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".
Years ago I was a daily cocaine user, tried heroin a few times, etc. but letting go of those was easy for me. When I decided to stop, it was over and I haven't touched them since. With marijuana I had wanted to quit for at least a year before I succeeded. The adverse effect on my life was clear, but the ritual was completely ingrained. I eventually managed to quit by radically changing my lifestyle so that I was no longer surrounded by the culture and the drug itself.
I still definitely have cravings, especially at night, and very occasionally I need to go have a few beers as some sort of substitution therapy (even though I don't really enjoy alcohol, and never drank before quitting).
That said, I agree that the author of the article is being ridiculously presumptuous and is wrong about the mentality of most marijuana users. (Edit: I also think this guy is totally, totally full of shit and making up the entire story.)
Of course, there are lots of people who are totally happy w/ their consumption, and have no desire to change, and/or if they did have the desire, did so.
But people w/ problems really do exist. I've personally known people who wanted to stop smoking, but found it very, very difficult.
(I feel like these stories don't get heard as much because there's a popular perception of weed not being a "hard" or a "real" drug, and so you sort of get laughed at if you say it's something you have a problem with.)
In a more common situation, clients that are of a more permanant wealth would demand higher quality pot, hashish and perhaps opium. "New Money" may dabble in cocaine but if they're not uber rich or don't keep it in check that money won't last long.
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.
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.
I think he just might have had older clients. People at some age that are stuck in the routine all have dreams how to change their lives to make them more fulfilling. But they can't get out of their current semi-comfortable lives (which in those cases pot was part of).
1. Those that smoke every day, who will skip on other luxuries to pay for weed. 2. Those who smoke very casually, and typically go for months at a time without smoking. They'll usually only buy more when an opportunity presents itself.
I know very successful, highly skilled and well paid people and I know people who aren't very ambitious - in both categories - and I know those same types of people who don't smoke, or drink at all.
I guess I should count myself lucky that I've never managed to fall into a group of people for whom smoking is a problem, and an addiction, and a weight holding them down.
But here's my anecdota to counter the others appearing.
I've met some people who have had considerable trouble stopping using cannabis, and who felt that cannabis was addictive.
(but I'm still in favour of legalising drugs)
This is my experience too.
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.
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.
And perhaps, at some level that was the point. The lack of self awareness is endemic to all the participants.
I think it was intended as adorable, humorous self-derogation on authors part.
Interesting story though.
It's the difference between owning a pizza restaurant and being the pizza delivery person.
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...
Weed on the other hand I used in massive amounts, so I'm sure that was part of my fixation. It was ingrained into all of my daily routines (exercise, waking up, sleeping, eating, coursework, socializing), plus I began smoking during a rough period in life so maybe that's why it had such a hold on me. Thanks for the encouragement!
(I wonder if it was really worth trying to save those two letters?)
Or imagine an album titled "W/ or w/o you". Has a nice look to it. Also, check out the Google results for "w/ or w/o you". Impressive expansion on the part of Google.
(Edit: I originally said it saved three letters, but of course, that was me forgetting to count / as a letter. :)
Perhaps, but I still question the likeliness that the mainstream pot dealer would move to selling pills still distributing from the same source. Pot, cocaine, mdmda, etc are available in bulk from illicit sources. Prescription pills usually come from a legal source at some point and come in smaller quantities. From what I hear opium is more expensive because of the difficulty to transport it in its raw form, and therefore sought after.
Wealthier clients usually have a doctor that will write them the prescriptions for a fee. It's not unfathomable that his dealer also had a line on prescription pills, and he did note that he went dry from time to time but still...
My experiences with this are based in canada so there may be a cultural difference there. But the pot dealing crowd and the pill dealing crowd are far removed from each other unless you are in DTE vancouver, and then it's only physical proximity.