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Craigslist provides a market for pot peddlers
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SEATTLE – The classified-advertising Web site craigslist has become popular in recent years with young, tech-savvy city dwellers seeking apartments, jobs and for-sale items.
But it’s also being used as an Information Age black market for some marijuana dealers.
“I’m not too concerned about getting caught,” said Eric, a Bellevue, Wash., man in his early thirties who peddles pot online through craigslist.
Local and federal law enforcement officials said they’re aware dealers like Eric are turning to craigslist and other Web sites to sell pot, but the amounts sold are generally so small they’re not very concerned.
Eric says he doesn’t make much of a profit-if any-but sells enough marijuana to smoke for free.
He sells small amounts-usually an eighth of an ounce, which brings in $30 to $40. Most clients are friends or friends of friends, Eric said.
But as some customers have moved away or no longer want to light up, he’s found replacement demand online.
Eric scans craigslist for ads placed by people who are seeking pot.
More often than not, he’ll find someone posting an ad looking for marijuana using code names like “Mary Jane,” “MJ,” “the sticky icky,” “the chronic” and “420.”
Recently, however, Eric posted an ad on craigslist indicating he was willing to trade marijuana for sexual favors from women or money from men.
Men who offered up a woman for sex would get a discount.
“It’s not prostitution,” he said, noting he had completed a few transactions in response to the ad. “It’s like a date, just weed instead of dinner.”
Eric doesn’t flaunt his pot-dealing and said he doubts his neighbors-or law enforcement-know about what he does.
Jeff Eig, spokesman for the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration’s Seattle office, said the amounts of illicit drugs sold via online transactions are generally so small that his agency hasn’t specifically gone after craigslist users dealing dope.
Instead, he said, the DEA has chosen to focus on online pharmacies that sell drugs such as Oxycontin, morphine and Ritalin-all legal but restricted prescription drugs-to people without prescriptions at a high profit margin.
“We’ve done stings with online pharmacies,” Eig said. “We have a division called diversion control which regularly investigates how dealers are getting legal drugs into the illicit market.”
Police in other cities around the country have been increasingly vigilant against online crime via craigslist and other sites.
Last year, Boston police arrested five women suspected of running a prostitution ring that advertised on craigslist.
Nathan Hurst
The Seattle Times
