One night, two Daily Beacon reporters sat down with two Knoxville drug dealers: one a BCMB major at UT and another working a day job until he figures out what career he wants to pursue. They talked about what makes drug dealing a viable job, having guns pointed at them and what happened to all the molly.
*Names have been changed to protect the identity of the individuals
Daily Beacon: So, how did you get into dealing drugs?
Gilbert Myers*: Honestly, I guess, my brother? And just the people I hung out with. And it got cheaper if you bought more and just sold it to people. I also like to go to a lot of music festivals, kind of took over whenever I went to those. I got like, the first neighbors I had, I sold a bunch of mushrooms (to), and there were just a whole bunch of people coming in and out. I did it because it was cool. It was just like everyone loved me so, it was an easy market.
DB: How long have you been doing it?
GM: On and off for… since whenever I got out of high school. So I guess, three years?
DB: Do you sell to mostly UT students?
A: I sell to a lot of UT students, actually, but honestly, just from high school students to parents and other friends of mine, friends of friends just reach out and get comfortable … It gets kind of weird after a while. When it comes to weed, I just try to act like a normal person. I also sell acid and sometimes mushrooms when I get them in. Sometimes molly, but that shit’s scarce.
DB: What about you?
Michael Smith*: I just really liked drugs and it was easier than just wasting my money, and people started buying them and then it just kind of snowballed from there. I’ve been doing it for about a year now? And most of my clients are UT students or people who are older that I work with.
DB: How do people find you guys to buy?
GM: Friends of friends, I try to keep it small, just to like, friends that I trust, people from work, people I trust … A lot of music shows, have you guys ever been to Nashville?
DB: Yeah.
GM: There’s a lot of people there that I sell to.
DB: It’s mostly just meeting people and word of mouth?
GM: Yeah, and I guess it is like networking? Chilling with them for a little bit, talking with them. Getting to know them, probably get their number of something, friend them on Facebook or something … From fratboys to, I don’t know, just different types, different demographic people. It’s kind of cool seeing a bunch of different people all on the same day. Ask different people the same questions and just see what they say, I guess current topics. So I can watch them go off about it. Like some other people have way different opinions.
DB: So both of you said earlier that part of the reason, both of you just liked drugs? What were … I’m trying to think of how to word this.
GM: Like influences?
DB: No, what was your first drug experience? What was it, and what was it that hooked you?
GM: My first experience was weird because my brother dosed me with acid and I didn’t know … No, like dosed me, like he put it in my juice. Put it in my orange juice, did not tell me it was there. So I started tripping out of nowhere. And that kind of scared me but my friends just kind of smoked with me for the first time, so it just kinda started over. Smoked weed, get molly, get acid. For the first time, it was really scary. It was like, I don’t know, but just a weird experience, so I felt freaked out in my own house, scared.And I was like, “fuck…” Then I just kind of had to jump back into the pool. I just kind of got thrown into the deep end the first time.
MS: Um, I got really mad at someone one day and decided, “fuck them, I’m gonna do something to piss them off,” so I did, then the next day I went to work and my coworkers are like “here, have some coke.”
DB: That is strange.
MS: Yeah, I had never done any drugs before so, I was like, “you know what, fuck it.” It was a lot of “fuck it”.
DB: Have you guys ever sold to professors?
GM: Not professors but a teacher, like a teacher from high school. Because like, it’s kind of weird, because if he gets caught it’s like “fuck it, I’m done”
DB: Do you guys ever worry about someone ratting you out?
GM: No? Yes and no. ‘Cause I know someone told y’all, but I don’t deal with people that I don’t trust.
MS: I’m not really worried about it, ‘cause I have my alibi set to where you can’t really substantiate it.
DB: What do you mean?
MS: Like, I’m really careful with how I do everything, so you can’t prove it. And like, it doesn’t really go with my personality to sell drugs.
GM: I just say it’s a two way street … I wish sometimes that someone would not rat someone out, ‘cause it just makes it even harder for people to sell drugs. So, because they don’t know if they can trust anybody. And nobody’s going to sell to anybody… No one’s keeping the circulation of drugs running. It’s kind of mutual destruction.
DB: Like a double-edged sword or something?
GM: Yeah! Yeah. If you fuck me over, then all this is your shit. It’s all about not stepping on people’s toes. Which is kind of easy, but some people have to get greedy, and some people have to get ignorant. And that’s how they get in trouble.
DB: Is there, maybe besides someone ratting one of you out, like is there anything about dealing that does kind of scare you a little bit?
GM: Only just getting pulled over. I don’t think anybody is going to pull my name out while I’m selling drugs, because i’m not selling like, heroin or coke or meth or something like that. I don’t know; what do you think?
MS: Um, not really. It’s kind of fun, like, you sometimes get sketchy clients. Like, I’ve had guns pulled on me, and I’ve had HIV needles pulled on me. Both of those are kind of weird, yeah. Yeah, it’s kind of weird. But like after that, nothing really kind of phases you. It’s also kind of exciting to do that.
