Drug dealers have been discovered targeting freshers at Manchester University, particularly in the Fallowfield area, near some of the halls of residence. According to reports, dealers have been handing out free samples of cannabis, even their business cards.
Those business cards sound rather new. No drug dealer I ever heard of, back in the day, ever got around to printing out business cards. Had they done so, it would have been quite interesting to see what they’d have put on them (“Skunky, from near the bogs in the Dive Club, Esq.”). At the grave risk of over-sharing, one might muse that such cards probably wouldn’t have lasted very long; if they’d been pressed into service regarding, say, “chopping duties”, they would have been mulched into pulp within the hour.
Obviously, there’s a serious element to all this – no one wants young people, especially naive freshers, feeling intimidated by approaches from drug dealers. Nor is it good for young people to get into potentially dangerous activities they can’t handle.
However, with or without the snazzy business cards, is it actually surprising that students are being targeted by drug dealers? Haven’t dealers always targeted students, they generally being young people, with very active social lives that involve quite a bit of staying up all night?
Wouldn’t it have been more surprising to see the headline “Drug dealers target middle-aged women who are quite looking forward to the new series of Strictly Come Dancing” or “Drug dealers target old men who enjoy engaging in a spot of light gardening”? Whatever else is, and isn’t, happening with modern drug dealers, I have got the feeling that they know what they’re doing.
