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 used to grow pot. All my friends did, too. We'd go out to places in public lands, the more farther out and hard to get to, the better.

Then we'd go visit and harvest the plants, dry them out, smoke them.

That's about as far as it went.

Hell, my gran used to grow weed in her back garden and use it for teas for sore stomachs, her daughter's asthma (she'd shut herself up in the bathroom with the girl, stuff the weed in her pipe and fill the room with smoke), all manner of ills.

She use to make laundanum, too, in a clay pot next to her wood-burning stove.

But after living in Latin America, I was put off buying drugs for life.

SF, 'legal highs' aren't illegal but are often more unpredictable than established drugs. The legality of a substance can't be used to determine it's safety in use.

Furthermore, they aren't "illegal in the same way that robbing someone is or damaging someone's property is." The production or import of some substances causes detriment to others, the production or import of many don't.

The UK drug laws are completely out of kilter and while they remains at such laughable odds with the reality of drugs, many will not adhere to them.

it's estimated that 35,000 people take ecstacy each weekend in the UK, and nobody has ever died directly from taking the drug. (there have been deaths of drowning, or alcohol poisoning while ecstacy has been in the system, but that would be considered indirect, if that makes sense.)

Research hasn't been conclusive on the psychological effects, but personally i think that regular use will bring on severe depression-type symptoms.

I don't think any drug is 100% safe but MDMA isn't the worst thing to happen.

Eckies in this neck of the woods are usually 3 for £10, or a fiver each. Fuck knows what's in them though, probably just speed and aspirin.

That post was of no practical use, i just realised.

I wouldn't report him but you're right to be worried. Let him know that if he's caught with any more than 20 pills then he will be charged for dealing, and that it does carry a jail sentence, although realistically he probably wouldn't be jailed. I wouldn't let him know that though, give him a hard time.

I have a 22 year old ex-step daughter (if you can have an ex-step but ykwim) and she is going to be a lawyer, sharp as a tack, no doubt she's tried everything within reason.

The kind of blanket thought - selling to kids/dodgy batch/scum/drugs are bad - just misses the point.

Why is it that only these kind of people, (most) politicians and major drug dealers want the drug economy/law to stay the way it is? Why are these people on the same side as organised crime?

Trillions of dollars have been spent on the war on drugs. It has failed. Those trillions could have been spent treating drugs the way we treat legal drugs like alcohol and ciggies, as a health and social problem, not a criminal one.

Confusing the two issues - health and welfare, and criminality - kills kids, often wilfully imo.

Does he really know what he is selling? E is about 50p/pill here (sold under various names). MDMA content is pretty minimal, it is cut with whatever the "manufacturers" had lying around e.g. ketamine, speed. MDMA may be fairly harmless, but the other ingredients and interactions with the other ingredients or e.g. with alcohol the pill can be very damaging.

Glad your ex step d is an intelligent well rounded individual her self eteem will encourage her to make good life decisions and she'll probably leave the drugs behind her in time.Lots of folks arent as bright ,they suffer low self esteem and are vulnerable .Many turn to drugs to block out emotional pain or to try and be "HAPPY" many cant handle the "come down" off uppers and its not nice getting "THE DOOM"
I just dont think its cool when folk normalise drugs ,loads of folk only go there cos something is missing already and they are looking for a quick fix.Instead they get a psychological time bomb .At the end of the day you miss out on so much when your main aim in life is to get wasted .To OP ,hope your little brother is safe and takes care of himself like you say yourself the invincible stage is tough but it is freewill,i would just sit down and have a "Is it really worth it ,to make a quick buck,kinda talk " Take care x

What would I do if it was my brother?

I would tell him he needs to work on his self-hatred for being middle class, comfortable and spoilt so that he can find a path in life that doesn't involve an illegal activity that puts himself and others at risk in his desperate need to rebel against coming from a "bourgeois" family. I would tell him that if he believes that drugs should be legalised (and there are good arguments for this) he should campaign long and hard with the organisations that are lobbying for this on the right side of the law.

I would tell him, rather than spend his privileged holidays drugged up, to get a support worker job in a psychiatric in-patient unit where patients have drug induced psychosis. Your brother is a lucky boy, he has a strong brain that has so far managed to stay a straight A student. The percentage of people who "lose their minds" from drug use is very small, but it is absolutely devastating for those who do and for their families. Most of us can eat a bag of peanuts, some will come out in a rash if we do, a tiny minority will die. Similar with drugs - who would want to be a part of that?

I would get him over to the countries that suffer from the drug trade and have him do some charity work there.

