Drug dealers are individuals who sell drugs to others illegally for a profit. They may sell illegal drugs such as heroin, cocaine, marijuana, methamphetamine, methylenedioxymethamphetamine (MDMA/ecstasy), and many others. They may also obtain and sell prescription drugs nonmedically, such as prescribed narcotics or stimulants, which they then sell to others. Many drug dealers are young adult men operating in inner cities. Drug dealers who are convicted of their crime face a far more harsh prison sentence and greater fines than the individuals to whom they sell drugs, unless those individuals are also drug dealers.

Some drug dealers are part of a large criminal network while others basically operate independently.  Many drug dealers sell their drugs in openair markets, at specific places and at specific times and in public. In general, the primary products sold in this manner are crack cocaine, powdered cocaine, heroin, and marijuana.

Most drug dealers make at least cursory attempts to avoid detection by law enforcement and may hide their drugs inside alarm clocks or hollowedout books. They may also use prepaid cell phones, which are disposable and cannot be tracked back to the user. In addition, drug dealers may employ children as young as four years old to deliver drugs to customers.

Drug dealers often cheat their customers; for example, they cut cocaine with talcum powder and other substances. In many cases, the so-called drug contains little or even none of the substance that the customers think they are purchasing. There is no recourse for the customer who has been cheated, other than complaining to other drug dealers or customers.

Some individuals who sell drugs are only adolescents themselves. Some studies have looked at the psychosocial aspects of adolescents who are dealing drugs in the inner city, such as in a 2006 article in the Journal of Research in Crime and Delinquency. This study found there were five key factors that significantly increased an adolescent's frequency of drug dealing, including

- low level of parental monitoring

- poor neighborhood conditions

- low neighborhood job opportunity

- parental substance use or abuse

- high levels of peer group deviance

The researchers also noted that previous studies have established that peer influence played a major role in the decision to sell illegal drugs. Said the researchers, "Adolescents' perceptions of the acceptability and profitability of drug dealing are shaped most directly by peers and young adults within their communities. Notably, too, adolescents' perception that 'everybody is doing it' is associated with persistence of drug selling."

The researchers studied 605 male juvenile offenders from Philadelphia between the ages of 14 and 17. Most of the subjects were minority members; 73 percent were African-American, 14 percent were Hispanic, 10 percent were white non-Hispanic, and less than 1 percent comprised Native Americans, Asian Americans or those of other ethnic or racial backgrounds. Most of the subjects (54 percent) had sold marijuana, and nearly half (46 percent) had sold some kind of illicit drug in the previous year. The teenagers who sold illegal drugs reported weekly incomes of about $1,700. Higher profits were made from selling illegal drugs other than marijuana.

The researchers concluded:

The results of this study suggest that juvenile courts' emphasis on time-limited punitive restrictions (probation, detention, incarceration) to juvenile drug crimes does not provide inner-city youths with adequate psychosocial resources for redirecting their lives given that the prevalence of adolescent drug selling has risen in the historical context of diminishing employment opportunities for young minority men, judicial responses to youth drug involvement that emphasize adolescents' participation in vocational skills training would no doubt aid in youths' redirection from illicit market participation. Not surprisingly, studies have shown that community-based educational and vocational programs contribute to positive adult adjustment (e.g., lower rates of recidivism [repeat crime], higher rates of employment) among formerly incarcerated youth.

References:

Little, Michelle, and Laurence Steinberg. "Psychosocial Correlates of Adolescent Drug Dealing in the Inner City: Potential Roles of Opportunity, Conventional Commitments, and Maturity," Journal of Research in Crime and Delinquency 43, no. 4 (2006): 357-386.

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