skilled worker which he had hated.
It all started for Joe when he thought that may- be he could sell a small amount of cannabis to cover the cost of his own use, just dealing to friends. “And for a while I didn’t make any money off of it” partly from being ripped off by the people Joe bought cannabis off and partly from simple mistakes that are made by some- one doing something for the first time. With- in a small number of months though, things seemed to have picked up for Joe, as friends passed on Joe’s number to other friends and he is now struggling to keep up with demand. From what I’m being told it appears that Joe rather enjoys this job, spending most of the day travelling round chatting and smoking with the people they deal to, and who I’m informed are generally interesting folk.
What’s apparent from talking to Joe is that dealing cannabis is something that he has done as an active choice. It’s common to talk about those individuals, especially those from less privileged backgrounds, who have become in- volved in the drugs trade due to lack of alterna- tives. I personally like to use the phrase “drug dealing is the only equal opportunities em- ployment in some places”. However Joe’s story, where someone starts dealing to fund
their own use but then it grows into something bigger is not one I’m unfamiliar with. Tis can have terrible consequences with addic- tive drugs where people try to encourage other people to use so they can pay for their own ad- diction.
As time has gone on, the paranoia that comes from working in a black market has built up on him. “I do have nightmares about getting caught, dreams where my place gets raided or I’m in court.” Most people have a story about someone they know who used to deal drugs and they got caught by police or attacked by ri- val drug dealers, and I get a real feeling of wor- ry from Joe as he tells me about these stories.
We also discuss the ethics of being a cannabis dealer. Despite that for all intents and purposes Joe seems a good person, he’s fully aware that higher up in the drugs ladder some less nice people will be operating. Joe insists that can- nabis is not a damaging drug like heroin or cocaine, and that they would feel awful if they were dealing drugs like those to people who were ruining their lives through drug use. “I’m not a criminal, I would consider myself a good person, I try to live my life in a good way…”
It’s at this point that Joe’s phone rings, and he makes his excuses and leaves.
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