EVERYONE is a drug dealer

[CommonOrNot]

Bear with me…

I have name changed for this for seemingly obvious reasons. Yesterday, I was at the hairdressers getting my usual weekly services chatting as usual to my hairdresser - who every single week I’m there is dating a new drug dealer. She is very much a “glam” type. Neither of these things are uncommon in my city.

She then turns to the woman next to me and starts chatting about said woman’s partner and when he’s going to be on day release from prison and how he’s getting XYZ done cosmetically but it’s ok because the prison thinks he has a business so the money won’t be from dealing. (In other words, he’s still very much running an enterprise from behind bars). Again not uncommon in my area.

it got me thinking, in my city almost everyone has some sort of connection to dealing drugs. at all levels. I’m not exaggerating, I can’t think of a single person that doesn’t either deal themselves or is close friends with someone who does. All the women are dressed head to toe in designer, surgery, etc. the males have big cars, watches, designer clothes. It’s quite rare to see anyone under 30 without this aesthetic.

the 35+ generation maybe not so much but I would say all people I know in this age bracket absolutely have ties to someone who is a dealer.

before anyone comments that people may have the money for this aesthetic through legitimate reasons, I myself have a “flash” car, designer clothes, cosmetic procedures etc. but through running businesses and my partner being a well payed professional. I’m talking specifically about people that I know are dealers, and when I was thinking about it last night I was actually baffled how there seems to be so many.

PS I know there are people that work to have what they have, I’m talking about my city specifically being particularly dense with criminal activity and I’m wondering if it’s a regional thing or not. Where you are, is this the case?

I'm from near Liverpool and I do kind of recognise what you're talking about in how many connections there through a whole variety of people

@CommonOrNot As you chat to your friends and enjoy their lifestyle, do you ever think of the very young vulnerable girls and boys they abuse to transport drugs? The 10, 11, 12, 13 year olds that are asked to put drugs up their arse/vaginas?

But I’m glad that your friends have nice hair, lips and cars.

I’m appalled at the mental gymnastics people do to make drug dealing ‘ok’.

i know a fair few dealers or people who have dealt at some point, and plenty of people who use recreational drugs to some extent, but thats quite something if you dont know anybody who isnt involved at all. That must be quite a saturated market if they are not only all dealing, but actually making a decent living and have lots of luxuries and discuss it openly in front of hairdressing clients. Sounds like its been defacto decriminilised in your area, but then again, if it had, then surely theyd be making less money from it, due to so much competition. I would imagine that there must be some trafficking and importing involved if still managing to get all those luxuries despite everyone selling the same stuff to each other

Sounds like you move in the wrong circles.

And that’s fine, so long as posters aren’t then vile to someone purely for having that experience/disposable income. The OP (and me, and many other people) are putting a lot of money into local businesses.

I don't care if someone is an investment banker or a doctor, if they use illegal drugs they are bad company. Period.

Drug dealing is a business, demand and supply, buyers and sellers, you wouldn’t get a town where everyone is a drug dealer any more than you’d get a town, using OP’s example, where everyone is a hairdresser - you need many* more buyers than sellers to make it halfway viable.

Also, most people, even most teens and early twenties people, don’t use illegal drugs.

In short, YABU, OP is just asking a silly question.

• Footnote: the ‘many’ admittedly isn’t as large as in hairdressing, since, due to publicly visible shop fronts being illegal, practice a high proportion of drugs get sold, at the end user level, by dealers mostly seeking to acquaintances who are very much part time and who barely make any money out of it. That’s kind of another response to OP’s question - drug dealing has almost pyramid scheme qualities, only people at the very top male at real money. The idea of a town full of very well remunerated drug dealers is pure fantasy.

Assuming you’re talking about Liverpool or Manchester. Notorious for this. I’d say leave and go somewhere much nicer where this culture isn’t so prevalent or is at least not as out in the open. No one I know is involved in such a lifestyle and this would never be openly discussed at my hairdressers.

I dont get this post- you imply people can only afford cosmetic surgery and nice cars from drug dealing but then you say you can also afford them via legit means but that everyone else affords them through drug dealing? lol what?

If you can afford them legitimately then why cant many, many others? I dont know any drug dealers nor do any of my friends know any- they all have legit jobs. Do they exist?- of course they do, I am sure there are lots in my city but that doesnt mean everyone we know is doing it FGS

I knew drug dealers in my hometown: friends of friends, neighbours, one of my siblings was involved in drug running as a young teen (thankfully very briefly!), and another sibling regularly bought weed so also knew dealers. This town was rife with drugs, quite a lot of associated gang related crime, and we lived in a not so good part where there were fairly frequent dawn raids, so maybe I was more aware of it than friends in nicer areas would have been.

