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One toke over the line: a
University drug dealer tells his
story.
rtEM IETR.S
. John (not his real name) came to
the University six years ago. During
the course of those six years John
suffered a $1500 a week cocaine
habit, spent time in jail, was kicked
out of rehab, and made over
$100,000 from dealing drugs to,
students. He is due to graduate in
May and agreed to tell his story to
Weekend Magazine.
Weekend: Are you dealing
drugs?
JOhn: No, not now.
W: You used to?
J: Yeah.
W: When did you start?
J: I started dealing drugs before
I even came here. I dealt pot in
high school. I would get it from
home and bring it back to school.
In four years I changed high
schools six times. I went to public
school, then prep school, then got
kicked out of prep school and
went back to public school, then
went to military school and got
kicked out for pot again, went
back to public school and sold pot
the last half of my senior year-
made about five or six hundred
dollars.
W: So, you continued to deal
after you came to the University.
J: Yeah, I was living in East
Quad. The first day of school I
walked up and down all the
hallways, looking in everyone's
room-you know how everyone
keeps their rooms open-and any
room that had a tapestry or a
poster of Bob Marley I'd stop in
and start talking to the person,
ask them if they wanted to get
high, get them high, they'd say to
me, "Oh, do you know where I
can get more of this?" and I'd say
"yes."
W: That's how you started?
J: Within a week I'd sold half a
pound of pot and started a
clientele. I had some very good
customers. By the end of my first
term I had saved $5,000.
W: Where did you get the pot
from?
J: I would get it from friends of
mine back home. And then I
escalated to coke because in
December at the end of that first
term I decided I was going to go
to Florida and meet a friend of
mine. So, I went down there and,
I had tried coke a couple of times
but never thought much of it-
W: You tried it here?
J: Yeah I had tried it here, at
school. It just didn't ever do
much for me. So I went down to
Florida, met the guy, bought
some coke and brought it back to
school and made a shitload of
money. The first night back I did
it for a day and a half and like that
(snaps his fingers ) I was addicted.
And that was the ugliest semester
I can remember at school. I was
flying down to Miami, like, every
weekend at first just getting three
or four ounces and then up to 3/4
of a pound...and doing probably
$1500 worth a week.
W: Yourself?
J: Myself. You know, smoking
it, freebasing, cooking it up. So, I
got heavily into that for about two
and a half months and didn't go to
class, didn't do anything, and
somehow managed to pass two
courses and got seven credits. I
withdrew from my other two
classes so I wasn't even on
academic probation. And at the
end of the term, well, two things
happened: (laughs) I...uh...got
busted and also ended up losing a
lot of money. I was still making
about $2000 a week dealing
cocaine...
W: $2000 a week on top of your
habit?
J: On top of my habit.
W: What were you doing with
the money?
J: Saving it. And at one point I
had $5000 and I (laughs) left it on
the counter of a car rental agency
on my way to Florida for spring
break. So I was broke and
borrowed a bunch of money,
$10,000, and I was going to make
the money back selling coke but
the deal got all screwed up. So
now I was in debt and I was going
to try to make the money back
dealing at school during the last
two weeks and then I got busted.
W: What happened?
J: They were setting up this
other dude.
W: 'They' being the DEA?
J: No, it was the Washtenaw
County cops. They were setting
up this other kid, they had
already busted his roommate. He
asked me to get involved in a deal
but I didn't want to because I had
already lost so much money. But I
said I would go with him. The kid
didn't know the deal was a set-up
but I got busted too and it
basically scared me straight for a
while, I stopped using cocaine
daily.
W: So you had been using
cocaine daily that whole time?
J: That whole fucking semester.
W: Were you still smoking pot?
J: Yeah, sure I was, but my life
revolved around cocaine. I hated
it, I was alienating all of my
friends. It wasn't something that
was accepted, really, at least not
the way I was doing it. All my
friends had done it but they could
see I had a severe problem. I
found out later my friends would
sit around in the dorm and say,
you know, 'what are we going to
do with him?' And there's nothing
you can do. Maybe getting busted,
I don't know, saved my life.
W: What exactly did you get
busted for?
J: Delivering a quarter ounce of
cocaine. It took about a year to go
through the courts. So in the
meantime I came back to school
the following year. I would get the
urge to do it once in a while,
especially when I was drunk, and
do some and then say, 'shit, I'm
never doing any again.' And over
the past six years the frequency
has been spread out more and
more.
W: When you were dealing
cocaine, were you still selling pot?
J: Yeah. What I would do is get
a large shipment in, sell it to about
two or three people who would
then sell it to others and I would
make about five or ten thousand
dollars. I would sell cocaine,
though, on an individual basis.
W: Who were you dealing to
mostly?
J: Students who would come to
me through word of mouth. There
wasn't a large consumption in the
dorm, though. There were maybe
five people I sold to in the dorm.
A lot of people didn't have the
money for coke or didn't care
about it. They were more into
smoking pot. Most of the people I
sold to were juniors and seniors
who lived off campus that I met
through the grapevine. I would
generally buy a large shipment,
sell it off quickly and then sit
-w. .
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