Dealing Drugs in Tel Aviv

By MARC GOLDBERG
"Sure brother I got weed, Hydro, MDMA, Cocaine, mushrooms, LSD, the last two by the way are my personal favourites. Whatever you want man no problem."
Dov (not his real name), suprised me by how quickly the list of his products rolled from his tongue. "Any heroin?" I asked, "well yeah uh maybe, well..." the question has interrupted his flow and he started mumbling.
Yeah man I do have like a tiny little bit of heroin but I don''t really like to sell it, man I have a thing about like super addictive stuff, it drives people a little nuts and although they say cocaine is addictive it isn''t... like that... and to buy it I have to go down to the central bus station which is nasty anyway so you know... whatever man."
Dov is about 6" tall and loves going to nature parties, forget any notions you might have about rising up off the mean streets he is from a perfectly respectable middle class family. Last month, while the tent city protests were in full swing, he was raking in 17,000 New Israeli Shekels.
He lives in a one bedroom apartment that costs him just under 3,000 NIS a month and works a couple of shifts a week while he plies his trade from home. His pad isn''t the swish place one would think of when imagining a drug dealer or of people making that much money every month. Of course he can''t show that kind of money or people might start wondering where it would come from, not the police for whom is not at all concerned but his close family who would instantly understand that he is living beyond his means.
I visited him yesterday to ask him some more about living off of drugs. As I walked in there was a girl putting a couple of bags of weed in her pockets and is on her way out, there was another stoned guy sitting on his couch semi conscious. I wondered about how easily he carries his burden, when I get a parking ticket it stays in my mind bothering me until I''ve paid it and here he is welcoming randoms into his home to ply his trade.
"Aren''t you worried that the police are going to show up one day?"
"Haha man I am SURE that the police are gonna show up some day, f**k it though man." He says this as he takes a hit of his own product from the plastic bong that he keeps next to his couch. I open my mouth to ask him another question but am precluded from doing so by the ringing of his mobile phone. He raises a finger to quieten me as he answers. "Yeah, sure man but...no, cash on the spot is always better, yeah less problems that way." The conversation ends and I have forgotten what I wanted to ask him. He looks at me and grins,
"My supplier man."
"Cash is always better?" I ask him with a smile,
"yeah man you don''t need to be in debt to anyone...you know how it is."
"Not really"
"Well look they don''t mind if I go into them on like credit man, but it''s like... things are less certain that way." Images of every gangster movie I have ever seen came into my mind. Personally I can''t think of how it would be to be in debt to a Tony Montana like figure.
"Has anyone ever refused to pay?"
"Nope" he started laughing at me, though I''m not entirely sure why
"No one has ever just decided to not pay you?"
"Nah man never happened and it never would either, listen man it''s drugs you know it''s all like good, we''re all friends man, I buy from friends and I sell to friends man it''s all good."
"What would you do if someone refused to pay you?"
"Nothing man, what am I a gangster? Look at me sitting here stoned off my face." Hmmm my attempts to elicit some kind of story of violence about dealing drugs on the not so mean streets of Tel aviv aren''t really going anywhere here, though all the while people are coming into the flat, buying drugs and leaving. Despite his long list of products people were only really buying weed, of which he had a massive load sitting in a jar on his coffee table. Trance music was blaring out through several speakers that were hooked up to his 40 inch plasma screen TV that was in turn connected to his laptop.
I am sure that there should be some kind of lesson here, Dov went on about how he knew guys who brought drugs into Israel from overseas and things were starting to get too much for me. The blaring music, the constant smoke in the air and the non stop stream of people walking through his doors to buy drugs were nothing compared to the way that he is utterly apathetic to the notion of getting caught. More than apathetic he has already decided that it is going to happen and made his peace with it. Even if got caught he would probably carry on dealing.
If there''s a lesson here I don''t know what it is!
I also blog at Marc''s Words