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There are plenty of drug dealers who keep their house and car in conditions from spotless to 30 minutes from clean like everyone else. There are plenty of non-drug dealers who have trashed homes and vehicles too.
You only notice the ones that are making poor choices or have some mental health issues. Sometimes they also sell drugs.
My room is a nightmare of a mess and I'm not a drug dealer. We exist
My car is sadly very reflective of my mental state.
My old car was that way. I remember a friend climbing in for a ride and being so embarrassed that the back seat was full of empty beverage bottles. When I finally got a new car, I told myself "no more." 18 years later, the car looks its age on the interior but it's not full of trash.
My desk, on the other hand, is still just piles of stuff loosely organized by "newest on top." 😒
The correlation between people who deal drugs and people who make poor life choices is pretty high.
pretty high
ba dumm tss.
Do they? Or is that just the picture the media presents?
The drug dealer at our high school had a suped up ricer and they lived in the richest neighborhood in town.
Having lived in the dirt poor South for over five years in the early 2000's and smoked weed the entire time:
This is not just what the media presents.
The number of whacked out sketchy fucking freaks I had to associate with when weed was illegal was too god damned high.
When I was just trying to score some pot once and a methed out freak busts open the front door to yell at my dealer "We caught the neighbors cat" only for my dealer to decide it was high time to ignore that I had money for weed and instead took it upon himself to go outside, take his toddler with him, and sic his pit bull on the cat until it caught the cat and tore it to shreds. I stayed inside the whole time, freaked out, and desperate to leave.
Yes, the inside of his trailer was a fucking shithole.
My other dealer started out as a really smart coworker, got into doing meth, and the last time I saw him, everyone called him "mumbles." Went from a brilliant young man to a broken young man in the course of a few years.
I am so god damned glad to be able to buy shit from a store.
Maybe it has more to do with the spot in the chain and what they’re slinging?
As far as I know the dude supplied a lot of hard drugs and had local “mafia” connection, it’s also a larger city at a mil+.
My parents don’t live in a ritzy nor a downtrodden neighbourhood, but it’s centralist now (outskirts when they bought) they’ve had at least 3 grow ops and/or drug houses get busted on their street. Its a community I would raise my family in, so its not a bad part of town even or anything.
Maybe it has more to do with the spot in the chain and what they’re slinging?
It's this and just that people from all walks of life use drugs.
Rich people will have rich drug dealers and poor people will have poor drug dealers, and never the twain shall meet. It's not any more complicated than that.
That makes sense, but the media doesn’t want to glorify the good side of making money off of it, so they don’t show that side.
Both sides exist, but one is shown vastly more on the media than the others.
I mean, sort of? The entire show Weeds was about an affluent, classy woman selling weed, and that show is pretty old by now.
Sorry not media, news, you don’t see many rich people on the news being busted or their drug dens being shown. Theres definitely a news bias and that’s what OP was kinda asking about.
Now that I 100% agree with. News absolutely minimizes cases against the affluent or connected.
Now occasionally we do get news about it, but the outcome it always something like this:
This Police Union head got busted buying and selling fentanyl, tried to blame it on her housekeeper, and has had over a year of walking free to fight it.
Part of the reason for the extensions in the case is “differences in the government’s and the defendant’s views of the facts,” Segovia’s attorney, Will Edelman, wrote in a court filing.
Edelman, citing health issues and personal difficulties, is withdrawing from the case and Segovia will be represented by attorney Adam Gasner. Edelman noted in his filing that finding a new attorney for Segovia and transitioning the case to Gasner required additional time.
Nonetheless, “the parties have engaged in extensive back-and-forth discussions about such potential resolutions, including multiple meetings, presentations, and detailed correspondence,” Edelman wrote. He characterized the talks as productive.
"A potential case resolution that has been discussed and refined extensively remains a possibility,” he wrote.
The news media doesn't spend as much time focusing on cases like these because they don't like people having to see how anyone with money or connections can just pay to endlessly appeal and then walk away with a weak ass plea bargain and a slap on the wrist.
The reason they don't show it is they don't want poor people wising up to how fucking different the legal system is for them versus the rich and/or connected. That's basically the conclusion of this story: If you have money, you're basically untouchable.
See also Nicki Minaj blaming having weed on her while trying to board an international flight out of Europe on her employees. There's two justice systems, and the world only wants us to know about one of them.
Fantastic follow up dude/tte. I hate the bias the media/news pushes, but at the same time if that’s the stuff the general public had to go off, the general vibe of people would be much worse as well, so give and take and little doing your own vetting instead of just accepting what’s in front of you.
The grow ops on the block weren’t in the news, only gossip and what you could dig up (00-10) from ads, but the places were listed as “remediated (mold)” and with the fact that you never really saw anyone there you could 2 and 2 together.
