For drugs or money

In light of the recent drug arrests on the IU campus*, IDS columnists ask, \n“Why are students inclined to sell drugs, illegal or otherwise? \nWhat makes students hand their money over to peddlers?” \nThe cost of business\nThe answer to why students sell drugs is much easier to comprehend than why students use drugs, though the two go hand-in-hand. \nIt’s necessary to recognize the drug market as a business first and foremost. Cost and profit fluctuate as market forces like crop shortages, or police raids, work their ways through a vertically oriented supply chain. Like butter, guns and widgets, the prices for everything from Adderall to Xanax, from marijuana to black tar heroine, are set according to the laws of supply and demand. \nNow assume the market is always booming, which it is, and you’re a student who has become friends with “a guy.” This “guy” will sell you one gram of drug X for $10, or 10 grams for $70. You do a quick calculation and figure you could sell the other nine grams at market price and make $90 – that’s a 20 percent profit, and a free gram of drug X. \nThe very next day you’re sitting at home, recklessly abusing your free drug X, when five friends show up waving wads of crisp 20-dollar bills in your face wanting more of that sweet, sweet candy. What’s an entrepreneur to do? Suddenly you fill a crucial gap in the supply chain that links the manufacturer with the user. Not only do you open a brand-new market for “the guy’s” drug X, but you also cut your own costs in half, or more.\nSo you call “the guy,” who says he’ll sell 50 grams for $300, an after-cost profit of $200. Considering a three-credit-hour course at IU costs about $172, you wonder why no one else is selling drug X. The next week you go back to “the guy” and buy 1,000 grams and just like that your student loans are paid off.\nDon’t think for a second that drug pushers are brain-dead addicts. The market is phenomenally complicated and dangerously cutthroat. Navigating it requires both business savvy and nerves of steel, but for some the pay-offs are too huge to ignore. \nEspecially for a poor college student who barely has quarters for laundry, let alone tuition.\nBy Kirk Nathanson\nDrug market: narcotics aisle 7\nAccording to the National Center on Addiction and Substance Abuse at Columbia University in New York, roughly half of college students binge-drink or abuse drugs. While this statistic has been constant throughout the years, it is the level of excessiveness that appears to be troubling.\nVarious factors can contribute to initially trying drugs – from curiosity to peer pressure to just wanting to experience something different. The transition from trying to purchasing is more complex, however. \nFor every drug, there are assorted side effects that can appeal to students based on their desires. The always popular marijuana brings upon a sense of relaxation, which can often allow one to forget the stresses of every day life. The prescription drug Adderall, first introduced in 1996, has proven to be in high, illegal demand because of its ability to bring energy, strength and a sense of well-being. \nIn its molecular configuration and side effects, Cocaine is quite similar to Adderall, but clearly more harmful and powerful. It was once widely used by Americans of all kinds in the turn of the 20th century, most famously in its incorporation in the original Coca-Cola. Also once used medicinally, today Ecstasy is most commonly purchased illegally for rave and dance purposes.\nThe lines between illegal and legal drugs appear to often be distinguished by time. Several drugs that are known as dangerously illegal were once not only legal, but frequently prescribed to millions of Americans. Marijuana is a rare example in that it was used for medicinal purposes after it became illegal.\nIt’s not very difficult to see that people buy drugs to have fun, break out from their problems or acquire a sense of artificial happiness or comfort. Furthermore, humans are susceptible to addiction and dependence. A sense of rebellion and independence can also augment the desire to buy illegal substances. Upon examining the reasons for using legal substances – from coffee to cigarettes, to prescription pills – the parallels can be alarmingly similar. What could be found in today’s pharmacy could be found on tomorrow’s black market. \nBy Stefania Marghitu