Interviews were conducted with 80 former sellers of cocaine who represent eight different levels of sales to identify the modes and levels of admission into cocaine sales and to gather information about the subtle transformation of identity that occurs when a person moves from being a user to being a drug dealer.
Most of the respondents, who were located via the chain referral sampling technique, drifted into selling. Generally, they did not make conscious decisions to become cocaine sellers or to embrace deviant or criminal lifestyles. When not dealing, the respondents engaged in "mainstream American" activities. Five basic ways in which people begin to sell cocaine were identified: go-between; stash dealer; connoisseur, which is characterized by the user's desire to buy higher quality drugs; apprenticeship; and product line expansion, wherein dealers begin by selling other drugs and move into selling cocaine. All of these modes presuppose an existing demand for cocaine from people known to the potential dealers. The dealers experience a transformation of identify from a person who has a good connection to one who is a good connection. The person who begins to sell drugs and to take on the dealer identity acquires certain rights (profits) and responsibilities (maintaining supplies and consistent product description) as well as some risks (imprisonment) that accompany the job. 1 table and 27 references