Rachel Hoffman: A Drug War Tragedy

[TheLostBoys]

It's hard for me to understand. I stopped dealing when violence became inevitable.

I always tried to exude the illusion of danger. I even bought guns, even one submachine gun, and went target shooting with customers and associates. It worked well for a few months. But eventually I got robbed, and when I looked into who robbed me, everything pointed to a kid that worked for me. And it wasn't just me who noticed. My reputation was at stake and the vultures were beginning to circle.

I just couldn't bring myself to shoot anyone, or hell even to severely beat anyone. But I couldn't continue dealing unless I took care of the kid. So I just stopped dealing.

Depending what neighborhood you live & deal in, depends on whether you need weapons.............I knew several big timers over the years from when I was in college to I was in my 30's & I never seen them carrying guns around or being threatened............

I guess it depends on what you're selling as well...............if you deal with laid back people & normal folks, then there is no reason for weapons...........also, the guys I knew werent corner dealers, everything was so low key, you would never have known. You can do a lot w/o weapons as long as you're using your brain & work with intelligent people & living in a neighborhood that doesnt attract attention to the neighbors. Key thing is, never do anything inside of your home, stupidest thing you could ever do.

 

[Shameful]

Smart rebuttal there.

Um... That wasn't a rebuttal, that was a question. Can you answer it?

Look, as both you and the numbers fella have said, non-violent people don't last that long in the drug game. In order to survive and keep selling, violence is necessary when dealing weight of most drugs (LSD and stuff probably not so much, but if you're selling coke and guns...)

If you actually read my post you would notice that violence had nothing to do with the reason I stopped. I didn't go into the details regarding that at all, actually.

Violence is absolutely the norm when people moving weight get snitched on, she had to expect that they'd shoot her if they found out. You can't fuck with people's livelihoods and expect them to just go home and say "aw man it's getting hot, I better quit dealing [i.e. feeding your family] before I have to hurt someone." Not everyone has the option to just stop selling drugs and have a safety net to fall into. Violence has always been part of drug dealing (not to mention selling weapons), for over a hundred years, and it will continue to be a part of drug dealing until drugs are legal.

Yeah, because that's what these guys sound like. Good ol' family men, just trying to make ends meet. While maybe even if in some cases that's true, you can't ignore the fact that they are also cold blooded fucking murderers. And when you bring weapons dealing into the mix well, that's whole 'nother ethical question right there.

The bottom line is that drugs shouldn't be illegal and the police shouldn't use anyone except other cops for busts. She shouldn't have gotten in trouble for drugs in the first place, and they shouldn't be able to coerce civilians into wearing wires and entering dangerous situations. The police treat everyone like a means to an end and have no respect, they are really the problem.

I agree with this 100%

But snitches are as bad as the police. They are willing to put someone away just to save their own skin, they are traitors. Snakes and pigs.

But this is such a fucking narrow viewpoint.

You gotta be stupid to deal drugs now a days thinking no one will snitch on your ass...........like who are you suppose to be that makes you more important than someone elses freedom? Whether its the mob world, your friendly local dealer, or whatever shady thing you are into like stealing millions of dollars commiting white collar crime, once you get caught, you have the right to snitch & get a lesser sentence...........the snitching rule is in small print at the bottom where people dont understand or they are hoping they never have to snitch...............

...

I certainly dont agree with snitching but what I am trying to get across is "its part of the game" so if you're gonna play the game, you should know some of the unwritten rules...............

Thank you. This is a point I keep making that no one wants to address. Everyone's like, "she should have known the risks of what she was doing", but for some reason they can't look at it from the angle that the dealers should have known the risks they were taking.