Photo via Wikimedia Commons
The illegal drug trade is suffering from the same economic quandary that's affecting everyone else in the 21st century: The gap between the incomes of the rich and poor is growing.Drug dealers peddling crack on the street earn only around $4.57 an hour, or $400 a month, according to a study published recently by Treatment4Addiction.com, a website that connects drug users with rehab centers.Based on data compiled by Freakonomics co-author Steve Levitt and Columbia University sociologist Sudhir Venkatesh, the study used data that includes the financial records of the Gangster Disciples, a Chicago-based African American gang that spread nationwide in the late 1960s. The gang's founder, Larry Hoover, is currently serving six life sentences in a supermax prison for drug conspiracy, extortion, and other crimes.The handful of kingpins who lead big drug operations are estimated to earn a staggering $1.67 to $2.5 million a year, a margin that would make Sam Walton proud.The survey's findings should demystify drug dealing and debunk its claims to easy money, said Finn Selander, a former Drug Enforcement Agency agent and member of Law Enforcement Against Prohibition (LEAP), a group of ex-cops who oppose the war on drugs."The distance between the street dealer all the way to the kingpin is big," Selander told VICE News.The New King of Coke. Watch the VICE News documentary here.Street dealers — foot soldiers, in gang parlance — are taking the biggest risk of all, Selander added. Gang leaders often start as street dealers. But they are most likely to encounter police on the job, so their so-called careers usually end early in jail.The high earners are the lords that produce drugs like cocaine in South America and ship the product north to patsies who take care of business, he said."After the mid-level and up, you're making tons of money," Selander said. "The guy on the street can make money, but what's his life expectancy, meaning how long does he last before he gets caught? The only ones that really get caught are the medium and low-level people, because they have visibility."Working closely with drug bosses also carries risks, of course.Amado Carrillo Fuentes, who purportedly made $25 billion leading Mexico's infamous Juarez cartel in the 1990s, regularly murdered men after they unloaded drug shipments from the fleet of planes that earned him the nickname The Lord of the Skies. "That way no one could squeal," Selander said.A law designed to target coke lords is screwing over legal pot companies. Read more here.In an interview with Mashable, Ryan Johnson, a project manager for the study, said he hoped the findings would dissuade people from thinking that dealing drugs is more lucrative than honest work. "They are paid a ridiculously low amount for the danger and risk they take," Johnson said. "You can find a better paying job almost anywhere."Despite the obvious disadvantages, Selander said drug dealing still sometimes offers the most obvious opportunity to make cash in poor neighborhoods. Until desperate people with few other options have better job prospects, it's hard to tell them not to take the risk that comes with selling drugs."There's that lure, the lure of the money," Selander said. "But there is a real risk. The money possibly is there, but do they ever reach that possibility? Most don't."California has finally recognized that crack and cocaine are the same thing. Read more here.Follow John Dyer on Twitter: @johnjdyerjrPhoto via Wikimedia Commons
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