I got in touch with Jim, who left university a couple of years ago and now manages a successful rock band. Like many students, he had trouble paying his tuition fees and ended up shifting weed for some extra money. As well as giving him the funds to attend his course, working from home gave him the incentive to study. He’s now out of the game, but he looks back on his time as a student drug dealer with cold realism.
Hi Jim, What did you deal?
Weed only.
Where did you ‘work’ from?
Student halls, with the occasional delivery. I never dealt in public places like nightclubs, and never advertised my services. I just started sorting out some mates and doing favours for people I worked with, and it just built into a situation where I could buy a Kilo with a couple of other people and shift it in a week.
When did you first get into it? Did you deal much before university?
No, I started at university.
What made you decide to deal at university?
Ease, demand, and money.
What are your experiences in dealing to students in particular?
Students are polite, they have ready cash, and the girls smoke as much as the boys. They have no conscience about phoning you at 5am for a ten bag - they just assume you’ll be awake. This is what made me stop doing it properly, it got to be too much of a pain when I considered the financial rewards - I had no intention of doing it ‘professionally’ anyway. And my new girlfriend wasn’t particularly approving…
How much money did you make from it?
£200 a week, probably made about £3000 profit in a year. The best money was acting as middle man between others who dealt and suppliers I knew - that was an easy £300 for an hour’s work. And I smoked for free, obviously.
Did you ever get into trouble for what you did? Have you got any stories to tell of close encounters or meetings with dodgy characters?
A couple of guns, but they were never pointed at me. The biggest problem was tardy suppliers. I had one guy who told me he’d be ten minutes, phoned me back and called me a cunt, then turned up two days later with twice the amount I asked for. And he was only 17. He drives a Mercedes now. Not particularly exciting, but I wasn’t exactly running brown through Turkey…
Even with the risk, is it better than a normal student job?
I had a job as well. The risk was minimal because of my surroundings. The biggest problem was the impact on my social life - the strange hours, having to be in a lot. It forced me to do a lot of work though. One guy I knew moved back into halls in his 3rd year because he was able to make so much money without having to do a great deal of work.
Did you regard yourself as a dealer or not?
Not really, I wasn’t shifting huge quantities, just enough to bump up my bank balance to pay my tuition fees and rent, etc. Student loans are pretty worthless, especially in expensive cities, so I would have needed to be Pablo Escobar to make some serious scratch.
If you have dealt drugs as a student, email me: [email protected]
We guarantee your anonymity.
