I could be way off, but the scenario he posits, wherein all hits mates are buying weed and he arbitrages, is probably not how most drug dealers come into operation, and certainly not how I suspect the prison-time crowd got into it.
I think he is Duane Jackson, the author. He seems to be banned for some reason.
Duane, you can create a new account in no time.
While I'm at it, someone is free to recommend to me the appropriate etiquette for responding to the same question in multiple threads.
(I can't reply to the dead comment though.)
Thanks.
In urban environments, drug dealers are more plentiful, work on slimmer margins and operate in a riskier environment. In more cases than not, the drug dealers that are dealing with enough volume to catch prison time are those attached to gangs, or out of necessity to stay above the poverty line.
The picture painted in the article, at least to me, is perhaps the most likely way for middle class white kids to end up in prison for drug dealing, but most drug sentences serious enough to involve prisons don't go to middle class white kids, they go to urban blacks.
This isn't to say that the numbers are right, or fair, or necessarily representative of how the real world works -- but if we're talking about people in prison, this is more likely.
Most of what I said speaks in anecdotal language, but here are some numbers to back me up: http://www.jrsa.org/ibrrc/using-data/data_quality/data_eleme...
Have a great day.
I think pleading "necessity" sounds like excusing the actions. It's very very rarely neccesary to have to deal drugs or similar to stay above the poverty line. Especially here in the UK where unemployment benefits are fairly generous. Unless not having the latest pair of Nike Air Max equates to poverty.
As for my use of necessity, I certainly don't mean to excuse their actions -- perhaps 'believed necessity' would be more appropriate.
Last thing, I was also speaking specifically to what I know of American drug dealing, and I have absolutely zero knowledge of how well that information travels overseas.