Dorm Room Dealers: A Peek into the Drug World of the White and Upwardly Mobile

[marmar]

via AlterNet:



Dorm Room Dealers: A Peek into the Drug World of the White and Upwardly Mobile

By Phillip S. Smith, Drug War Chronicle. Posted January 8, 2010.

Fascinating new book explores why college kids on the path to success would peddle pot or pills. Answer: They're not much at risk -- they're rich and white.





Whom do you picture when you read the phrase "drug dealer"? It's probably not the subjects of this book. They're white, upper-middle class and beyond, upwardly mobile college students blithely enmeshed in a web of criminality -- drug use and sales -- that, for them at least, goes unnoticed, and even when noticed, largely unpunished.

And that really irks Mohamed and Fritsvold, a pair of Southern California sociologists who gained entrée into a network of drug sellers and users centered on a private college in San Diego and then spent six years interviewing and observing them as they partied hearty, gobbled and swapped pills, and peddled dope with reckless abandon. It's not, as the authors make clear, that they wish their student subjects were punished with the same heavy hand awaiting a poor black kid slinging crack in on an inner city street corner.

In fact, Mohamed and Fritsvold make equally clear that they view US drug policies as harsh and counterproductive, in no small part because of the race and class biases they so inarguably exhibit. Healthy chunks of "Dorm Room Dealers" are devoted to delineating in detail just how racially skewed and cleaved by class the application of American drug laws are. That's what really irks the authors.

And that partially answers the questions the authors posed at the beginning of the book. Why do privileged college students -- who have everything to lose and little to gain -- choose to sell drugs? Well, because they can do so with almost total impunity. They are not the target of the drug war. They're the wrong color and the wrong class. They essentially get a free pass -- from police, who ignore them; from college administrators, who don't want to upset their parents; from doctors, who are happy to prescribe them whatever pills they desire... because they are the children of "good people," i.e. white and wealthy people. ...............(more)

The complete piece is at: http://www.alternet.org/drugreporter/145042/dorm_room_dealers%3A_a_peek_into_the_drug_world_of_the_white_and_upwardly_mobile_

[madrchsod]

1. back in the old days....

my friend used to buy pounds of pot and hashish from two upper class drug dealers at shimer college .the college enrollment was around 800 and there were only 4 students who did`t take drugs. the hashish dealer was the son of a diplomat. one day my friend received a call from the fbi telling him to warn the school that the dea was going to bust the school. about a week later they did and found nothing. i see nothing much has changed since the 60`s

the 60`s... when you never knew who`s side anyone was on.

[3waygeek]

2. Did they interview Laura Bush?

She supposedly sold pot during her college days.

[Froward69]

3. I sold Pot to pay for college.

my nephew reports most of his not-so-wealthy friends play online poker, sell pot, X, coke, meth... whatever to make a profit to pay tuition.

the wealthy whos parents are paying tuition are just exploiting the market to be "Cool". unlike the perceived "Cool" kids dealing out of necessity rather than as a status symbol..

[Berry Cool]

4. Man, was I ever a goody-two-shoes.

I neither sold, bought nor took when it was offered. I had this crazy notion that I was in college to get an education and that drugs might somehow put a crimp in the plan. Oh, and my way was paid by scholarships, grants and loans...so getting stoned, messing up my GPA and having to drop out would have been bad.

[Froward69]

8. the chink to my dastardly plan

was my roommate got busted smoking in our room. the cops wrote me a ticket for paraphernalia possession. (never looking in my closet and discovering the two oz in 1/4's and 1/8ths for distribution.)

I was then denied military service for a ticket I did not earn... my roommate earned it for me.

it was the only draw back.

of course now I would have been thrown out for having such a dumbassed roommate...

[Fearless]

13. I do know quite a few for the online poker method. Mixed results.

[divideetimpera]

5. good -- shift the focus away from the police state drug war and towards race

that's the way the rich people deflect everything. Turn america against itself. Now instead of possible attention on how the drug war props up PharmCo and BoozeCo profits and supports the Police State industrial complex, they instead make it a war by one half (the politically correct, hyper-aware of all things Racial "liberals") of american against the other half -- oh so evil and racist GOPers and suburbanites.
The money aspect of the drug war is now forgotten, and the rich have managed to turn one half of white america against the other half of white america. The ultimate unwinnable war, fought by one half of the largest bloc of the working class against the other half of the largest bloc. Ah, the eternal war of political correctness and race-based religion. The eternal battle that cannot be won, but that will be fought forever. All while the rich cackle. Thanks tons!


Divide et impera. Same as it ever was. Round and round it goes, where it stops, nobody knows.

[marmar]

6. It's both.....You can't acknowledge one without the other.

Ignoring the racial angle doesn't do anyone any good.

[Dr.Phool]

7. I used to work with a guy who dealt drugs all through law school.

His first job after he passed the bar?

County Assistant Prosecutor.

[dem mba]

9. the article kind of ignores the fact that there is violence

namely murders, closely associated with the "lower class" drug wars. that's why police crack down on crack in the rough neighborhoods. its not cause their racist or even classist. they're trying to cut down on violent crime.

when the dorm room dealers start offing each other you might see some harsher penalties handed down. until then, campus cops have better things to do, like sudoku I guess. I'm not sure what they do all day.

[marmar]

10. I don't know what's worse, the denial or the ignorance on your part.

nt

[dem mba]

11. when you're both insulting and vague its hard to defend myself

nt

[Hello_Kitty]

15. The user name says it all.

dem mba

Because MBAs have done so much good for society.

[dem mba]

16. smarten up

I'm as liberal as they come, I just happen to want to learn how businesses are run. I can analyze a financial statement, but suddenly I'm an asshole for wanting to further my career and make my family happy and prosperous? You don't know anything about me. I don't make much money right now, work 40 hours a week and go to school at night so I can make myself a better life. But I'm the asshole. You don't know about my charity or volunteer work. You don't know how I canvassed and evangelized for Obama in the little free time I have. You don't know that most of the people I go to business school with already lean left (I'm in NYC). In short, you don't know what the fuck you are talking about.

Are you blaming the financial meltdown on MBAs? That's retarded. The meltdown occurred because of conservative principles like de-regulation. You gonna blame all CPAs for the Arthur Anderson/Enron debacle?

I have a crazy idea: let's blame the people who are guilty.

Leave people like myself who are trying to improve their lives and advance progressive causes out of the equation. And since you're such a genius, tell me how much sense it would make to push all liberals out of MBA or CFA programs. Don't we want more liberals to be execs in major corporations? Don't we want more liberals running small businesses? Don't we want more liberals to be investigating corporate fraud? Well genius, how are we going to do those things if we have your narrow ass mindset?

And while we're on the subject, what the fuck have you done to improve society?

[Fearless]

14. Nah, they take it and smoke it themselves.

[bemildred]

12. The drug war is not about drugs.

If it was about drugs it would be a public health problem, not a criminal justice problem.