IT'S ANOTHER KIND OF BUZZ AT YOUR DOOR

Urban Professionals Turn to Home-Delivery Networks for Pot

NEW YORK - In a city where you can get just about anything delivered
to your door - groceries, dry cleaning, Chinese food - pot smokers are
increasingly ordering takeout marijuana from drug rings that operate
with remarkable corporate-style attention to customer
satisfaction.

An untold number of otherwise law-abiding professionals in New York
are having their pot delivered to their homes instead of visiting drug
dens or hanging out on street corners.

Among the legions of home delivery customers is Chris, a 37-year-old
salesman in Manhattan. He dials a pager number and gets a return call
from a cheery dispatcher who takes his order for potent strains of
marijuana.

Within a couple of hours, a well-groomed deliveryman - sometimes a
moonlighting actor or chef - arrives at the doorstep of his Manhattan
apartment carrying weed neatly packaged in small plastic containers.

"These are very nice, discreet people," said Chris, who spoke to The
Associated Press on condition that only his first name be used.
"There's an unspoken trust. It's better than going to some street
corner and getting ripped off or killed."

The phenomenon isn't new. It has long been the case across the country
that those with enough money and the right connections could get
cocaine or other drugs discreetly delivered to their homes and places
of business.

But experts say home delivery has been growing in popularity, thanks
to a shrewder, corporate style of dealing designed to put customers at
ease and avoid the messy turf wars associated with other drugs.

"It's certainly been the trend in the past 10 years in urban areas
that are becoming gentrified," said Ric Curtis, an anthropology
professor at John Jay College of Criminal Justice who specializes in
the drug culture.

A Massive Operation

The corporate model - and its profit potential - were demonstrated
late last year when the Drug Enforcement Administration announced that
it had taken down a highly sophisticated organization dubbed the
Cartoon Network. DEA agents arrested 12 people after using wiretaps
and surveillance and making undercover buys.

Authorities estimated that since 1999, the ring made a fortune by
delivering more than a ton of marijuana, some of it grown
hydroponically - without soil - in the basement of a Cape Cod-style
home on 10 acres in Vermont, where an informant reported that the
smell of the crop was overpowering.

The dealers, working out of a roving call center, processed 600 orders
a day - from doctors, lawyers, Wall Street traders - even on
Christmas, investigators said. Authorities refused to give names, but
in one conversation overheard last October, a courier boasted about
the ring's upscale clientele, according to court papers.

"We know comedians. We know celebrities," the courier said. "So you
might meet a rapper, a singer. We go to a lot of people."

One former customer named Lucia, a 30-year-old employee at an
entertainment cable network, recalled blatant deals done at the
company's Manhattan headquarters. Executives and employees alike would
pool their orders as if they were buying lunch together, then await
the arrival of a courier, Lucia said.

The cost was $60 for one plastic case holding 2 grams of marijuana - a
steep markup, but worth it because of convenience and quality, she
said.

"It was kind, kind bud," she said, referring to its potency. "Yummy
stuff."

The emphasis on customer service and satisfaction was evident at one
stash house, where agents found more than 30 pounds of marijuana in
plain view, already packaged for holiday delivery, court papers said.
The packages featured the drug ring's cartoon character logo and the
greeting, "Happy Holidays From Your Friends at Cartoon!"

Fallout From the Bust

The man suspected of masterminding the operation, John Nebel, "should
have been the CEO of a Fortune 500 company," said his attorney, Steve
Zissou.

Instead, Mr. Nebel, who is awaiting trial, could get a minimum of 10
years in federal prison if convicted. Prosecutors also are demanding
the forfeiture of $22 million in cash, homes, cars, motorcycles and a
boat owned by him and his cohorts.

At Lucia's workplace, employees were "bummed" by the news of Mr.
Nebel's bust, Lucia said. But worries that the office might get raided
evaporated, and other dealers stepped in, though "their product does
not hold up to Cartoon," she said.

Investigators seized customers' names and addresses from the drug
operation's computer logs. But those people face little risk of
prosecution, authorities said.

Authorities conceded the home delivery trade will probably survive
because of the high demand for marijuana and the low penalties for
dealing it.

Under state law, most marijuana offenses "are not treated as very
significant crimes," said Bridget Brennen, the city's special narcotic
prosecutor.

"That is why you see the marijuana delivery services proliferating.
Their exposure is slight."