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Bay Area drug kingpins lured low-level dealers, promising cheap rent (2020)
- ackbar03 6y agoHeh who knew, that's all the motivation they needed, cheap rent.
- xnyan 6y agoLow level drug dealing is less profitable than a minimum wage job. Desperation is a powerful motivation.
- deleted 6y ago[deleted]
- imwillofficial 6y agoOften times it’s not, and there are other social benefits, like being invited to all the parties, etc.. It’s not simply a numbers thing.
- ball_of_lint 6y agoWho cares about parties when you can't buy food.
- 3131s 6y agoThe only drug dealers not making any money are the ones that are born into poverty and have to come up with no money from the street level. Once you can put together at least a few thousand for a re-up you will make more than minimum wage, and you can double your money in a week or two with cocaine and harder drugs. It's easy to make 2k a week selling just eight balls and grams of cocaine if you know the right people on both ends of the equation. But of course it's only easy until you get raided or someone else decides to test you! The cops will rob you too in the US. One friend lost two lbs of weed and another got jacked a few times for larger amounts of coke by the police. It's a real calamity and drug legalization is the only solution.
- hattmall 6y agoIf your making 2k a week selling blow, but still risking robberies or cops that's an issue. That's when its time to move on to having the less than minimum wage low level guys working for you. If you are buying weight and handling re-ups then your already handling back end. Being a full stack drug dealer is not a long term proposition. If your doing 2k a week profit your moving a couple ounces of coke and ideally would have a couple cheap low level guys and a middle man that deals with them. The goal would be to just supply those middle men, but if your selling eight balls that probably is already the case. The real profit in cocaine is at the very low level where a $150 8-ball, gets cut to become 8 $50 grams, which turns into 6, $20 bags, that finally makes 10 $5 pieces of crack. If you control that entire operation and can go straight from the 8 ball to crack pieces your looking at greater than a 20x profit margin. Its going to require labor to cook and piece it out all day though. Because the only way you can sell those $5 pieces is to have a 24/7 presence on the street to serve the crack heads that successfully beg $5.
- quickthrowman 6y agoYou can make 30-50% net margin selling weed to end users, and 10-25% selling pounds to dealers (in black market states). Your overhead is time, gas, and plastic bags. There’s plenty of money to be made with low risk (don’t sell cocaine if you don’t want to have to carry a gun)
- 3131s 6y agoYep, best bet is to check your state's weed laws and stay under an amount where the penalty is not too severe. If you have no priors and get caught with less than 1-2 lbs in a lot of states, any felony possession charges will be cleared after serving a year on probation. Whatever you are doing, make sure that you can do the time you might get and don't panic when you get raided.
- uhhhhhhhhhhhhhh 6y agoMr Cartel man do you have any openings in UX because my last purchasing experience was harrowing
- ipaddr 6y agoYou pay no taxes either. And with a police record it might be the only job you can get. It's like running a business the hard way
- duskwuff 6y agoIn the Bay Area, that's some pretty powerful motivation.
- ta1234567890 6y agoI remember seeing dealers selling crack in plain sight on 9th and mission every day. Cops would drive by and the dealers wouldn’t even try to hide. It really seemed like there was some sort of arrangement going on there. But what would I know. On a side note, those dealers had pretty long hours, they’d be there from before 7am some times (and people buying too). It was also sad to see that most of their customers seemed to be residents of the nearby affordable housing buildings.
- dcolkitt 6y agoThere was a great book called Gang Leader for a Day, about a UChicago sociologist that spends time inside a Southside drug crew. His research showed that the average low-level street dealer made less than minimum wage. Almost all the profit accrued to the guys high up in the supply chain or gang hierarchy.
- edoceo 6y agoDrug dealing is a facinating experiment of full-free-market capitalism. The experience certainly inspired me further on the path of entrepreneurship.
- galuggus 6y agoI think it's often monopolies enforced by violence and corruption.
- boomboomsubban 6y agoMany people argue that's the inevitable result of fully free market capitalism too.
- vagrantJin 6y agoI have to agree with the sentiment. Free markets aren't operated by reasonable people.
- DC1350 6y agoI don’t understand how it’s even possible for the Bay Area to have non-homeless poor people.
- mathattack 6y agoRent control and subsidized housing protects a few at the expense of the rest.
- FounderBurr 6y agoTell me more about this anarchist paradise you hint at.
- hntrader 6y agoFor starters, how about allowing property developers to increase the housing stock so that rents go way down?
- swiley 6y agoI live on the east coast near DC. There's no rent control here. Instead there's very aggressive construction and housing is very cheap. I'm able to live in a fairly large luxury apartment on a junior engineer salary and there are plenty of much cheaper options.
- imtringued 6y agoSubsidized housing is ok because it lets the government suffer from its own incompentence. However, it's an ineffective/self sabotaging way of providing housing. Rent control is literally about politicians absolving themselves of accountability. They "make" housing "cheap" again without direct consequences to the budget. The angry mob is gone, the money problem is gone and the social problems are now allowed to pile up over time until you have a dysfunctional community. It's like sticking your head into the sand. Oh and please don't comment on how you can stick your head into the sand while simultaneously solving the actual problem as if sticking your head into the sand is a valid strategy.
- 6y ago
- FounderBurr 6y agoThis site has advertising cancer.
- gallego2007 6y agoIt was tough reading that article on a phone with all the ads... random up/down movements and even a full page refresh at one point!
- pcthrowaway 6y agoIs this article seriously naming potential informants? Unbelievable
- Veen 6y agoIt names convicted drug dealers who have probably been deported.
- violetgarden 6y agoI went to SF two years ago. I was just shocked by the amount of drugs around. Walked out of my hotel at 8 AM and was offered crack. Waiting at the walk signal, there would be people in the throes of a high hallucinating and screaming at no one in particular. I brought sandals with me on the trip but had to stick to close toed shoes because of the needles/human waste on the streets. I used to just love SF when I was younger, but my recent trip really put me off. The sad thing is, I think it’s good that SF is trying to treat addicts differently. However, I don't know if they’re attracting more addicts because they are lax or maybe you just see more because they aren’t thrown in jail? I’m not from Cali so I don’t know the situation too well. Sadly, it just seems like it’s spiraled out of control whatever they’re doing.
- danvayn 6y agoIt could be worse now, but to be honest what you describe doesn't seem very new. Maybe you didn't notice the first time around.