• fubo@lemmy.world
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    1 year ago

    By definition, any group selling illegal drugs is committing crimes.

    However, street gangs do other things besides sell illegal drugs; they often engage in violence in their communities.

    In addition, these folks are selling pure lab-tested drugs, rather than mixing them with other substances (“cutting”, often with harmful substances) or selling one drug as another (e.g. methamphetamine sold as MDMA), which are common in the street drug trade.

    • kttnpunk@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      I’d like to question your idea of “street gangs”. A lot of times these are just cocky groups of male friends who trust each other and are trying to get by in a harsh economy. But sure, every single one is violent and there aren’t any honorable people involved, ever. Literally the only dealer I’ve met that actually scared me mostly dealt meth (I was buyin’ weed) and I’m pretty sure he was a cop too

      • kttnpunk@lemmy.world
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        1 year ago

        All this to say it’s not a violent business unless you’re a idiot about it. It’s not like TV. People will undercut their prices long before they’ll cut throats.

        • kttnpunk@lemmy.world
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          1 year ago

          Oh, absolutely. Understatement of the century, they are THE violent street gang. Just look up “40% of cops” or into their origins as slave catching patrols. They exist to keep the economy running by force, disperse protests, and make everyone fear homelessness. With even half of their budgets we could easily eliminate any incentive for crime in this country with better infrastructure.

    • itsdavetho@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      I don’t think that it’s bad to sell drugs but to say they’re taking money out of the hands of gangs isnt really true, I’d argue it ends up in the hands of even stronger arms at the end of the day. My point, i think, is that a government entity or contractor should be the ones manufacturing and supplying these substances, not international criminals and drug lords, so that they can be properly taxed and funds from these can be used to provide treatment programs, food supply, education or housing , as a few examples