Dan* is high and driving with his friend to a local Boston university to pick up weight for the next month. He's gotten low on weed and already has orders for that night. With the last one and a half grams of his stash, he rolls a joint and smokes leisurely while he drives towards I-93. He and his friend listen to 94.5 and commiserate over midterms and the Quizno's they can't wait for on the ride home.
Half an hour later, he is at the apartment of his dealer, Scott, who weighs out bags while they smoke and talk. Dan has known Scott for a year, having met him through a mutual friend. Scott is able to get Dan large quantities on a regular basis, and in turn, the two have become friends.
Dan and his friend stay at Scott's for an hour, chilling and smoking during their college-version of a field trip. When it's time to go, they collect the weed in their jackets and hide it in Dan's car under the driver's seat for the surprisingly calm ride home.
Dan first experimented with marijuana when he was about 15 years old. He broke out in hives and realized his sneezes were an allergic reaction to the drug. He would not try it again until his freshman year at Tufts. Once he realized that his allergy had passed -as many childhood allergies do - he was soon smoking frequently. By his second semester at college, he was smoking every weekend.
When he returned to school sophomore year, he was living with a student he'd met his first year, who was selling weed on the side. This friendship blossomed into a business partnership, which lasted on and off throughout his sophomore year. Dan used his vantage point to learn the things that did and did not work in the business, sidestepping many of the errors that plague new dealers.
Such lessons included never selling a light bag, even to the most na??ve customers. Few customers request to weigh their bags before purchase, but Dan learned that honesty is the best policy if one hopes for a high return rate - reputation is everything.
"I was buying an ounce from Dan through a connection with another friend, and brought my scale," one customer said. "The friend who introduced us never asked him to weigh it, as they were friends, so he had no reason to suspect I would. It was exactly an ounce. I knew I could return to him and trust I wasn't being taken advantage of."
Another lesson: be sympathetic to clients who cannot pay immediately, but be stern so that they pay eventually. "The reasoning is that no one is going to buy a bag from you and not pay you - they know they owe you and you know they owe you, and you'll see them around campus," Dan said. "The advantage would be that you just sold a bag you would not have normally sold. And they'll come back because they know, 'He's a nice guy; he's not out to [screw] me.'"
Dan has also learned that the customer comes first. This mentality, he said, helps to ensure return visits.
Dan chose to begin selling pot as a means of not wasting money on what he smoked. He learned that even if he didn't turn a profit, he could cover the costs of buying for himself, which can become high (no pun intended). For example, Dan could easily spend $250 a month to buy an ounce for himself, so, he rationed, if he bought in greater quantity and sold the majority of it, his finances would even out. Currently, his habit would cost him $300, and that's at a reduced rate.
Dan has learned many things from selling pot, including the fact that demand varies: orientation, before and after holidays, and the beginning and end of the year are the highest peaks of sales.
In addition, he has learned how to be inconspicuous. Though there is always a risk of being caught, Dan has worked on a referral policy since sophomore year. He is unlikely to sell to someone who is not a friend, or a friend of a friend.
The risks of dealing, however, are still present: Tufts' Public Safety Annual Publication states that, even if they don't live on campus, students caught with illegal drugs may be referred to government authorities for both civil and criminal prosecution. (This consequence is on top of University punishments, which may include a warning, probation, suspension, or even dismissal.)
For Dan, who is not only in possession of pot but is also dealing it, federal law has an even harsher penalty: a mandatory one-year prison sentence, which individuals older than 18 caught selling drugs to people under 21 within 1,000 feet of a college automatically receive.
Fire alarms were often Dan's greatest fear when he lived in Tufts housing, as an inopportune alarm could enable the fire marshal to search his room, unearthing his weed and money.
Now, Dan continues to avoid travel while carrying: he does not cross state lines with marijuana, nor does he take public transportation. He sees his business as exactly that - a business. He chooses not to take unnecessary risks that could damage his business or his future.
Though the ability to smoke for free has been the most obvious benefit for Dan, he has also accrued business skills that he sees reflected in many of the classes he has taken at Tufts.
"The biggest thing that I learned from dealing dope is, legitimately, depreciation," Dan said. "You have to be able to depreciate the value of your [quarter pound] over the life of it, and then it comes back. It's the little things where you don't realize what you're officially doing until you learn the terminology or theory used in the business world."
*Due to the sensitive nature of this topic, all names have been changed.