The one had a car parked along the green space after 10pm every Friday, cops asked the neighbours about anything suspicious, shut the water/power off and waited for complaints. Started smelling the next day since the filters weren’t working from lack of airflow. This one was right across the alley and one door down, so literally a neighbours house.
i go to the store to buy my drugs now. vote this november for legalization in your state!
I would like to vote but most states require you to spend at least six months in the state and as a traveling nurse who usually signs three month contracts its kind of a bitch. But I always harp on my brothers and mother to vote.
Don’t you have an ID and mailing address? You should be able to vote there regardless of your traveling status.
I list where I was born at but they are cracking down on out of state votes.
Ugggh yeah I guess the US is trying to repress that stuff unfortunately.
Good luck buddy.
Huh. Didn't know that entirely ending the war on drugs was on the ballot anywhere.
I think you need to find better drug dealers.
You need to get better drug dealers
Well, what you're describing is probably more about where you're connecting rather than the fact that they're dealing weed illegally.
The illegal drug trade is always a risky one. This means that it runs high to people that are desperate enough to take that risk in order to gain the benefits.
This, in turn, means that when it's an illegal drug that also runs high to users that are desperate as well, there's kind of an amplifying effect. The dealers end up not really caring about much other than the money and what it represents. They don't need a clean house because it's temporary. They rent knowing they won't be there long, and will leave as soon as there's too much heat.
By not keeping their crash neat and full of things that would be desirable, they don't have to worry about clientele or rivals targeting them as much. They'll hide their cash as well as they can, and let everything else go to hell.
Now, that is going to vary in percentages depending on the types of drugs they're selling, and the location. Someone that's dealing coke, weed, and hallucinogens around a college don't have the same problems as someone dealing pills and meth near gang turf. But even dealers in nice areas can let things stay trashy, and the ones dealing out of their trailer on the edge of town can keep nice homes (though those tend not to deal out of their crib tbh).
It's a fairly complicated thing tbh. You've got conflicting socioeconomic strata, goals, sources, clientele, and individual background.
As an example, while I can't smoke weed, I'm an advocate for legalization (and have been since the 90). I'm not shy about talking about it, so I've had stoner friends, and dealer friends. Some of those used/sold other things. But the weed only dealers tended to be neater than multi-substance dealers.
One of the dealers dated a family member for a while, and this guy was trailer people. Now, that's not trailer trash, not up here. We have both. We've got folks that live in trailers by choice or economic circumstances, and then there's the folks that live in trailer parks because it's cheap and easy to be forgotten while doing whatever you want.
But some of those folks raised in trailers want out and that's how this guy was, and why he was a dealer. He'd sell weed, some ecstasy, and some acid, move the cash through his mechanic shop, and ended up doing very well. His single wide was spotless. He wasn't there much, but it stayed nice when he was.
But he was honestly the exception.
When I'd have to go to dealer's places in the same area, it was never nice. I kinda had a degree of immunity to the bullshit because I was a home health worker, and one of the few that would go to those kinds of places, but it's just an ugly fact that poverty and a degree of not giving a shit go together. When some is also ignoring social mores to deal drugs, they're more likely to ignore other social rules like not pissing in a sink full of dirty dishes. And know that because of finding bowls full of piss in sinks. Which is a whole nuther story lol.
Anyway, what I'm getting at is that with you being itinerant, the people willing to sell you weed are most likely the ones that will sell pretty casually. Most of the time, that's the folks that are dealing out of desperation/need rather than a belief in the free market or against drug laws. This means you'll see more of the ones that just DNGAF about anything.
If you settled down for a year or two, I think you'd eventually run into dealers that either won't deal out of their homes, or it's their actual home, so they treat it better.
Btw, Don, you ask some awesome fucking questions. No bullshit, I think I've seen more of your questions that make me think, or draw me in, in other ways, than anyone else. This one may seem a little limited at first glance, but you've noticed something that's a fucking deep indicator of social structures, social norms, and how they're thought about and portrayed. I dunno if it's on purpose or not, but I've noticed that about your questions here.
I was going to say this already after reading, but getting to your last couple lines really reinforced it - hey, you're good people, thanks for weighing in where you do. I see quite a lot of your posts in my daily browsing and they're almost exclusively all long-form well thought out responses like this one. I don't think I've ever seen you have a bad take about anything. I greatly respect your life experience and your opinions, they mirror a lot of what I've seen myself in the world as a generally curious soul.
Just wanted to say that. I've scrolled past enough of your comments where I wanted to add a quick "hey, thanks for this" but it wouldn't add anything to the conversation. This time is no different except that I've reached a limit of not acknowledging it out loud where I'm starting to feel bad every time I do so. Thank you for your contributions to our communities.
