Taking advantage of addicts (financial)

[Moonlitskies09]

Hi guys and girls, been a while since i stopped by. I had a bit of an emotional crisis and haven't been thinking about drugs the last few months.

I was at a Wawas nearby my home in Lake Worth, Fl and saw a young man walking up to addicted homeless men asking to buy things they were wearing, and charging them to use his phone or for cigarettes. He offered a pinance of what would be even used market value for any steel jewelry they wore, buying a mint wallet chain for a dollar and whatnot. After getting whatever money he could he started some small talk with me and with a little probing my suspicians were validated. He was happy to brag about buying weed off dream market and reallt tried and impress me before I shut the concersation down. He was young but i still felt disgusted, its been a few weeks but I still feel guilty for letting that happen.

I remember feeling desperate for small change back in the day when i almost had enough to score a cap... There were times I'd have parted with things I value far too much to sell just to get right.

Maybe I'm just thinking too hard on it. Have any of you seen anything like that? Thoughts and opinions?

What other ways have people youve known tried to capitalize on addict mentality and do you consider it predatory behavior?

 

[hoffsteader]

I've also pawned things that were important to me in order to score, but this pretty much only happened with crack. I think there are plenty of predators ready to take advantage of drug users/addicts and it is quite disgusting what they are able to get away with because of the desperation of innocent people.

 

[yompf]

I was in the midst of a mean H habit , on the east coast , trying to feed myself , living in a tent and supporting my habit best I could. It got harder and harder , I was flying signs to stay well .
Then what felt like a blessing happened .I was introduced to a guy who was looking to set someone up with work. He wanted someone who knew all the junkies in town, someone solid who had a promising client base. I was a good kid so I got vouched for. He fronted me , I worked it all for him, and profit went into my arm.
This guy wasn't an addict , he wanted his money. Eventually i was handing him stacks every few days .EXPLOITATION
Dead or in jail was the only ending to THAT scenario . I'd empty like 3-5 $20 bags PER shot . A Few times a day . Just out of boredom sometimes. (It was really good too)
I felt trapped , and later on guilty. Of course stupid for wasting all that money. Didn't have a thing to show of course , who would ? This was maybe 6-7 years ago.
I paid dude one last time , but this time, i kept HIS profit , and just gave him his money back. I knew what he paid . So he didn't LOSE any money , he just didn't profit.
I got out of there (with an insane tolerance) luckily before I overdosed or went to prison. I was smoking crack occasionally too.
I was pretty screwed up.
The dealers don't care about the lives they are effecting . They just want money. And I wanted to support my habit.
I made an agreement with myself never to sell opiates again. (Unless someone was really sick and I knew where to get them a m done or something , i would do that, just to help , but not on a consistent basis ever)
Alot of dealers roll with same mentality , that drug addicts will get their product from someone else anyway , like the pregnant chick looking to score , MAY AS WELL make a buck , cus you can't stop her , right ? She will just go to the next guy and HE'LL make the money.
Well LET EM buy from someone else. Not me , never again.
(I didn't sell to the pregnant chick but I know who did)
It's so so wrong to profit off of addicts. Imo
Predatory yes.
I was a victim in a way though too , but also guilty , I knowingly supplied others , just so I could get mine.
Your not over thinking what happened. It bothers you , and it should . This type of behavior can be witnessed all over. Too many people are in poverty , addiction , lost in depression or just mentally ill.
It comes down to money.
It comes down to a flawed system meant and created to drain us , to keep our minds and thoughts enslaved within it. I don't believe addiction is here by accident. But that's what I think. Thats my opinion.

 

[Moonlitskies09]

@hoffstead Yes exactly, I couldnt say it better myself. Idk why its so shocking to me but I guess that if you can thing of something then someone is out there doing it. Striking when people can be very vulnerable is just so scummy, on top of all the other shit that we have to deal with. No one I knew here sees it like that so I must be asking the wrong people.

 

[Moonlitskies09]

I was in the midst of a mean H habit , on the east coast , trying to feed myself , living in a tent and supporting my habit best I could. It got harder and harder , I was flying signs to stay well .
Then what felt like a blessing happened .I was introduced to a guy who was looking to set someone up with work. He wanted someone who knew all the junkies in town, someone solid who had a promising client base. I was a good kid so I got vouched for. He fronted me , I worked it all for him, and profit went into my arm.
This guy wasn't an addict , he wanted his money. Eventually i was handing him stacks every few days .EXPLOITATION
Dead or in jail was the only ending to THAT scenario . I'd empty like 3-5 $20 bags PER shot . A Few times a day . Just out of boredom sometimes. (It was really good too)
I felt trapped , and later on guilty. Of course stupid for wasting all that money. Didn't have a thing to show of course , who would ? This was maybe 6-7 years ago.
I paid dude one last time , but this time, i kept HIS profit , and just gave him his money back. I knew what he paid . So he didn't LOSE any money , he just didn't profit.
I got out of there (with an insane tolerance) luckily before I overdosed or went to prison. I was smoking crack occasionally too.
I was pretty screwed up.
The dealers don't care about the lives they are effecting . They just want money. And I wanted to support my habit.
I made an agreement with myself never to sell opiates again. (Unless someone was really sick and I knew where to get them a m done or something , i would do that, just to help , but not on a consistent basis ever)
Alot of dealers roll with same mentality , that drug addicts will get their product from someone else anyway , like the pregnant chick looking to score , MAY AS WELL make a buck , cus you can't stop her , right ? She will just go to the next guy and HE'LL make the money.
Well LET EM buy from someone else. Not me , never again.
(I didn't sell to the pregnant chick but I know who did)
It's so so wrong to profit off of addicts. Imo
Predatory yes.
I was a victim in a way though too , but also guilty , I knowingly supplied others , just so I could get mine.
Your not over thinking what happened. It bothers you , and it should . This type of behavior can be witnessed all over. Too many people are in poverty , addiction , lost in depression or just mentally ill.
It comes down to money.
It comes down to a flawed system meant and created to drain us , to keep our minds and thoughts enslaved within it. I don't believe addiction is here by accident. But that's what I think. Thats my opinion.

Jesus... Its really nice to hear you got out of all that craziness.

For what its worth I think what matters most is that you were strong enough to change when you saw what was happening, you were living a opiate user's dream in some respects, it was a noble thing to do for yourself and noble for others around you. You call yourself guilty but I really admire that you fought to do whats right in a state most people could find themselves feeling helpless.

I dont really have anyone that would mourn my passing much, family or such. Maybe in theory my ex wife but I doubt it haha! Its too easy to for me to forget the pain drugs put other peoples lives through. Sometimes the opiates seemed innocuous. At other times, i feel disturbed just how little others are protecting people that I call my friends, living in tents, barely eating because theyre so strung out... I really want to think about what youve shared, and I thank you very much for your input.

 

[Larimar]

Yeah one of my husbands old friends from work got all cracked and h'ed out and would come by our house and beg us to buy tools and stuff from him , good stuff for cheap . Felt kind of bad later but hey win win for us and it helped him get un sick .