Dope Dealing for Dummies
*names have been changed to protect identities.
Usually thought of as the realm of gangsters and career criminals, dealing drugs has recently become an easy solution for young Aussies trying to break free from their financial stresses and earn a quick, easy dollar for themselves. Students, shopkeepers, housewives, government employees and even defence personnel are becoming the next generation of dealers, supplying our streets and children with any amount of illegal narcotic, hallucinogen, amphetamine, depressant, inhalant or any other type of pharmaceutical that they've been able to get their hands on. It has become increasingly easy to purchase these substances in bulk, which therefore makes it a whole lot more accessible to these Gen Y dope peddlers, itching to feed their hunger for instant gratification with dirty, fast cash. Any criminal, or civilian, can score a big bag of narcotics for a fair price and sell them for a
slightly less fair price. For this reason, these new, educated dealers of the future are making large sums of money without much effort. Any idiot can deal drugs, but a smart dealer will last a long time, and with a business head, will soon be able to run the market of their desire. For these guys, the benefits definitely out weigh the punishments.
“It's like getting paid an insane amount of money for doing pretty much nothing. Some mornings I wake up and I'll earn $300 before I even leave my house for breakfast.” These are James'* thoughts on the matter. James is a twenty-three year old man who grew up in a fairly affluent family on the North Shore of Sydney. After high school he moved to the country to attend university and become a police officer, but after getting booted from the course for non-attendance, started selling marijuana to other students. This soon proved to be quite a lucrative operation for the ambitious, young entrepreneur, and he has since expanded his market to other, more designer drugs that fuel the small, uni town's nightlife.
When asked about the risks involved with the job he immediately shrugs off the question, obviously trying to look tough. “Yeah it's risky,” he says, “but it's worth it. I mean, why the fuck would anyone do it if it wasn't?” I neglect to answer his seemingly rhetorical question and move on to my next one. I ask him if he has ever had any rival dealers in town and if that has ever caused him any problems. He smirks in an extremely smug and arrogant way before stating, “Yeah, I did, but now they all get off me!” He seems quite pleased with himself about this achievement which he has single-handedly accomplished. “I did get bashed once,” he says, before I can ask him anything else. “Two fellas broke in with crowbars and took a few grand worth of cash and pot before smacking me around a bit. Wouldn't leave so I gave 'em a bit of lip and they cracked me across the mouth with one of the bars. I was fine but. Couple of bruises and a broken rib. Nothing to worry about.”
I can tell he enjoys the tough guy aspect of his chosen career path, if you can call it that. He is very proud of the fact that he does what he does and is somewhat successful at it. According to James, he has made tens of thousands of dollars and will be getting into the triple digits by the end of the year, which has caused him to start thinking about laundering the cash somehow. “I can probably put it through my mate's business. He's a chippy and he's cool with it so... I don't think it'll be very hard.” His confidence is ingratiating and a little bit infectious, yet I can't help but find it quite repulsive and annoying. He gives the impression that he has no shame, remorse or respect for the laws he breaks, but this portrayal appears quite forced. He also seems to me like the type of person who'll keep doing this until he's locked up or worse. The irony of James' situation is the fact that he came to this town to try to become one of the people that are likely to be the ones eventually putting him behind bars.
In stark contrast to James' youthful confidence is Peter*, a sixty year old ex-convict who has been there, done that, and regrets all of it. Only a few of years out of prison, Peter resides in a share house near Newcastle and works at a local abattoir. Approaching a pub near his house to meet him, my minds-eye imagines Peter to be an aging, weary, sad-eyed bloke with tattoos and a slow, steady demeanor. My expectations were almost perfectly met when I sat down at the bar with him. He was calm and pleasant, and I felt that he hadn't spoken to many new people in the past few years.
“As kids we used to go to the corner shop and ask 'em for a few plastic bags, y'know, and then five minutes later we'd get some other kid to go in and buy a lighter, 'right, and then we'd bugger off down the park, whack a bag over our heads and light 'em on fire.”
He tells storys with animated excitement - reliving memories of a happier, higher past.
“It was a mad rush, but, y'know, you'd cop a bit of crap for bein' a junkie and that. We didn't really care but, back then.”
