RAPID CITY, S.D. (KELO.com) — It’s no secret hard drugs are a major issue in western South Dakota, with the Rapid City Police Department taking preventative measures like the implementation of a Narcan program.
However, on the other side of the coin are those risking their lives and freedom to fill the demand for product.
One individual is “J”, a Rapid City-based drug dealer who describes herself as relatively low on the ladder of drug suppliers in West River – primarily selling marijuana.
J says for her, a person without a degree working a lower-wage job, it’s a matter of making ends meet.
“The working industry here sucks,” J said. “I don’t do what I do for fun are because I am a gangster or because I’m a thug. It is literally how I pay my rent.”
J said she is “uncomfortable” with how easy it is to acquire harder drugs in Rapid City, saying – if she wanted to – she could have a commercial amount of meth within a week.
“I am a woman and like I said earlier a lot of these weed dealers get sucked up into other stuff and it is legitimately dangerous,” J said. “I do not want to buy from someone who sells meth at this Crossing Foundation there. I started selling so that I know that the people that I sell to are getting safe quality products. So it makes it safer for women my age go to someone who they know. They can trust they know they’re getting quality products and they know that like they’re having to get such harassment from a drug dealer.”
J is in her early 20’s, and says women being sexually harassed by dealers is a “serious problem”
As a marijuana legalization advocate, J said this situation highlights the fallacy of keeping marijuana illegal.
“A lot of my customer base are people who have genuine health issues people with anxiety people with depression people schizophrenia it like chronic pain, you know,” J said. “I had a guy ask me if I would sell weed to him for his grandma with high blood pressure. And it just makes me really sad that something is holistic and quote unquote safe as bud gets grouped in with all these hard drugs that really mess people.”
J clarified she does not want to do this long term out of fear of excessive legal repercussions, and dreams of owning her own legal small business someday.
(CJ Keene, KOTA-AM, contributed this report. Audio clips transcribed by Google Pinpoint and edited by KELO.com News’ Todd Epp.)
