BLUNT TRUTH

Ten Years In The Life Of A Local Drug Dealer

He isn't nervous yet, because there isn't any reason to be.

Is there?

Nothing in the car. Nothing in his pockets. Expired tags. Just popped
into the office to grab something, his wallet with his ID left at home.

A cop asks him to step out of the car, please, sir.

Another officer says he smells pot and asks if they can search his
person. Yes you can, officer, because he knows he's got nothing on
him. Can we search the car? The car is a mess, boxes of stuff from
the move, clothes all over the place, it'll take forever for them to
go through it. No, you can't search the car. It's Saturday. He works
full-time. Wants to get home and enjoy his weekend. The cops take
their sweet time filling out the ticket and as he's signing it, a K-9
unit pulls up. The dog sniffs around outside the car and then sniffs
around inside. When it gets to the back, it starts to paw at the
seats, scrabble, scrabble, skritch, skritch, and so now too bad,
sucker, we're gonna search the trunk. And they find a backpack and look inside.

Shit.

A half-pound of weed and a half-ounce of mushrooms, the irony being
the shit in that bag was well over 18 months old, so moldy it was
useless, couldn't smoke it or sell it, and he'd been meaning to throw
it out. But he'd forgotten. So now he's handcuffed and seated on the
curb and they go through everything in the car while a tow truck is
called and it starts to get dark.

He's taken to the drug task force office, Mirandized and interrogated.

Name and address?

My name is ___________, and I live at ___________.

Got any priors?

A misdemeanor possession charge in Richmond. Not gonna say anything
else without a lawyer present.

And, like, eight cop cars drive over to his apartment. Please don't
knock the door down, BAM! Too late. Guns drawn, bulletproof vests
secured, 12 cops spread through the rooms, CLEAR, CLEAR..

And lo.a big ol' bag of weed, digital scales, another bag of weed,
and another, and another. We got 'im! And about $1,700 cash, and he
is processed, photographed and locked up in jail with the late night
drunks for two days. He is 26 years old and has been selling weed for
over 10 years.

"Mr. Dealer" grew up in Charlottesville, bought and sold and smoked
weed in Charlottesville, and got busted in Charlottesville. He is a
soldier in the War on Drugs, specifically the war on marijuana, which
the U.S. has been officially fighting for over seven decades.