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 think it may be your social group or location.

I live in North Hampshire. My friends work in the IT industry or for accountancy/legal firms. Or in farming. I don't know anyone who deals. I know one person who occasionally smokes pot and her dh makes her go out in the garden.

White wine is the drug of choice here. Or extreme exercise.

I grew up in a suburb of Manchester. I didn’t know any drug dealers but knew people at school who took drugs so I could have found one through that route. If they’d trusted me with that info. My friend’s mum had a recreational drug problem and a string of shit men that would take advantage of her and push more drugs her way. So they were around me growing up.

I went to university in another northern town and there was a drug dealer on our street. I didn’t know him and wouldn’t even recognise his name but we were friendly with some guys down the street who knew about the dealer. The dealer was a middle class student, privately educated but failed his A-Levels and went to our uni through clearing. He was coming out with 2.1 grades in business. He wouldn’t have fitted the type of drug dealer and his parents would probably say they’ve never met anyone who has dealt drugs.

After I graduated, I lived in Cambridge and our neighbour was a drug dealer. People would by his flat at all sorts of times for very short periods. There was a lovely student outside one day looking to reach the scum and she asked to borrow my phone to call her “friend”. I agreed because whilst it was a rubbish area, a lot of young professionals lived in that area and I thought she’d be seeing them. Not the dealer. So I guess I technically had a drug dealer’s number, although I blocked his number and deleted and soon as I realised she was waiting for him.

We now live in rural Cambridgeshire and I think our new neighbour is a dealer. Or at least her on/off partner is. Again lots of people coming to their house for very short periods. It seems to only be when he’s there and fortunately they seem to be off again at the moment. I don’t know his name. I know my other neighbour’s son is a recreational user along with her friend’s son, so if I wanted to I could get the name of a local dealer without too much bother.

I think people are more connected to drugs than they realise or are willing to acknowledge. I don’t think everyone is a dealer though but probably if they really wanted to they could find the connections quite easily after asking a few subtle questions. There is definitely a view of what users and dealers look like and middle class doesn’t fit it.

Growing up I lived in a very small town and absolutely everyone under the age of 30 knew who the drug dealers were but not everyone had a connection as such to these people. It didn't mean we all took drugs though.
I live in a city now and have no idea who the drug dealers are (no idea who they are in my hometown either now).

There is, but then that's par for the course for a big city. Particularly a port city that's predominantly working class.

There's obviously a big problem with drugs and gangs but that's every town now. The government need to get a grip with outdated drug policies.

I must live somewhere very boring because the cars occasionally stolen here are Corsas or Golfs pinched for 'joy riding'. They normally end up abandoned in a muddy field. Or Discoveries being stolen for parts.

We had one murder about 7 years ago but it was a man who stabbed his ex-wife in a fit of rage. No idea if he'd been taking drugs at the time. I know he was convicted and got 15 years so I doubt there were any 'extenuating circumstances'.

The local teens are regularly caught with pills though so someone must be dealing. The police occasionally check everyone getting off the London train in the next town over, but not here so much.

I’m from Liverpool and this is kind of true. It’s hidden in plain sight and you know the type a mile off.

I have a cousin involved and it’s all smokes and mirrors. Her Instagram is picture perfect, she and her kids are all in designer, multiple holidays, a lot of plastic surgery, etc.

What you don’t see is the debt she’s in because she’s supplied money on deals that have went through, her partner was murdered, her children have been held at gunpoint before, she has a panic alarm in her home to alert police in emergencies. It’s all smokes and mirrors.

Likewise, I have a more distant cousin who was murdered last year involved in the same circles in relation to drugs.

It’s glamorous on the outside but on the inside it’s incredibly stressful and part of the reason I moved away.

I know of a couple in my small market town. I also know of a LOT of weed smokers and actually know quite a few. However, most of the local population don't touch the stuff, most people get drunk instead.

IME you'll have a much more peaceful and less troublesome population if dope smoking were legalised.

There are a couple of coke dealers here, but not many takers.

No hard drugs that I know of; that seems to be reserved for the city.

