I was in prison in my early twenties, AMA

[Lexibletheflexible]

I was in prison about 18 years ago, between the ages of 19-22. I now volunteer with charities supporting female prisoners. AMA

I disagree that the drug trade is just a trade like any other. That’s wrong and really dismissive.

The drug trade funds criminal gangs and criminal gangs are truly evil.

Also, however, cheerily they are labelled ‘party drugs’ still fuck people up and cause problems / depends what drugs it actually was as to how bad so I was wondering which ones you dealt.

Alchohol also fucks people up but you can get it delivered with your weekly shop.

I think my parents would have been more mortified if I was working for 5 quid an hour in retail, getting sexually harassed by my co-workers and verbally abused by customers.

Pills mainly. Charlie on occasion.

@Lexibletheflexible

most of us need to start at the bottom on a low wage and work our way up.

Obviously sexual harassment in any workplace is not ok.

also, was college and uni never on your radar?

So your main gig was class A drug dealing; it's probably lucky for you that you fell at the first hurdle.

No I wanted to make money and invest it in a business ASAP. Not get into thousands of pounds of debts for a career that might never materialise. I'd have considered education after that for fun.

I didnt fall at the first hurdle or I'd have been caught when I started selling weed at 13.

@Lexibletheflexible

because you were from a notorious family Op did you think you were invincible? Like you would be protected from punishment if you got caught cos of your family’s name and reputation?
I mean obviously that wasn’t the case cos you still ended up in prison but I can see why you might have thought that when younger…

No because several of my family have been to prison so I was under no illusions about that.

It’s not Prisoner Cell Block H.

You mentioned it was only really the addicts and their families who were harmed but would you accept that seems a bit lacking in insight? I mean we know entire communities are destroyed by this scale of dealing. Surrounding residents living in fear etc. even when you don’t think so, people always know when there’s dealing in the neighbourhood.

Of course it can, but people working in a brewery or distillery or behind the bar in a pub are not subject to the exploitation, violence and general human suffering that is ingrained in the supply chain of eg cocaine.

No, because alcohol is legal, licensed and regulated. The drug trade is dangerous because it is illegal, and the case for decriminalisation accounts for the harm reduction to those in it as well as end users.

Exactly. Because it's a LEGAL drug.

Hence I said strictER

The OP says she was in prison about 18 years ago. The Dunblane shooting was 1996 and gun laws changed in 1997. The OP had an illegal gun in her house AFTER the laws had changed.

The cocaine trade is not ‘just another trade’ when it comes to how it affects women and children across the world. I’m surprised you are so blasé about dealing it and that you don’t appear to regret doing it.

I wonder if the police knew what you were doing.

“I wonder if the police knew what you were doing.”

why?

If The police knew someone was a cocaine dealer but were unable to get enough evidence for the CPS to prosecute then it makes sense for them to look at other potential criminal behaviour that the person is involved with.

🤣 this is fantasy from someone who knows nothing about the police

No need to be so obnoxious. You can disagree with people without being snide.
I don’t work for the police but did used to work in a job where I prosecuted people. What used to come out in court was never the full picture. Also, maybe not as relevant, but my Dad was a convicted drug dealer. He didn’t get jail time but his friend got 15 years.

I strongly suspect this was the case. The OP is from a criminal family and it is likely known to police from that. She was just the low hanging fruit from the activities going on around her.

Criminals call each other rats for informing on each other but it is the absolute bread and butter trade of gangs to rat each other out to reduce their own sentences.

Police work is very much carried out via information given by criminals to save their own skin and police would be very happy to prosecute someone dealing from a known criminal family for something unrelated that was a low hanging fruit to get a prosecution.

90% of convicted criminals think they are innocent and should not have gone to jail so the OP is not different in that regard. There is all sorts of psychological contortions people use to rationalise how unfair it is they have been locked up.

Which she was SENT to prison for having.

@Differentforgirls ha! easily missed on this thread!

90% of convicted criminals think they are innocent and should not have gone to jail so the OP is not different in that regard.

Random statistic there, but where does OP say she’s innocent? She’s stated the facts of her conviction and said she also committed other crimes she didn’t get caught for.