By Alan Prendergast in Education, Follow That Story, MarijuanaMon.,
Oct. 26 2009 @ 2:57PM

In the long-foundering, ever-festering war on drugs, there's just
about zero truth to the idea of zero tolerance. As anyone who's
studied the prison population can figure out, certain groups dealing
in illegal drugs can be targeted for harsh punishment, while other
groups trafficking in the same drugs are all but ignored.

And the safest place to be a dope pusher? Your local college
dormitory, of course. Even if you're not very good at it. A new study
by two California researchers concludes that campus drug dealers --
mostly white, affluent, and clueless -- continue to thrive despite
shifting social mores and the sometimes heavy-handed enforcement
efforts elsewhere.

"We were...taken aback by the lack of criminal justice and university
administration attention paid these dealers, despite the brazenness,
incompetence, and general dearth of street smarts that tended to
characterize the dealers' daily practices," write A. Rafik Mohamed and
Erik Fritsovold, authors of Dorm Room Dealers: Drugs and the
Privileges of Race and Class.

Just released by Boulder-based Lynne Rienner Publishers -- the folks
who brought you Guns, Violence & Criminal Behavior -- Dorm Room
Dealers is a sober but intriguing look at dealing on several campuses
in southern California. Not surprisingly, many of the badass
connections interviewed by the authors turn out to be surfer-dude
business majors who fell into the trade because they liked getting
their own smoke wholesale, then found additional profits in cocaine,
ecstasy and black-market "study drugs" such as Ritalin and Adderall.

This informal network deals openly, rakes in thousands of dollars a
month (mostly on beaucoup weed, though cocaine has higher profit
margins) -- and blows most of it on nice cars, gear and dinners. None
of the kingpins profiled here seem to worry much about being busted,
figuring their dads' lawyers or their own sense of entitlement
immunizes them from serious consequences. And they are probably right.
Mohamed and Fritsvold puzzle over why these children of privilege get
into the business so heavily. For the most part, they don't need the
money. The authors postulate a combination of psychological motives,
from seeking thrills and gangsta status to "warding off the
emasculating force of privilege." One dealer admits, "I am almost as
addicted to selling as I am to getting faded."

Oh, and don't call them drug dealers. Campus provenders prefer to
think of themselves as "brokers." And it's just a passing thing. Once
they're off campus, they'll settle into more socially acceptable forms
of capitalism. But in the meantime, the ease of the campus drug trade
-- the authors call the dealers "anti-targets," since campus police
and local cops try so hard to look the other way -- raises big
questions about the real aims of the drug war. When was the last time
you heard of a major drug enforcement action on the Boulder campus of
the University of Colorado (and no, we're not talking about those
rinky-dink 4-20 arrests)?

Mohamed and Fritsvold claim they're not trying to sic the cops on
campus dealers. Rather, they want to "spark a conversation about a
more reasonable, equitable, and balanced set of domestic drug
policies." But will that ever happen while the sons and daughters of
the policymakers are thoroughly protected from the policy's nightmare
effects?

On Tue, 27 Oct 2009 16:40:43 -0400, wrote:

On Tue, 27 Oct 2009 11:06:56 -0700, jps wrote:

By Alan Prendergast in Education, Follow That Story, MarijuanaMon.,
Oct. 26 2009 @ 2:57PM

In the long-foundering, ever-festering war on drugs, there's just
about zero truth to the idea of zero tolerance. As anyone who's
studied the prison population can figure out, certain groups dealing
in illegal drugs can be targeted for harsh punishment, while other
groups trafficking in the same drugs are all but ignored.


BTW if you ask the cops what the difference was, they would say
college kids are not shooting each other over their turf.

I know, they're more likely to break each other's x-box units or give
one another a time out.

It's still the same law broken, as you know. Just not the same
punishment metted out.

On Tue, 27 Oct 2009 16:37:06 -0400, wrote:

On Tue, 27 Oct 2009 11:06:56 -0700, jps wrote:


By Alan Prendergast in Education, Follow That Story, MarijuanaMon.,
Oct. 26 2009 @ 2:57PM

In the long-foundering, ever-festering war on drugs, there's just
about zero truth to the idea of zero tolerance. As anyone who's
studied the prison population can figure out, certain groups dealing
in illegal drugs can be targeted for harsh punishment, while other
groups trafficking in the same drugs are all but ignored.


Of course if you are a doctor you can push drugs without fear and the
government/insurance industry will subsidize your customers.
A friend of mine cured his cocaine addiction be getting himself
declared ADD. Now he does 40mg of amphetamines every day, insurance
pays for it and he stays wired up all the time.

Man, what a way to live... ick.

On Tue, 27 Oct 2009 16:40:43 -0400, wrote:

BTW if you ask the cops what the difference was, they would say
college kids are not shooting each other over their turf.

And, they are not doing muggings and burglaries to finance their
habits.

Casady

On Wed, 28 Oct 2009 12:07:06 GMT, (Richard
Casady) wrote:

On Tue, 27 Oct 2009 16:40:43 -0400, wrote:

BTW if you ask the cops what the difference was, they would say
college kids are not shooting each other over their turf.

And, they are not doing muggings and burglaries to finance their
habits.

Casady

Dealers don't do muggings to burglaries to finance their habits.

They sell drugs.

