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8. Dealing
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8. Dealing One of the more lucrative hustles open to narcotic users was dealing. It was highly dangerous, but it assured a steady supply ofdrugs for personal use and generated large profits on a regular basis. Astonishing amounts ofmoney-in uninflated, pre-1965 cu"ency-passed through the hands oftheformer dealers we interviewed. They also enjoyedprestige within the fuldict subculture: the more they handled, the larger the prestige. In one sense dealing was a less serious offense than the various property crimes committed by addicts, since it involvedafinancial transaction between two willingparties. (Ifthere really weresinisterdealers in trenchcoats, lurkingaround schoolyards to corrupt children, we did notfind any.) But, even though dealing was consensual, it was nevertheless responsiblefor agreat deal ofindirect harm. Making drugs available to users encouragedthem to continue hustling rather than seek out treatment; it also made possible the further spread ofaddiction (usually through intermediaries) to people who could not or would not have obtained narcotics through licit, medical channels. This is why Anslinger and other narcotic officials stressed the prosecution of dealers: ifthey were eliminated then existing addicts would be cut offandfewer new ones created. In practice, however, arrested dealers were quickly replaced, because selling drugs was such an attractive opportunity for cash-short addicts. What the police sweeps really amounted to was an imperfect, informal tax on an illegal industry; real price, measured in dollars and adulteration, was at least partly afunction ofthe suppliers' risk. The higher the price, however, the more likely addicts were to hustle-and dealing, as we have said, was one ofthe best hustles going. The more one thinks about the social and economic dynamics of classic-era narcotic addiction, the more circular they become. Continuous replacement ofarresteddealers was not the only obstacle to effective law enforcement. The illicit market they sought to penetrate was complex and hierarchical in nature. Since there was no domesticpoppy production to speak of, the heroin had to be imported. The importers, who dealt in bulk, sold to the kilo connections, who in turn sold to smaller dealers, and so on down the line. The distribution system, as it had evolved by the early 1960s, is shown in Figure 3. DEALING 179 Once the heroin reached the United States it was cut practically every time it changed hands. The result was that a kilo costing $3,500 in Europe ultimately retailedfor $225,000, a markup ofwell over 6000 percent. The multiple layers ofthe traffic made it difficult to prosecute the importers and wholesalers, who were generally not addiaed to the narcotics they sold. When a low-level or middle-level dealer was arrested, he could only implicate the person above him-an uncommon occurrence, since dealers who' informed or testified against higher-level suppliers risked sanaions far worse than those provided by the law. Ifdealers informedon anyone, it was more likely to be rivals on the same level ofthe traffic; byfeeding information to thepolice they could take competitors out ofcirculation and temporarily increase their share ofthe market. The upshot was that, while the police could never penetrate and smash the entire distribution network, they could pick offthe small-fry dealers, and occasionally (with the accompaniment ofmuch publicity) arrest a "ring" ofhigherups . Arrest represented a potential catastrophe for an individual dealer: federal sentences were averaging over five years in 1957.1 There was consequently a strong incentive to divert some ofthe profits to purchase proteaion, i.e., to buy offpolice, judges, prosecutors, andpoliticians. Because there was so much money in narcotics, corruption reached the highest levels. In faa, one of the reasons Anslinger came to power in 1930 was that his Treasury Departmentpredecessor, Levi Nutt, was touched by scandal. Both Nutt's son and son-in,-law were in the employ ofgangsterArnold Rothstein, who was posthumously revealed to be the country's largest narcotic trafficker. Although Anslinger himselfran a reasonably tight ship, his administrativepowers were confined to thefederal level. There was little he could do aboutpolice pay-offs in New l0rk and other large cities, where both corruption and narcotic use were well entrenched by the 1960s. CHARLIE Charlie, born ofItalian immigrant parents in 1908, was raised with his two brothers in Greenwich Village. When he was about three, his father abandoned the family and ran offwith Charlie's godmother. Charlie did poorly in school, dropped out, and went to work in a chandelierfactory in 1923. He began sniffing heroin regularly with another worker, became addicted, and lost hisjob. Sick and desperate, he learnedfrom friends how to smoke opium to...