Activity 10- Dorm Room Dealers

When I first hear the term “drug dealer” I picture a very sketchy type of person who stays out public view. Typically, I view people who come from low socio-economic backgrounds that got into drug dealing as a sole way of making money. I also picture drug dealers as people who don’t take any regard in breaking various types of laws, such as robbery. I picture drug dealers as generally bad people. I think my view of drug dealers is more similar to the dealers in Cocaine Kids, rather than the dealers that are present in Dorm Room Dealers.

A. Rafik Mohamed and Erik D. Fritsvold conducted an ethnographic investigation that spanned over six years. They had to build relationships and trust with their dealers in order to secure interviews and gain the necessary access to physically observe drug transactions and the day-to-day activities of the dealers in the study. They gained entry into the community through peripheral membership. The network of drug dealers was almost entirely comprised of affluent current and former college students, and its members provided an array of illegal drugs o several colleges in Southern California.

The book, Dorm Room Dealers, definitely disproves my views of the stereotypical drug dealer. Mainly, because the study is of educated, usually white, college students of relative privilege. I would think that these types of people would be the consumers, if anything. The last thing I would think these types of people would be is a drug dealer. The book points out that the most widely commented on and ethically problematic outcome of the war on drugs has been the disproportionate negative impact these policies have had on poor and minority communities, particularly African American. African Americans make up one half of the prison population, more than 35% of all persons arrested for drug abuse violations and 45% of state prison inmates serving time for drugs. I think this is one of the main reasons why people usually view drug dealers as low class, minority people. These college students in the study come from well off families who can afford good lawyers, Additionally, as the book points out, law enforcement tends to look the other way. While the criminal justice system closely monitors the illegal activities of the poor, they simultaneously turn a blind eye to the activities carried out by the non-poor. The researchers even commented how they were taken aback by the lack of criminal justice and university administration attention paid to these college dealers, despite the brazenness, incompetence, and general dearth of street smarts that tended to characterize the dealers’ daily practices. This is also another thing that contradicts my view of what I picture when I think of drug dealers. Usually, I would think of drug dealers as having a lot of street smarts, using their best efforts to not get caught. I suppose the drug dealers that I typically think of do have to have a lot more caution than the college drug dealers since the criminal justice system turns a blind eye to the latter, which are virtually immune to law enforcement. Other aspect that contradicted my views of drug dealers was the college dealers’ motivations for selling drugs. Although some of the motivations are similar to what I would normally picture, others that contradicted my view included the spirit of capitalism, ego gratification and pursuit of status, and sneaky thrills of being a gangsta.

            Dorm Room Dealers definitely opened my eyes to the fact that there are several different types of drug dealers out there from all different kinds of backgrounds, and the stereotypical drug dealer image does not hold much merit. I know there is a college drug culture, but what I was surprised about was how much law enforcement and the universities turned the other way and did not do much to deter this type of criminal behavior.