On 10/28/09 12:29 PM, wrote:
On Tue, 27 Oct 2009 16:48:50 -0700, wrote:

On Tue, 27 Oct 2009 16:37:06 -0400, wrote:

On Tue, 27 Oct 2009 11:06:56 -0700, wrote:


By Alan Prendergast in Education, Follow That Story, MarijuanaMon.,
Oct. 26 2009 @ 2:57PM

In the long-foundering, ever-festering war on drugs, there's just
about zero truth to the idea of zero tolerance. As anyone who's
studied the prison population can figure out, certain groups dealing
in illegal drugs can be targeted for harsh punishment, while other
groups trafficking in the same drugs are all but ignored.


Of course if you are a doctor you can push drugs without fear and the
government/insurance industry will subsidize your customers.
A friend of mine cured his cocaine addiction be getting himself
declared ADD. Now he does 40mg of amphetamines every day, insurance
pays for it and he stays wired up all the time.

Man, what a way to live... ick.

Personally, as bad as speed is, I think the "pain pill" problem is
worse. My wife was in the construction industry and she believed
25-30% of the people working were walking around with a prescription
bottle full of pain pills (in their name) and close to that many who
were using them illegally.
I know the doctors push them because in my travels through the medical
establishment for my wrist problem, EVERY ONE OF THEM offered me
something. (Vicodin, Oxycotin or Oxycodone were the most popular).
I passed.
It does make me wonder what happens if you got stopped in a DUI
checkpoint and "****ed positive" for one of these narcotics.
Sure you have a prescription that allows you to own them and take them
but not to take them and DRIVE !
I bet you go to jail.


Unfortunately, injuries, strains, et cetera, are common in the
construction industry, and in this country we have a lousy system to
assist hourly workers if they are injured. So guys with back/leg
injuries come back to work too fast, and then re-injury themselves or
re-aggravate already existing weaknesses. Sometimes the pain pills are
the way they can work and then too many of them get hooked.

If we were in a more progressive country, we'd have better regulations
to take care of injured workers. But *this* is the failing bastion of
screw-you capitalism.

On Wed, 28 Oct 2009 13:40:43 -0400, wrote:

On Wed, 28 Oct 2009 12:37:25 -0400, H the K
wrote:

Personally, as bad as speed is, I think the "pain pill" problem is
worse. My wife was in the construction industry and she believed
25-30% of the people working were walking around with a prescription
bottle full of pain pills (in their name) and close to that many who
were using them illegally.
I know the doctors push them because in my travels through the medical
establishment for my wrist problem, EVERY ONE OF THEM offered me
something. (Vicodin, Oxycotin or Oxycodone were the most popular).
I passed.
It does make me wonder what happens if you got stopped in a DUI
checkpoint and "****ed positive" for one of these narcotics.
Sure you have a prescription that allows you to own them and take them
but not to take them and DRIVE !
I bet you go to jail.


Unfortunately, injuries, strains, et cetera, are common in the
construction industry, and in this country we have a lousy system to
assist hourly workers if they are injured. So guys with back/leg
injuries come back to work too fast, and then re-injury themselves or
re-aggravate already existing weaknesses. Sometimes the pain pills are
the way they can work and then too many of them get hooked.

If we were in a more progressive country, we'd have better regulations
to take care of injured workers. But *this* is the failing bastion of
screw-you capitalism.

I think it is just that the doctors sell the pills to quickly. Guys
who should just take it easy for a few days take these pills and
continue re injuring themselves or they simply just get hooked on the
pills.

Workers Comp doesn't pay nearly as well as a job.

These things are about like heroin and it doesn't take many to create
the addiction in a person who has that kind of personality anyway.

I do not have an addictive nature and had a hell of a time getting off
of them after my shoulder surgery. They're great when you need pain
relief or going to bed so you can sleep but they're hell to get off
of... Took me three weeks of easing away.

Most of these guys are hooked on nicotine and alcohol too.

Personally I think pain is trying to tell you something and masking it
is just asking for worse injury.

When your muscles tense up to protect whatever's injured, the pain can
be unbearable. The meds can help muscles relax so the injured muscle
can actually heal -- as long as you're not continually stressing it.
I'm sure most guys use them to mask the pain so they can earn a
living.

I can understand it would be valuable for massive burns and perhaps
some end of life situations but if you are masking muscle or joint
pain and continue injuring them you are in a downward spiral that will
end in permanent damage.

Yup.

In my wrist problems the "cure" was physical therapy without
medication and that was also the cheapest person in the whole medical
community to visit. Once I got the exercises, it was all done at home
and in my daily life. ... for free.

Did the same but my injury wasn't one I could live with. Needed
surgery and rehab. The PT was incredible at getting me back to normal
and pain free.

I did spend about 10 bucks at Ace hardware getting some pulleys, rope
and miscellaneous hardware to make my own equipment duplicating the
things they had at the PT center. I had some free weights and
"squeezy" spring things already.

Well done. I brought the rubber bands home and had some light weights
to work with. I missed going and getting my sore shoulder rubbed out
but by the time I graduated, I was well on my way to pain free.

On Wed, 28 Oct 2009 18:18:40 -0700, jps wrote:


Workers Comp doesn't pay nearly as well as a job.

One of the dirty little secrets of workers' comp, at least in this state,
because the company is paying, they can direct your medical situation.
Unfortunately, that often means back to work sooner than would be
advisable if you were directing your medical situation.