I have been meaning to write about this for the past few months but never got to it. I read a terrific book last year called Dorm Room Drug Dealers: Drugs and the Privileges of Race and Class by Rafik Mohamed & Erik Fritsvold and it has really stayed with me. Let me say up front that the book is in hardcover and is expensive so I would suggest getting it from your local library at this point or waiting for the paperback to be released.

If you are a student of sociology, you will appreciate this ethnographic study about the world of drug trading that involves wealthy and overwhelmingly white students. The book is based on 6 years of fieldwork on college campuses in southern California. It also includes interviews with nearly 50 informants who were current and former dorm room dealers. Most of the drugs that were sold and consumed were marijuana, cocaine, prescription drugs and other party drugs.

Some of the most interesting anecdotes in the book involve the dorm room dealers’ beliefs about themselves and about their trade. Most of them suggest that their social status as white young men protect them from being targeted and caught. Since they do not fit the stereotype of a “typical” street drug dealer (young, male, poor, and of color), they escape the scrutiny of law enforcement. The authors of the book characterize these dorm room dealers as “anti-targets.” Because of their race and class privilege, dorm room dealers were never really concerned about the police or being caught for their activities. In fact, many of them did not consider what they were doing as particularly harmful. Those dealers who sold marijuana did not consider it to be a drug. Those who traded in prescription drugs were even less likely to see their actions as being criminal or as transgressing the law.

Another interesting point in the book is that a majority of the dorm room dealers were business majors who saw themselves as participating in the capitalist marketplace. They were trying to make money so that they could indulge in fun activities and purchase items of interest. For most of them, the drug dealing provided additional disposable income. Dealing was not a matter of economic survival for most of them. Many of the dorm room dealers were also drug users and they relied on the income generated from their activities to also feed their own habits.

This book is so incredibly fascinating because it clearly documents how differently society addresses drug use and sales depending on who is doing the using and who is doing the selling. It is really a must read for anyone interested in criminal legal issues. The authors end their book with a chapter about a case involving dorm room dealers at San Diego State University and frankly if you only read that chapter of the book, you will have learned something. I am going to end with a quote from the book that I think is important and instructive.

“It is not our intention to have this study serve as a call to arms to wage a war on our college campuses. On the contrary, it is our sincere hope that this ethnograhic investigation of affluent collegiate drug dealers contributes in some small way to dispelling the myth that participation in substantial drug crimes is reserved exclusively for the marginalized, minority, poor, and undereducated members of our society. And we further hope that our work can spark a conversation about a more reasonable, equitable, and balanced set of domestic drug policies as we move forward in the new millenium (p.182.).”

There is no better case study to underscore the injustice of the current “War on Drugs” and the disproportionate targeting of people of color than this book. While the so-called “War on Drugs” increasingly criminalizes women and people of color, it leaves affluent young white people to their own devices. This is instructive and suggests that decriminalizing drug usage and dealing FOR EVERYONE would benefit the entire society. Why should only wealthy young white men be shielded from the ravages of involvement in the criminal legal system? What’s good for them should be good for everyone else.