
Confessions of a Drug Dealer's Delivery Service Guy - mikecarroll
http://www.vice.com/read/confessions-of-a-drug-dealers-delivery-service-guy
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MichaelGG
>Like most addicts in denial, potheads live under the bogus assumption that
every bong hit will be their last.

Uh, what? While there may be some people that have hit problems and want to
change because their life is being negatively impacted, most "addicts" are
quite fine where they are. I personally don't like pot, but I've never known
any pothead to keep saying "this will be my last hit" \- quite the opposite.
Like Snoop says "Smoke weed everyday".

Edit: Also, he disses his pill clients ("depravity"), while simultaneously
noting that they're the wealthier ones, pouring him "expensive scotch".

Seems like he had some odd delusions of being cool, and wanted to show how
hard being a delivery boy is ("read three books a week"), while also showing
his superiority to "addicts".

~~~
dobbsbob
I laughed out loud when I read that idiotic part about "this will be my last
hit" too.

I do like John McAfee's take on chronic weed use though: “Marijuana is the
drug of illusion. It creates the the illusion that you’re thinking great
thoughts and doing great things while you’re sitting on the sofa and growing a
beard.”

Anyways, if this guy was delivering Oxy he's lucky he is still alive. Oxy
drivers are almost always jacked where I live. All the major crew members here
are addicted to it because it calms them from being paranoid since they are
all marked for death by each other and constantly looking over their shoulder.
Gangster anxiety is best explained in the classic song My Mind Playing Tricks
On Me by the Geto Boys.

Kind of strange this guy didn't mention any anxiety of being busted or having
a gun shoved in his face. He just slammed all his customers leading me to
believe he didn't actually deliver drugs. If you don't wake up in the middle
of the night panicking after dreaming of your door getting kicked in or don't
think that everybody on the street is following you then you aren't in the
game.

~~~
gaadd33
I wouldn't think think low level delivery guys in Manhattan have that much to
worry about. The types of customers he presumably was delivering to aren't the
types to go buy an illegal handgun somewhere and then mug a delivery guy for
$1K in drugs given they obviously make several times that in their job.

As far as being busted goes, if he's taking cabs/walking everywhere and its in
say Midtown Manhattan and he's dressed like any other 20 something with a
laptop bag, its unlikely he'll be randomly stopped and frisked.

~~~
dobbsbob
True, but other crews pay for intel on competitor delivery driver operations
because that's their ATM machine: robbing and taxing weak criminals.
Especially the pill customers, it's likely they have other delivery drivers
since they are addicts and wouldn't think twice about dropping a dime on this
guy for some free Oxy. The other crew then sticks a gun in his face, and
demands to know where the boss keeps the safe house and it's all downhill from
there. I guess his 'boss' paid taxes to avoid this.

I learned all this from an unfortunate but informative stint in jail for a
minor computer tresspassing charge. Guy's in there close to release form new
crews and when they get out the first thing they do is rob a delivery driver
to start their new business. They approach existing org crime outfits and
receive loans, guns and vehicles to go conquer and tax new territory.

Here's a timely article about exactly what we are talking about:
[http://blogs.vancouversun.com/2013/10/04/corey-lal-took-
over...](http://blogs.vancouversun.com/2013/10/04/corey-lal-took-over-drug-
line-day-before-surrey-six-murders-witness/)

------
doktrin
> _At times, I was tempted to hand them back their measly $60 and snatch the
> pipe from their hands and say, “You don 't have to live this way.”_

That's a lot of condescension coming from the guy who thought he would look
like a "suave gangster" while performing door to door pot deliveries.

~~~
ugexe
Not to mention he mocks them for not making huge live changing moves during
the small time frame that he actually knew them, and that he actually thinks
these clients weren't just casually lying to some kid who brings them their
weed.

~~~
n3rdy
Not to mention he himself took the job out of desperation. He admits he
couldn't make a better life choice for himself but acts like he's superior to
the people conducting business with him.

He also suggests they were spending $60/day on weed.. wouldn't that be at
least $1200/month? He had few enough clients that he never saw the same first
name twice, so his clients were probably earning more than he did.

As easy as it is for him to judge the pill clients, he could have made an
effort to think of reasons why his _wealthy_ clients were hooked. People get
addicted to opiates all the time, and its not always drug dealer delivery guys
who introduce them to narcotics.. sometimes its a doctor.

~~~
codyb
I think you mathed wrong. 60*30=$1800. More than rent for a 2Br in lots of
Brooklyn!

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concerto
The sales incentives make no sense. He made 1/3rd commission on the smallest
bags, 1/5th on the medium and 1/6 on the largest bags. It is better for him to
sell lots of small bags than 1 big one. In addition, assuming most customers
buy the small bag, then upselling to a medium bag would bring no extra
financial reward. Putting aside the idea that buying the biggest bag might
lead to faster consumption, and assuming that the customers were tied in to
the supplier, he would have been better off downselling as the customers would
still buy the same amount, just in more transactions, leading to higher
returns for him (especially as his transport costs were paid).

~~~
gwern
It makes sense to me. Each sale of a bag takes time. It's no good getting a
higher percentage of a small bag if he has to run around for an hour to sell 1
small bag and could've sold 1 large bag in that hour instead.

~~~
concerto
If the majority of users take the small bag, which seems logical, then I can't
imagine you would be able to upsell them easily to a product that was 5x the
price (indeed the author acknowledges that), the upsell opportunity there
would be to a medium bag, but as there is no difference to him financially in
the sale of a small or medium bag, what is his incentive?

~~~
gwern
...If there is no difference to him between a small and medium, doesn't that
instantly explain why he's trying to upsell them to a big bag even though it's
so difficult?

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cmsmith
I can't help but feel that what the author calls a 'drug dealer's delivery
guy' is what I would just call a 'drug dealer'.

~~~
ghshephard
The differentiation here would be that this guy doesn't have inventory risk
(or benefit, for that matter). This guy doesn't own the customer relationship,
or the supplier relationship.

It's the difference between owning a pizza restaurant and being the pizza
delivery person.

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eruditely
This piece is laughable if you've ever used drugs, sold drugs, or know your
way around anywhere. Oh man the article writers delusion.

~~~
Andrenid
Looks to me more like someone sold a few bags of weed to friends and got lost
in his delusions of being a runner, and made the rest up to try impress
people.

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lilbearsbrother
LOL this guy is the biggest tool of all time

~~~
nomedeplume
He probably aspires to date the equivalent of Hannah from Girls.

