It’s not uncommon for college students to work a job while pursuing their degree. Census data released in January showed 72 percent of undergraduate college students worked during the year. While most students are probably waiting tables or pouring coffee, some University students have taken up a more illicit profession.
Dealing drugs.
Attitudes and patterns about drug use, particularly marijuana, are changing. A Pew Research study released April 2 showed more than 60 percent of Americans said they think alcohol is more harmful than marijuana. In addition, 54 percent of Americans favor marijuana legalization, and around 7 percent reported using marijuana in the past month.
*Charles Lyndon, a student who sells drugs to his friends on campus, said he was tired of going to buy marijuana for himself and for his friends all of the time.
“I wanted to get something out of it, so I started selling,” he said. He became good friends with a dealer, who fronted him a half ounce of weed to start his business.
The process of drug dealing is fairly simple, he said. Most of dealing is buying in bulk and breaking things down for a profit. If a dealer breaks down a quarter ounce of weed into seven grams, the dealer could make more than the initial cost of the bulk by selling grams individually. He said a gram of weed alone usually sells for about $20.
Although sustained profits from individual deals aren’t always assured, Lyndon said he’s grossed about $2,000 from selling weed and LSD in the month he’s been dealing.
He said he hasn’t saved any of his drug money, rather he reinvests it into more drugs to both sell and use for himself and his friends. In addition, he holds a different job, one that is taxable, to maintain a clean persona.
“I keep my drug money separate from the rest of my money,” he said.
*Katy Baker and *James Durbin, students who partnered up to deal, said occasionally people will barter for weed with other drugs, typically prescription painkillers like hydrocodone or ADHD medication like Adderall or Vyvanse. They said those situations depend on whether they could flip the drugs for a good profit, or if they want to use the drugs themselves at the time.
Lyndon said he only does about an hour of actual work per week related to dealing. The reason it takes so little time is many of his customers will come to him, making it convenient, he said.
Despite not working frequently, dealing is not the most laid back profession, Lyndon’s girlfriend said. Often he will get a call late at night from somebody looking to buy. He pointed out, however, he’s happy to do it because “money is money.”
“It’s an inconvenient comfort,” he added.
Dealing transforms a social life into a job, Baker said. She said the only “safe” way to sell drugs is to work with trusted friends.
“You have to manage relationships carefully.”
If a dealer were to get in a fight with a friend, it could potentially escalate a simple disagreement into a prison sentence.
Baker said she already had good social skills before she got into dealing, so this isn’t much of a problem.
Baker and Durbin said getting into drug dealing can be easy, if the conditions are right. If somebody has a trusted friend group they can sell to and a good supplier, it’s simple. Without those factors though, the pair said they would not recommend getting into dealing.
They said people with little experience working with drug dealers and those who sell to the wrong people have a higher risk of being caught by law enforcement.
The only way Lyndon said he’d stop selling is if he got caught by either his parents or the police. Baker and Durbin said they don’t see themselves stopping unless their supplier got busted or if there were a possibility of jail time. In all cases, it seems legal repercussions are a serious consideration.
LSU Police Department Spokesman Capt. Cory Lalonde said marijuana arrests are very common on campus, easily the most common drug arrest. In 2013, 69 individuals were arrested for marijuana-related offenses, such as possession. That means LSUPD arrested more than one person a week for marijuana offenses, on average.
Every now and then, LSUPD arrests someone for selling drugs, but it isn’t nearly as big of a problem as theft on campus, Lalonde said.
Baker said one of the things that has helped them not get caught by police is that she and her partner don’t look like drug dealers. She said they don’t look like “stereotypical stoners,” such as having the cliche qualities of dirty hair, smelly hoodies and red eyes. They would more likely be mistaken for the average cute couple.
For *Randy Wright, a student who got into dealing in his junior year of high school, the time to get out was when he realized dealing changed him for the worse. He said initially he sold only to his friends, just to finance his personal weed smoking.
“I got really into it; I was a middleman for blow [cocaine],” Wright said.
He said he became short-tempered and stressed out all the time. Inevitably, he got out of the business because he didn’t want to be “a jerk.” He said he also had some issues in school, but those were not the primary reason for his departure from dealing.
Baker does not feel bad about selling drugs to people because she doesn’t sell drugs with what she described as high addiction potential, like cocaine and heroin.
“Weed isn’t addictive, so it’s not a big deal to me,” she said. “If I dealt harder drugs, I’d feel bad.”
If marijuana were legalized and regulated, limiting Baker’s ease of business, Baker said she would not be disappointed.
“I’d rather it be legal and not be able to sell because I can get other jobs,” she said.