I would email him articles every single day about the damage done by the drugs trade so that eventually it might sink into his thick head. Or, if he remains too selfish to care about others, articles about the increasing death rates of people age 20s to 60s from cocaine related heart attacks...and keep looking out for new research about levels of depression and/or anxiety in middle aged people now who grew up in the pill popping culture and now have depleted levels of dopamine, seratonin, etc..

I wouldn't report him because the danger would be that a criminal record and "education" in prison - not to mention easy access to drugs, would set him off on a cycle of dealing and extreme physical fuck up from drugs use because he'd no longer be able to access a cushy middle class lifestyle.

eurostar - thanks for your post. Great idea re seeing drug induced psychosis. I might suggest it to my father to organise (he's a psych himself...)

sugarmousepink - I posted the thread - & particularly posted in it in relationships - because what I was trying to work out was how to talk to my brother/the rest of my family about the situation, & what tactic to take. My focus was on working through the family dynamics to best get through to him. Rest assured I've read along.

iskra - I would be very interested to hear what happens when (if?) you do speak to your brother. Well done for at least listening what others have to say. We can all say we would do x and y, but when it actually comes down to it who knows what any of us would do. My brothers are all so straight I can't imagine ever being in your situation!

I think there are some good suggestions here - I guess only you will know how likely he is to actually listen to you.

If you are interested in telling him more about the damage the drugs trade does in other countries, this charity Hibiscus does a lot of work with drug mules imprisoned in the UK. You will find some of their stories on the website.

iskra - fwiw there's no way I would report him - but I don;t see you being swayed by the voices of here clamouring for you to do that (many of which seem so cut-and-dried about it that I really don't think they have thought through the complexities of finding out your bother is dealing). The reason I came on here is just to provide more ammunition for you to try to presuade your brother of his stupidity.

ask him if he keeps any form of written record - even a coded one. because this is what got a friend of mine sent down. a couple of years of blissfully believing he was getting away with it, next thing, police swoop, confiscate just about everything in his house - includng his "coded" diary, sent down for 2 years.

Ask him to imagine being released after serving time. standing at the prison gate with no job, no home, a whole load of damaged friendships, and £30 in his pocket - because that's what happens.

my friend went on to have a break down. sectioned twice. he's never been employed since - until his dad gave him a job.

another friend (relative, actually) - also thought he was getting away with it, until the police came knocking. also sent down.

I have, in my life, known 2 dealers. both got caught, both got prison sentences.

My sister had drug induced psychosis which led to schitzophrenia (sp?) sparked by taking half a dodgy acid tab.

I sometimes wonder if drugs were legal, tested and correctly dosed then would there be less cases like hers? And less stigma about getting help.

My friend had a suspected drug induced psychosis. But it became apparent he was originally self medicating with illegal drugs and drink, due to his underlying mental health problems. I think that happens quite a bit too.

Re. your brother OP, I'd tell him to be careful, think about what would happen if he did get caught and if it's worth the risk, and I wouldn't dwell on it further really. He's 21, he will stop when he goes abroad in all likelihood, and probably will grow out of it. This need to prove his rebellious nature and to try to shock you and others.

You can't control him and he needs to grow up of his own accord. If it were heroin or cocaine I'd think differently.

bloody disgusting behaviour!
druggies ar the scum of the country!
let em swing i say! thtll get the message across once and for all

Im reading these comments and you all cannot be serious. Turn him in? There are times when that is necessary. But did you seek God or just decide Do you know big dealers cant just walk away? They will kill them! No one suggested fasting or prayer. I don't know what is going on, he won't tell me anything. There good cops, but the system is corrupt! I will trust God with my child before I turn him over to man. Humph. Iskra don't you turn him in. I dare you to go into prayer for him and fast.
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Zombie thread

So he's a potential murderer then ? Does that thought sit pretty with you ? Sorry for the harsh opening line, but in reality that could happen. I agree ideally that he should be shopped to the police but I'd definitely be telling your parents and I'd distance myself from him . He is not a good human being.

OH FOR FUCK'S SAKE.
I've just read through pages of this, and then saw how old it is.
DrMom, stop resurrecting long dead threads for your weird personal religious reasons.

There was a bright and popular boy at my daughters university who did this. Turns out the police had been watching him for a while, biding their time. They raided him early one morning when he was surrounded by evidence. He pleaded guilty and cited his good academic record etc.

The judge allowed him to sit his finals. He was then sentenced and imprisoned. Twelve years.

Yes I'd report him. Who knows what the people getting drugs from him are doing? They might be selling it outside Primary schools, fuck knows what the ripples from his actions might be.

You think this thread has gone in an interesting way OP, I don't know what you excepted....drugs ar fucking evil and fuck in people's lives. As long as your brother gets his degree debt free, no harm done, is that it?

Can't get your attitude at all bizarre

Zombie zombie zombie