Peter's mood greatly changes when he begins to tell about when his drug use became more of a habit, an addiction, a hindrance and a disease. When Peter was nineteen he was a fully-fledged, speed-freak, meth-head, crack-fiend who had a reputation for partying and using in far greater excess of other dealers. He tells me he got into the game by selling pot, just like young James. “Almost all drug-dealers, addicts and criminals I know, or used to know, got into this shit through selling and/or using bloody pot. People say it's a gateway drug and they're right, in a way. But in reality, if people wanna get their hands on harder stuff, it's not really very bloody hard, is it? Any idiot can buy some heroin and inject it. But any idiot can also buy a can of cat food and shove it up their arse, y'know? It's not the suppliers fault what people do with what other people've sold to 'em.”
This seems to be some sort of half-arsed justification for what he's done. Most of his conversation is based on the idea that it's him against everyone else – every man for themselves in a dog-eat-dog world. Peter's had an extremely tough life and it doesn't take a huge amount of thought to see why he thinks this way. He talks a lot about how culture has changed during his lifetime. He hates the fact that consumerism is the basis of modern culture, and holds a large amount of animosity towards the way the world has turned out and the way it is going. When he begins to get a little excited and off-topic I ask him to describe how breaking the law made him feel.
“It was exciting. It was fast, and dangerous.” He laughs, “And profitable.” More laughter, but from a mouth without a smile. There is a lot of regret in his eyes as he talks, constantly referring to the past in a reverent, remorseful way.
“If I could take any of it back I'd take it all. I was making money, so I didn't care, or see what I was doing to myself, but really all I was doing was making everything worse.”
Peter says that he does regret all his unlawfulness and wrongdoings, but I get the feeling that he only really regrets ever getting caught.
“Prison ruined my life,” he says, “that place scared the shit outta me so bad that I know I'll never commit a crime again. I used to love it, y'know, I had no care in the world. But now I know, 'y'know, now I know that if I ever go back there, urgh... I'd rather kill myself.”
He accepts his actions were wrong, but he still holds plenty of contempt for corrective services. He believes that prison is a completely archaic form of rehabilitation and thinks that it's hard to believe that it is still in place with all the other advancements in modern government and human-rights laws.
“I used to completely blame myself, not for all the dope I sold or nothing, but for the way my life had turned out,
but now I blame the system... prison, and that. Prison is supposed to be the punishment, but after you've done that punishment, you're still fucked. Nobody wants to hire an ex-con these days. 'Cept for bloody abattoirs!”
Peter doesn't mind a joke, but still doesn't really seem to smile. Eye-contact is rare, he only maintains it when he's reminiscing, which also quickens the pace of his speech. He may blame the system, but his regretful eyes also show a great deal of self-hatred, and I can tell that he blames himself more than anything, no matter what he says. His drug-abuse has had a strong impact on his conversational skills, yet he is aware of this and awkwardly manages to remain attentive. A criminal past and history of existing in and around areas where drugs are prevalent have made it so easy for Peter to end up the way he has. His mother and father were both alcoholics and drug users. He was introduced to this world at a very young age, so it isn't hard to see how he got so heavily involved.
I struggle to wonder why someone like James would enter into a world of such sordid possibilities. Peter was born into it, and the temptation that he grew up with every day of his young life was never there for James. James had the chance to easily avoid the anguish, struggles and torment that Peter now deals with everyday. Was it greed that drew them to deal drugs? Or peer-pressure? James carries himself like the type of person who would possibly do it to make some sort of a name for himself, although he also seems smart enough to be very aware of the inherent dangers involved. I'm unsure if James himself could even answer the question.
I am sure of one thing though, and that is that if James does ever find himself asking himself this question, it will be too late. Everybody knows that drug-dealers are never around for too long - they either quit, die or go to jail. If prison ruined Peter's his life, then James is in for one hell of a rough ride. He doesn't have anyone to blame, either. He can't blame the “system”, the government, his family, his friends, or his school. He had a chance, and as far as Peter would be concerned, he blew it.
“When they did catch me, 'cos they always do, I was fucked and now I'm just a stupid bloody sixty-year-old bastard with nothin'. None of it was ever worth any of this shit I gotta deal with now.”
In writing this article, I was tempted to tell Peter about my meeting with James, and maybe arrange a meeting between the two, but I thought better of it. I thought that it may be too upsetting or close to home if Peter saw someone who had all the opportunities that he never had, heading down the same treacherous path that has ultimately ruined his life. He may blame the system, but his regretful eyes also show a great deal of self-hatred, and I can tell that he must blame himself more than anything else, no matter what he says. I imagined Peter getting involved in some sort of intervention, which I knew could easily help James and quite possibly save his life, but my better judgement told me to keep their two worlds separate, leaving the both of them able to continue on with their lives, aiming towards whatever it is people like this aim for – which, to me, is still a mystery.
18TH MAY 2011