my little brother is dealing drugs

[iskra]

My 21 year old brother is partway through his degree. He's been a recreational drug user for years, quite heavy usage at times, but cut backs during exam time etc. Straight A student. Very sociable. Anyway, I saw him at the weekend & it transpires that he is dealing class A drugs. He acts a middleman & buys quite large quantities. He estimates he will "earn" above the tax threshold through it this year. I don't think he's doing it for the money, particularly. He's fully funded through uni (no student loan even) & has large amount of savings that were handed over to him at 18. He's very pro-drugs & hyper-rational about it all.

I worry about him getting caught, basically, but can't see anything I can do. He considers me to be "bourgeoise" now I have kid & don't party/live spontaneously any more, & he considers our other brother to be uncool. We all get on, but I don't think our words have much weight for him. Our parents know that he is a recreational drug user & have done for years - they don't object in theory but worry about the quantities - but they have no idea about the dealing. I toyed with the idea of telling them but can't really see what it would achieve - not like he can be grounded...

He naturally considers himself invincible, but of course he's not. He already has a caution for squatting, would have thought being held in police cells for 5 hours might have given him a bit of a shock, but apparently not.

Not really sure why I'm putting this out there, except it's really weighing on my mind at the moment.

I think he's taking a risk and is being a bit of an idiot but if its E then the truth is it's a very middle class student drug and he probably wont carry on with it once he graduates; and he probably isn't being sucked into some criminal web to get hold of it.

And it's not a drug linked to social ills - E is not addictive so people don't steal to fund a habit, it doesn't make you violent, it makes you love your mates for a few hours.. and dance, is that really worse than alcohol which makes you fight?

The drugs debate in this country is so knee-jerk. A grown up debate would allow that a lot depends on what the drug is and who he is selling to.

If he's selling to adults not kids and its a drug like E then I definitely wouldn't shop him.

E's are only a couple of quid nowadays.

E is cheaper than alcohol

Wot minxofmancunia said.

Plenty of folk TOTALLY FUCKED UP from taking Ectasy in the UK .

Wow, so he's flogging 3,500 of them a year. Bloody hell. That seems A LOT to me .

Ah pills. Well, small fry, I hope they're good ones and not Pips or Benzos.

Making ~£150/week profit is still enough to get you sent down, in pills terms that is about 100 pills a week.

Be careful and tell him he'll be squealing like a puppy all the way to his bourgeoisie Mummy if proper firm come after him...

ShirleyKnot Thu 24-Jun-10 15:27:44
"Warehouse parties & raves, etc"

Is he selling time travelling drugs?

That is very funny, thanks for that!

On another note....

I hate that anyone who has good arguments against taking/dealing in class A drugs is called "hysterical" and "hand wringing".

It's so, I don't know, superior.

Coolfonz - I hear what you are saying about the large criminal families in London. However. I don't think it's right to say the police in the UK are making no attempt to tackle any organised crime.

And the problem with your argument about other things that are bad for you, is that at the moment, drugs are illegal. I'm all for rational debate about legalising them.

I would tell him to stop, give him 3 days and then say I would report him if he doesn't. Not sure what the point of your post was or what you expect us to say.

Colfonz - so 100 pill a week is small fry?

Nonetheless he's still being a twat and I reckon I'd still shop him.

I love the fact that he considers you 'bourgeoise' when he is full funded through university and had a wedge handed over to him at 18. Seems to me like he has a massive sense of self-entitlement and is not used to worrying about anything or anybody.

I am sure the other prisoners will love him when he gets what he deserves.

Ecstasy is not sold for £2/pill. That will be mainly speed, ephedrine etc. Or Mephedrone of course (that shit is wonky).

MDMA is around £40/gramme. Mmmmmm...

So, on the maths, £7000 a year profits is £140 a week, so if you make £1/pill...that's a good jail term...

No way would I shop him to the police for dealing pills/weed to his uni mates. If he was peddling crack to kids or robbing old ladies to fund a habit then it would be a different matter. I know it's because I see this type of dealing as being victimless although I'm sure people will quickly point out that it is not. I dont think my parents would ever forgive me if it was me. If you feel you need to make it clear how strongly you disapprove of him then dont associate with him and dont let your child be around him but, really, getting him packed off to jail seems extreme.

