jayeff

For a couple of years in the early 70's I worked for some guys in South London. They were into clubs, used cars, betting shops and various illegal activities, including of course, drugs.

Here's how it went. You gave a few college kids enough marijuana to guarantee them lots of friends. These kids weren't dealers, all they had to do was hang out, go to parties, get people interested and pass those who wanted more along to the real dealers.

The dealers watched for people who seemed to have serious money to spend and they had samples of hard drugs to give away to the right marks. Those were early days. Later I heard the same thing was going on with people in big offices, but because there were more people with more money, they could skip straight past weed.

I'm 54 and over the years maybe a half dozen of my friends have totally screwed up their lives with drugs. A couple have died. Right now I have a neighbor who is a crack addict. When I first met her about 5 years ago, she was bright and smart and held down a good job. One of my brothers-in-law hasn't functioned properly in almost 20 years.

And guys like those I once worked for are in the background every time. They don't deal drugs because they want everyone to feel good: it's just business. Many customers never go past marijuana. Many who do, don't lose control. But that's luck. Those guys would cheerfully have hooked everyone if there was a way to do it.