We'll probably never meet, but if we did, I think I'd like to buy you a beer.
I really appreciate that.
Gotta be honest though, I have my flaws and asshole moments too. I've had them on lemmy for sure, though I've been working to have less of them over time.
And I'd for sure have a cold one with you :)
Uh thanks for the compliment. I have been saving your comment ever since I saw it and waited till I bought a nice bottle of wine to read it. I think your answer is very thought provoking. Oh and on the questionns... I used to be a slug on latuda. Now that I take geodone and welbutrin I have all the questions flowing through my skull and just ask to get rid of them That is probably why I am a self admitted adict of wikipedia. Thanks again for the answer and the compliment.
Because they're also drug users.
The problem is they're either lazy or busy (the one guy I knew was busy), and unlike you or me they can't trust anyone to clean their apartment/car for them.
There was one girl I knew who was known among the dealers as trustworthy - if she saw 50 grand under your bed she would clean around it but not touch it. She made bank
Well of coarse she made bank. She was great at counterfeit bills, and would replace the legit $50,000 with counterfeit.
But if the dealer got caught with fake money, they would blame the sketchy people they got the money from. Not the trustworthy maid.
You have sub quality drug dealers. My dude flips cars on the side of his hustle so he always has something nice to drive. He's a fan of rare models, so his latest is a Saab something or other with all the goodies including 4wd and a ls9 under the hood.
Other than that he's got a nice little house in the burbs. Nothing big or fancy. Just a normal 2 bedroom place with a small yard.
DEA: “Oh nice, what address?”
Got a license plate or SSN?
The house behind my parents has had a string of terrible tenants. Loud assholes, people who let their dogs run loose, people with unruly kids, etc.
Otherwise a pretty decent neighborhood.
There was a younger dude living there for a while, kept kind of weird hours, but my parents never thought much of that, figured he was going to school, working night shift somewhere, etc. Mostly kept to himself, never bothered my parents in any way, always dressed professionally, etc.
He was probably the best neighbor my parents ever had in that house.
Then one day cops raided the place, turns out he'd been dealing a lot of drugs out of there and had a punch bowl full of cocaine sitting out on the kitchen counter.
Some of the other neighbors apparently had noticed some pretty sketchy characters coming and going from the house, they must have entered from the front door though, because my parents never really noticed anyone.
My parents would still take the drug dealer over pretty much anyone else that's lived there.
Search for basement bargain priced drugs, get basement bargain drug dealers.
I knew several living in regularly middle class neighborhoods with regular clean houses. One, in a gated community.
I think it's just as equal chance as anyone else having a messy house. The news rather shows sensation, so I think they would be less likely to give a tour of the drug dealers house if it looked like it could be your neighbor.
Also a lot of times people who deal drugs do it as a last resort. People who are already down and out. So poverty to begin with and everything that goes with it.
I think you have to ask: why are people dealing drugs?
Some people sell drugs because they are desperate. These people are dealing with extreme poverty, trauma, mental and physical health issues, etc. Their cars are messy.
Other people sell drugs because of the economic opportunity. In my experience, these people pride themselves on cleanliness, timeliness, and customer service. They have clean cars.
I knew a drug dealer back in the day, he was dealing a lot, I was always amazed he didn't get busted. He drove a pimped out car with a badass system in it, rims, tinted windows, and lowered. A bunch of police officers would hang out where I worked (an auto shop) and dude would drive by and the cops all said they KNOW he's dealing they just can't bust him, every time they stop him, he's clean. I told him about it and he said "Pfft those idiots think I'm dumb enough to deal in this??? Shit, I have a normal car in a rented for cash garage across town I use.
It was plain jane as it gets, not trashed, and not clean. He'd put some shit in it from his mom, some work cloths, and a worn out pair of boots I'm pretty sure he got from somebody else.
No need to answer but where was this at? Cause I had my dealer at the time on speed dial and he would do the exact same thing so just curious. My guy was named Don....and no he wasn't in the mob just a big pothead.
Midwest, his name isn't Don, and he didn't do any drugs, or drinking. Probably why he never got caught.
That sounds about how it went with the guy at my HS in Canada. Guy had an illegal exhaust and would get pulled over all the time, but if he had another car like that, that makes perfect friggen sense. The rumour was dad was mafia related.
Wouldn’t work with surveillance nowadays, but in the 00s yeah.
Because... drugs.
My drug delivery drivers only have very clean and expensive high end cars because those are much less likley to get pulled over and searched.
TIL I'm a drug dealer.
My "dealer" is a small woman from the burbs. She drives a Dodge ram or something. Pretty sure she compensates her size with that beast. One time when she rolled by my place, she parked briefly on the street across lazily while getting stuff out of the back. Back seat, not the cargo bed. That one was always empty.