I now live in quite a professional, middle class village in a different part of the country, friends are mostly professionals, I don't have anything to do with drugs myself, and I don't know any drug dealers here, which is not to say I definitely don't know any, just that I don't know who they of I do iyswim. Neighbour's son smokes weed so he must get it from somewhere. I can't say whether my friends here know any because it isn't something we've discussed. I think there's enough of it about that most people are fairly close to a drug dealer, even if they don't realise.

Nearest city is Chester.

There is a huge difference between people using drugs and those dealing them for a job. I know loads of people who smoke weed, do coke at weekends, etc but I dont know anyone who actually makes a living from dealing them. They certainly arent "everywhere"

I don't think you deserve the pushback you are getting. We still have my late mothers flat in a rather flash part of the south coast. There are a stupendous number of beauty places. They probably outnumber estate agents. They always seem filled with much younger women with very well maintained hair, lips and nails. All blond. I come across the same women in local cafes, and sometimes listen into the conversations about Marbella, naughty teenage sons and so on. I can't differentiate between them, they won't notice me. I would not know what to say to them, and I assume they would have nothing to say to me. No judgement. Just different tribes.

I have often wondered where the money comes from. You may have the answer. I have certainly learned to spot the coke dealers on electric scooters heading down expensive streets towards their customers.

This caused me to think about how I would buy cocaine if I really wanted to. I thought I had no idea, but actually the first person I would ask would be "well paid investment banker, blond second wife, flash car, likes the good things in life". I am not saying he is a dealer or indeed that he takes cocaine, but I would not be surprised if he moves in circles that include dealers.

And thinking back two decades to the London private school run, and the group of glamorous younger mothers, some of whom I grew to like though I had next to nothing in common with them. (The dominant group there was older, often Oxbridge educated, professionals.) One, who spent half terms in Marbella, was very ill whilst her child was in nursery. I remember asking the dad if I could help in any way and him being oddly surprised. They disappeared not long afterwards, and transpired that she was dealing with an addiction problem. I agree it is around. It is quite easy to miss if you are not looking.

@DdraigGoch
I don't care if someone is an investment banker or a doctor, if they use illegal drugs they are bad company. Period

Not necessarily, from time began, human beings have been using substances to alleviate stress,
I don’t use drugs ( tried a few times as a student) but I think it may be common is some high stress careers as I believe no hangovers and people can still function the next day.
Some people don’t know how to deal with extreme levels of stress, which is something I have also struggled with.
Its unfortunate but it’s the way it is.

Liverpool and Manchester are both great cities to visit/live in.

The bad areas aren't but there's horrible places in practically every town and city. There's issues with drugs and dealers in every town and city. A lot of prejudice here.

Haven’t even bothered to read the whole thread - the OP said quite early on that she doesn’t live in Liverpool but the stereotyping is out in force!

If the OP lives quite near Liverpool she likely also lives quite near to Manchester but nobody is suggesting that everyone is a drug dealer there!

As you might have guessed, I’m from/live in Liverpool and have lived in a few areas of the city, am late 30’s and can confirm that I don’t have any friends/associates that deal drugs.

It amazes me that those of you who have either never visited or have had one night out here have apparently encountered enough drug dealers who are from Liverpool to have established these views!

Yes, areas of Liverpool can be rough but so can areas of Birmingham, Manchester, London, Newcastle - I.e every major city in the UK!

How can everyone be a dealer? Where are the customers? Where is there enough drug demand for hundreds of dealers in one city?

Its 100% the company you keep.

Lol is it?
Maybe the city centre tourist areas but the drug issues are worse than they've ever been, the lads involved are getting younger, angrier and willing for violence and access to weapons.

Have to laugh at the scousers who claim to have never seen or known drug dealers in their areas rubbish its rife here you might just avert your eyes to your neighbours and how they earn their money.
Their are multiple shootings and serious violence in most areas of the city every year bar Formby where all the long time high up drug dealers have managed to Escape to so how you can claim to not know of any drug dealers being in your areas lol

It's not just the big cities either. The roughest nights out/days out i've had have been in various UK towns where drugs and violence are more prevalent and obvious than cities like Liverpool (perhaps as towns are smaller places).

The Sun readers/snobs on here won't believe you though.

There's really bad areas in the city/city region, and organised crime (drugs being a big part of that) as there are in London/Manchester/Birmingham etc. It's no t unique to Liverpool. There's the same social problems there are everywhere else in the country.

I'm clearly very naive, the only drug dealer I know is our local pharmacist..... 😂

I don’t know a single drug dealer, in the past one of my neighbours was a bit suspect but to suggest that every road in Liverpool has a drug dealer living there is a massive over exaggeration.

Drug dealing is ‘rife’ in every city/town, not just Liverpool!

Just to add, many Deliveroo/Just Eat etc drivers deliver drugs as well as food.

Surely not absolutely everyone in your city knows a drug dealer, you're just extrapolating from your circle. I think it's likely social circle specific, not region specific.

I don't know any drug dealers.