I live in London and I do not know a single drug dealer or any one affiliated with dealing drugs. Happy to be boring.

I'll bite.
I'm in the north west and know quite a few people who mix in those circles.
My brother lives in a city in the north west (not Manchester or Liverpool) and he knows someone everywhere we go when I visit.
When I ask how he knows them he says 'drug dealer' 😳

I don't know any drug dealers now (I did know a few at uni though).

Everyone I know gets their drugs off the dark web these days apparently - delivered to your door.

I've worked in the Toxteth/Dingle area of Liverpool for the last 28 years and yes there is a drug gang problem.
I also work closely with the CID on surveillance in the area and most if not all of the dealers are known.
But there just isn't the resources to shut them down, so they wait for the smaller dealers to lead them to the big fish.
Having said that I have colleagues in Bristol, Bath, Knottingley, Corby, Edinburgh, Cheltenham, Gloucester, Tilbury, Newcastle, Glasgow and many other places that are all reporting much the same.
Just because you don't think you know a drug dealer doesn't mean you don't know a drug dealer.

I must admit that I went to Manchester once and came back talking like this -

Ok Op I'm just going to say it.
Do you live in Preston?

(I like it by the way, used to live there)

@Snowdropcow Jesus that's horrifying. So many apologists around excusing this lifestyle and those who fund it. I feel so sorry for your family. Drugs are evil full stop. Those who deal are the lowest form of amoeba.

I live on the outskirts of Glasgow. I don't know anyone who deals drugs or takes drugs

Apparently Bothwell is where the upper echelons of the organised crime world like to live.

I don't know where you live, but I would seriously think about moving.
I don't know any drug dealers and I don't know anyone who knows any.

Where doesn't have drug dealers?
No one has actually named a place yet.

Yes I use to know/of a lot of drugs dealers years ago.

I then separated myself from that life completely and I now know none that I know of.....

If most the women I associate withs hairdresser started talking about this stuff, they would be mortified.

You sound desensitised to it, but a lot would be horrified, I was the same.
I'm now in the later camp.

Well OP I've hope you learned your lesson from the great and good of MN.

You're living in a sad, scouse bubble; entirely irrespective of whether you live there or not.
You need to move, immediately. Frankly your friends are shit, your area is shit and your social circle leaves a lot to be desired and you should be ashamed of yourself

Furthermore; going to the hairdresser twice a week is beyond the pale and we know this because it isn't the usual behaviour of a mumsnet user and belies your type as a retro, profligate scumbag.

Henceforth, never darken our metaphorical doorsteps with your proletariat ramblings derived from your myopic world view.

And for the absolute avoidance of doubt, in the unlikely case that we haven't been clear enough: We are better than you 😉

I would be pretty taken aback to hear it casually discussed in front of me at a hair salon. But I know people who party and it doesn't bother me if they talk about it. I only worry about a friend who has a drug addiction... But at least she can be comfortable around me enough to talk about anything, so I can be of help if she wanted.

There are things that freak me out. I steer clear of people I consider train wrecks. But I wouldn't be bothered if a drug dealer's girlfriend washed my hair. I just wouldn't get personally involved with her.

Its very depressing to know that when you graft in an honest, hard job helping people- a job you worked hard and trained for for years yet remain skint, to know that there are people almost everywhere rolling in it & living the high life (while you can’t afford a single night out) because they deal. Well at least I have my morals hey. Anyone who deals drugs wants shooting imo. Destroys lives.

I didn’t realise how naive l was to this until today, l went out today with two friends and we talked about this thread. Turns out l know of two drug dealers, l didn’t know!!! Didn’t have one clue.

One has a car lot and l have always wondered how well it does as l never see anyone there by assumed it was just because l always feel like lm in work when it’s busy, l have told people about there as well. Another is a Dad at the school my daughter goes to, l never wondered where they get the money from to look good from just assumed they worked hard. I do feel a bit disgusted now.

Why do I feel like this could be Manchester, Liverpool, Wakefield, Leeds or Bradford? The police drive past drugs being dealt without a care.

That you're aware of.

That doesn't mean they are not there.