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PaperclipPerfector  4mo ago (text post)   3318 thread views

Small-Scale Question Sunday for May 5, 2024

Do you have a dumb question that you're kind of embarrassed to ask in the main thread? Is there something you're just not sure about?

This is your opportunity to ask questions. No question too simple or too silly.

Culture war topics are accepted, and proposals for a better intro post are appreciated.

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It's weird to have more than one person give you "advice" suggesting you try to become a drug dealer, right?

Are either of them offering to be your wholesaler? Or represent an organization that you can work with? It's a difficult "industry" to break into on your own without one of the above. Cannabis legalizations around the country have really hurt the prospects of the independent grower/seller in the present era. You can probably grow/sell your own mushrooms still, but its a niche market. Unless you're a regular at raves/festivals/Phish concerts you probably wont shift enough of it to be useful. Its honestly not a great time to move into this sort of thing. Opiates are are selling lot hotcakes, put prices are pretty low compared to historical levels and most of it is controlled by OC at some level. Selling stimulants to the PMC (adderol, cocaine, provigil etc) is an option, but you'll need a reliable and discreet supplier, as well as a customer base. This really isn't the sort of thing you can just decide to do. If you aren't already part of this world its very difficult to get involved at all.

You left out one of the cases, which was the other context — that is, making use of my Caltech science education, specifically my lab experience from chemistry classes, in the production of methamphetamine.

Precursors AIUI are regulated such that most viable pathways are difficult these days -- so you pretty much need to buy those from bikers (or whoever runs things in your area) and they will take an interest in the results. If you know some bikers this could still be an OK career path!

My understanding with meth, and I've been "out of the game" as it were for a little while, is that Mexican OC and their partners (the mentioned bikers) have had US meth distribution on lockdown for a while. Its manufactured semi-openly in Mexico in large amounts and smuggled in for distro with local groups.

One thing that a chemist might find lucrative nowadays are the broad range of "technically legal" drugs that have flooded the market in permissive states. I don't know a whole ton about those though, other than the local guys who set up a lab extracting the psychoactive substances from legal hemp, the various D8/D9/THC-A etc edibles and vape carts that have flooded head shops in the last decade or so.

edit - Independent meths labs were absolutely a viable enterprise for a good period of time though. I'd estimate from the early 80s through the late 00s you could make a go of it, especially if you had actual professional level skills. Tons of absolutely garbage crank got sold for decent amounts of money in the heyday. Pure meth, or "Ice" always went for a premium as most amateurs were entirely unable to make it. By the time you started hearing about clandestine labs exploding, and years before Breaking Bad debuted, it was pretty much on the way out though. Putting the cold pills behind the counter, and tracking the other possible precursors really worked. Many of the amateur labs operated entirely off of cold medicine shoplifted by addicts who were paid in finished drugs for supplying ingredients. I knew several people involved in this as many levels back in the late 90s. Its basically impossible now unless you can somehow divert from the inside. One funny anecdote (to me anyway) was that the tweekers who paid in cold medicine were referred to as Smurfs.

I suppose that's one way to be told you should try for med school, or a career as a pharmacist. Can't say dealing drugs has worked out badly for me, all said and done.

It's weird to have one person do it, let alone more than one.

Not really; girls love drug dealers.

That was, in fact, the context of one of the two cases, within the broader case that my lack of a job makes my failure to reproduce less excusable, not more, because being a welfare parasite puts me in one of the few income brackets with above replacement TFR.

Real talk- I expect the welfare parasites have above replacement TFR partly due to haredi Jews and partly due to teen pregnancy. I don't think the average man in the ghetto actually has elevated fertility; it's more likely that there's a few who commit a lot of statutory and a few groups like haredi jews or the FLDS that push welfare user TFR higher by having 6+ children each even if there's not very many of them.

That seems a lot more complicated than it needs to be. People make dumb decisions all the time. Have you ever seen one of those family court shows?

I don’t think it’s backed up by the fertility data, either, but I don’t have time to check all the income tables right now.

Depends on your circle...

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