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Weed Business

A dealer's perspective on the highs and lows of selling marijuana

Amanda Pitrof, Editor-in-Chief

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What’s green, looks a little like oregano and gets powdery when ground up?

Marijuana.

This pungent plant is more than just part of the local drug culture. It is part of a not-so-secret market that brings together buyers from all walks of life.

“It is a business — but in the grand scheme of things, it’s networking,” said a fourth-year communication student.

The student, who wishes to be anonymous, sold marijuana for about a year while at the University of Toledo. He started in 2013, and never saw dealing as out of the ordinary. To him, it was not much different than working at a fast food restaurant for a few extra bucks.

“I was just starting small; I never got huge or anything, but I was only starting with half an ounce at a time,” he said. “Went to an ounce, then a few ounces … it was enough to smoke and bring in a little extra cash.”

In his peak, he brought in between $300 and $500 a week.

How it started

He started smoking weed in high school, but didn’t start selling it until college when his dealer asked if he was interested in making some extra cash by dealing.

“I was always the one to buy it. I never thought I’d sell it until he asked me,” the student said.

After thinking it over for a couple of days, he agreed to do it. He said it would be easy money because it’s all about who you know.

“At first, when you start selling, you’re like, ‘Hey, I got some bud. Hit me up if you need some,’ or something like that,” he said. “But after you do it for awhile, you don’t have to do that anymore. They already know.”

When he started looking for more clients, sometimes he would “smoke someone out” — let them smoke some weed for free. He encouraged the test drivers to buy from him in the future. That wasn’t as necessary once he built a reputation.

He said everyone who smokes marijuana knows someone else who smokes, because it creates a network of people that links smokers to dealers.

After a while, he said, the “clients will come to you.”

“I was always the one to buy it. I never thought I’d sell it until he asked me,”

Making the sale

When people came to his house, most of the time they “matched” him. They bought half the weed to take with them and shared the other half with the dealer, who would roll the blunt for them.

“Someone always has to teach somebody how to roll a blunt,” he laughed.

He never kept a count of how many buyers he served, but it was at least 50 people, and most of those deals happened at home.

“It’s easiest if you have a house, because people can just come and go,” he said.

Even though that made it easier, he still sold to people in many places — parking lots on campus, in front of apartments, in people’s cars and outside Taco Bell, among others.

He said it was as simple as walking up to the person buying, slipping it to them in the parking lot and leaving.

“You kind of have it in your hand and just slide it … if you don’t act super sketchy about it, you’ll be fine.”

While most of the time it went smoothly, there were snags every so often.

One of the more amusing times, he was pulled over with weed in the car. His friend ate the weed to avoid getting in trouble.

“We were just done picking it up and the guy in the backseat had the weed … the next thing we see is lights behind us,” he said. “The kid in the backseat panicked, so the guy in the passenger seat took the weed and ate the entire bag.”

They weren’t caught, but they missed their weed.

The science of weed

The student said edibles, vaping and smoking blunts are all different ways to get high, each with its own level of effects.

Not only will different methods of intake give you different types of highs, but he said the type of plant also matters.

“Normally you don’t know [which kind you have] when you buy it until after you have it, once you smoke it.”

He said some people turn growing and knowing what types they have into a hobby. Sometimes, those who grow it themselves create hybrids to smoke and sell — the student said there is a bit of science behind it.

“You have indica and sativa, and … sativa is more of a head high and indica makes you want to sit on the couch,” he explained.

He prefers sativa because he feels high without feeling lethargic, a preference he discovered in college.

Personal experience

Before he started dealing marijuana he smoked a lot on campus with his friends.

“It was fall semester of 2012 … we ended up talking, smoking together and then a kid pulls out a dragon bowl, so we smoked out of that,” he said.

Not long after a guy from one of the fraternities went to his nearby dorm and walked back, brand-new bong in hand.

“We were taking bong rips until we ran out of weed,” he said.

All of this happened in broad daylight.

“Looking back, I wonder how I still go to Toledo,” he chuckled.

While the student still smokes marijuana, he doesn’t sell it anymore because he doesn’t have time for it.

“It becomes a hassle after a while,” he said.

Having dealt marijuana, the student said he isn’t really surprised when he finds out that people he knows smoke.

“I’m almost more shocked when people don’t smoke weed,” he said.

As a dealer, he smoked almost every day, but he has cut back on smoking since then. It’s not something he needs to do. He said it doesn’t get in the way of playing sports or going to class.

“It wouldn’t inhibit me from being a person,” he said.

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Serving the University of Toledo community since 1919.
Weed Business