SELLING DRUGS TO PAY TUITION

Jen* is a pretty girl with contagious laughter. She has a genuine smile
that lights up her whole face. She has an amicable nature, and people love
to joke around with her.

But there is one thing about Jen that sets her apart from other UW
students; Jen has a long history of drug usage and dealing. Because she
maintains her habits in order to keep up her image as a UW student who gets
good grades, people would never suspect she was anything otherwise.

Jen grew up in Eastern Washington, something she believes greatly
contributed to her drug use.

"Growing up in Eastern Washington, especially rural Eastern Washington,
there's nothing to do but drugs. And since it's Washington -- acid, weed,
mushrooms and methamphetamines are available everywhere."

Her first memorable drug experience was smoking marijuana when she was 8
years old with her uncle. She continued smoking marijuana with her aunt and
uncle, "but I don't remember being stoned until I was 11," she said.

She progressed from there: "Well, first I started smoking weed. The gateway
drug," she added with a grin. "And I ate mushrooms and acid growing up with
my friends. This is probably around [age] 12 to 14. Then, probably around
15, I started doing meth. I did meth before I even did coke. Then I moved
here, and I've been just doing mushrooms, smoking pot."

Jen speaks casually, with no hints of emotion, just thoughtfulness. It's
apparent that she does not think badly of her drug use, but merely regards
it as a fact of life.

"It's not a question of what I've done, but what I haven't done," she
summarized.

The casualness remains as the topic shifts to dealing drugs.

"Why? Money," she said. "It's good money; you can make $60,000 in two
months if you know how to swing it. And I like drugs, so if you're dealing
them, you're always going to have them," she said.

"Before school started, I was making a lot more profit than I am now. Now
my studies seriously interfere with my drug dealing," she said. "So I would
say on average, probably about $1,000 every two weeks, which is not that
much. Considering it all goes to books."

There is something strange about hearing a drug dealer regard her education
so highly. It doesn't fit with the image of drug dealers on the streets,
trying to make money for their next meal.

"I ended getting a 3.79 GPA in high school," she said, pausing, "I was a
meth freak! It was really easy to stay up and do your homework when you
were on meth all the time."

But it's not just drugs that contributed to her exceptional grades. It's
obvious that Jen holds her education in high regard. Of the money she
makes, the majority of it goes to paying her tuition. She hopes to
eventually save enough money for college funds for her cousins.

"I want to upgrade my family from uneducated white trash to educated white
trash," she said.

Jen also sends the money she makes to her mother, knowing that her family
makes very little income. A small amount of the money she makes go to herself.

"I'm not into buying new clothes, CDs or whatever. It's because I like
having minimal things to take care of. I take care of my family."

Jen knows that her case is unique. People who do drugs regularly often lose
sight of their priorities. Jen has upheld her priority of getting through
college, but doing this has not been easy.

"When you're a teenager, and you're pulling in $60,000 every two months --
which is way more than my parents have ever made in their whole lives --
you're like: `Why do I need to go to school?' But actually, the whole
reason I wanted to go to school [was] because I want to either make drugs
or legalize drugs when I get out."

It's no surprise that Jen wants to major in either chemistry or botany.

"Plants and explosives, baby," she joked.

But this is not the complete story. With the abundance of schoolwork on her
hands, Jen has had less time to do drugs. She realizes that schoolwork and
drugs do not mix, and as a result her drug usage has dropped.

"I have the opportunity to go to college, and not everybody -- not anybody
- -- in my family has gone to college. And I figured, I go back home and see
my family with eight kids living in the trailer on welfare drinking Rainer
Light =85 well, that's a pretty good motivation to stay in school. It's a
good thing to go to college, and there's a big difference between people
who go to college and people who don't."

Through the years, Jen has grown a sense of responsibility for drugs and
users. Her encounters with people in college who have never tried any drugs
are a source of irritation.

"It's like, why are you wasting your tuition money, take a year off and
then experience it. I don't have patience for people who haven't done this
in high school. It just seemed like a natural thing for me."

When dealing at the UW, she selects who she sells drugs to -- and stays
away from people that she labels "flamboyant or idiotic," people who don't
know prices for fear they may be narcs and "preppy-ass college kids who
made fun of me in high school for doing drugs, and decide that now they are
in college they are going to do drugs."

But the bottom line is that Jen uses drugs and views them differently than
most people do. Her mindset is similar to those who lived in the 1960s. She
finds it irritating that people use drugs to be trendy, rather than for a
spiritual experience or for healing. She refers to most drugs as "a
catalyst in personal evaluation."

She believes drugs have the capability to open up the mind, and expose
people to ideas and thoughts they may not have appreciated otherwise. She
points out that most illegal drugs today have once been used as tools in
psychological therapy.

"I'm not going to go get something from the doctor, something that has been
chemically engineered. This grows naturally, from mother earth. That's why
I call it hallucinogenic medicine."

As a veteran user of many drugs, Jen just wishes that people would learn
from drugs. "It's like, I hope you eat these mushrooms, and hope you
realize that you are a very ugly person," she said with conviction.

It's not that she has evil hopes for the world, rather, Jen hopes that
something viewed as an evil can be used for good.

*not her real name