DB: Yeah. *laughs* I’m sorry, I like, can’t imagine.
MS: I don’t know. I’m kind of an adrenaline junkie, so it kind of excites me when people do that.
DB: It’s crazy how unphased you guys sound.
GM: Which happens. I mean, I’m just like, “Alright.”
MS: I mean, if someone pulls a gun on you, it only takes up to three seconds to know that they’re not going to shoot you, and if they’re not going to shoot you, there’s not a whole lot that you have to worry about.
GM: There’s like, an intimidation factor, but then again, of course there’s a point where you’re like, “Oh.”
MS: yeah, and of course most of them don’t know what they’re doing, so there’s really nothing to be worrying about there, either.
DB: So, I’m curious about the going rate for what all you are selling. Can you kind of take us through? Like, how much you charge?
GM: Ok, um, we do $15 a G, $40 an eighth, $70 a quarter, $130 for a half.
DB: So, what about a tab?
GM: Tab, $10. $300 for a half sheet, and $550 a sheet. And really that’s it.
DB: How’s it (the money) for you guys?
GM: Like, not as much profit off of like, one go, but enough to get more, you know, without having to come back. It just like, keeping a nice minimum price to keep together. And also we’re trying to do it to hook people up, and also pay for itself. As long as it’s been paid off, really, I give people a really good price.
MS: Our prices are pretty similar. I do $15 a Gor $50 an eighth. And then I do $70 a quarter. And that’s for weed, and once I make my money back for what I spend, I lower my prices a little bit. And then acid I usually do $10-$15 a piece — depending on who the person is. And then coke I do $50 for a half gram or $80 for a full gram.
DB: What would it be about a person where you’d raise the price on them?
GM: They’re bein’ a bitch. Like, literally, just being a straight bitch. Like, don’t complain about the price. Don’t complain about if, like, I don’t want to leave (my apartment), you probably have to come here to get it.
MS: It just depends on how difficult the person is.
GM: Yeah.
MS: And like how they carry themselves. If you have a really obnoxious thickhead frat guy come and want to buy drugs, you’re gonna pay more than someone who’s nice.
DB: How much would you guys guesstimate you make a month? Or a week, if that’s a better breakdown.
GM: I guess in a week we, probably like, if it’s good, $200-500? But that’s only if it’s super steady. It’d be like $100-300. But then it just goes to–I use it to pay for my groceries, my gas and my fun shit I do, like buying stupid shit like glass. Try to save up, but it doesn’t really happen. But then I don’t feel bad, because it’s not … It’s not taxed. So, the government doesn’t know about it.
MS: I probably make about $200-750-ish, I think. And like he does, I just use it for all my bullshit, like groceries.
DB: When you guys do sell to students, what are students looking for, or what are certain types of students looking for different things? Like, is a frat dude looking for something different than like, an engineering major?
MS: Frat dudes are usually more interested in cocaine and weed than other drugs. Sometimes molly if there is a good show coming into town. And then other students are usually looking for acid or some ‘shrooms.
GM: I’ve never really sold hallucinogens to frat dudes. Only a handful. And then, like, if they would take one pill, then they can’t control themselves. It’s kind of funny to watch.
DB: Why is it so hard to get molly?
GM: Because people eat that shit up. You can’t keep a steady flow, because they eat the shit out of it. Someone knows that someone has it, and then everyone’s freaking the fuck out.
MS: It’s also really hard to see some of the ingredients used to make it, since most of them are substances which are heavily controlled and are on government watchlists, and you can’t make a lot. So, it’s mostly made in smaller laboratories, like in the East and West Coast.
DB: Is this a temporary thing, or do you see this as a long-term thing, dealing?
GM: No, no. This is temporary, until I can get a good job and afford to do my shit. You know, afford to do what I want to do. But, this just pays for functioning for now.
MS: But yeah, it’s a very temporary thing. I use the money to pay for school, but I’m probably going to stop around the first, when the year changes.
DB: Wait, stop selling? Why?
MS: Because, there is a lot of stress, there’s a lot of shit, a lot of worrying. When you’re dealing with people who buy drugs, a lot of them tend to be flakes and a pain in the ass. It’s like, “Oh, I’ll be there in five minutes,” and then two hours later, you are like, “I’m still here, waiting. Go fuck yourself.”
GM: Yeah, true. It’s not cool.
MS: And then everyone just wants to argue about prices and stuff. And it’s so unnecessary. I’m like, “Why the hell do you have to argue?” It’s the black market, so you know, you can’t tell me what the prices in Colorado are, because the prices in Colorado are those of a legal state. So the black market’s going to be run differently.
DB: Well, I don’t think I have anything else. Unless you guys have anything else you want to add.
MS: Don’t do meth.