The OP could be writing about someone in my family a few years ago.

He was dealing to his mates, keeping some for personal use, he was using skunk cannabis, coke and ecstacy socially.

We knew he used drugs recreationally but had no idea he was dealing until the police turned up and turned over my grandparents' house where he'd been living. My GPs were devastated and the police found nothing. The police did this 2 or 3 times over 2 years and eventually they raided his friend's house and caught them with a stash of cocaine and ecstacy.

Him and his friend were charged and convicted of posession with intent to supply and sentenced to 18 months in prison.

This was about 10 years ago. He's never had a job since then. He can't visit the US and he's a total loser.

He also suffers from paranoia as a result of the skunk and all the other drugs he's taken over the years.

So you don't have to report him, he'll be selling to so many people that word will get around that he's a dealer and the police will get him in their own good time.

He has no remorse at all about any of this, or the shame and upset he caused my grandparents. He's a totally selfish character who, like your brother thinks that I'm uncool and don't understand that 'everyone takes drugs these days' except me obv.

I've no idea if he's still dealing as I take nothing to do with him these days.

Sorry to hear that you're in this situation, it's awful for everyone involved.

"I wouldn't grass to the police. That's not my style."

verytellytubby - you sound like you think that is cool.

If he was robbing old ladies to feed a habit he's an addict who needs help, different from being a dealer...

ShirleyKnot

""Warehouse parties & raves, etc"

Is he selling time travelling drugs? "

I'm not in the hysterical over-reaction group here. I don't think dealing pills to mates is really that big a deal. I certainly wouldn't report him!

BUT I might sit him down and give him a short sharp shock about what the consequences of this could be... Jail term, record, downward spiral into scary gang world etc. And ask him if he really thinks it's worth the risk. So if he does get caught (and he's not invincible, whatever he might think - it does happen) at least you've had your say...

I am sniggering a bit at all the "grass", "doing time" and "Goind daaaahn" chat.

YCII i can identify with your post.I think the folk that think drugs are acceptable just haven't seen that side or lost a loved one.

Alcohol is legal, yet we see many drunkards and alcoholics ruining the lives of people around them. I suspect it will be the same if drugs are legalised, plenty of people floating around but nothing we could do about it.

However, I agree that the legalisation of drugs will put a stop to many of the nastiness between cartels (or not). However, I know if my country legalised drugs to avoid thousands of people dieing in the process of getting the drug to its foreign users, the American flag would be flying at the mast of our very own national palace within a short time.

So, fine that drugs don't kill hardly anyone in the UK, but have a look about the damage drug cartels cause to entire countries so we can continue being blase about the whole subject.

For starters I have lost 4 colleagues, university lecturers and renowned in their medical specialities. Their sin? oh they were called to save someone who unbeknown to him was a traficker, traficker survived, the doctors... well they all were found shot dead in the vicinity of the university the next morning... and that was just the beginning of the horror.

They kill children, they kill entire families, they won't think twice about killing someone who looked at them in the wrong way. As coolfonz said some are so nice and respected by the community that it is a nasty surprise to find how deeply in the drug business they are and their being responsible for thousands of deaths, plenty of them simple bystanders who happened to be a t the wrong place at the wrong time.

Coolfonz - appreciate that. Was alluding to a drug-related crime which would play on my conscience enough to consider dobbing him into the boys in blue

I would never report him. He is likely enough to get caught anyway. If you report him and he goes to prison, when he comes out he will have nothing in the way of a proper career and the way he can make the most money will be by dealing drugs, so he'll do that, and he'll probably have made a few useful contacts inside. Getting him locked up is going to fix nothing.

I would be more worried about gangs etc. as well as him getting caught anyway. I would talk to him

Chandra - you Colombian? Mexican?

I said in the uk so we had a shorter debate about drugs. What you say is completely true, and the US loves keeping narcotics illegal, it's a huge foreign policy tool for them.

But I mean the British state allied itself with a heroin gang - the Northern Alliance - and helped appoint a heroin/opium user as head of state in Afghanistan...

It's one reason why grassing a boy selling a few pills doesn't mean anything.

I have a 21 year old son. I would report him if he were drealing

Good for you! It would make no difference to the drugs market and your son would hate you forever!
Would you get the police on him if was selling cigarettes?