Have you ever hung out with someone who lives an illegal lifestyle?

[Telekinetic-Potato]

A friend of mine died a short while ago. He was a drug dealer from Columbia. This kids family was all hooked into this kind of stuff. I mean, he mostly sold k and blow but he could get literally anything you could possibly ask for.

He was an amazing painter. He kinda just spent all his time hanging out in this beautiful apartment he had in Brooklyn. Making art, doing copious amounts of blow and generally being around friends.

He was a good dude. Used to go out partying in the city with a group and we'd go back to his place, and it was like being in a movie the stuff I saw at his house.

The problem is you can only maintain that lifestyle for so long. The kids heart gave out in his mid 30s.

He was a very generous, guy who spoke from the heart. He was the type of guy who if you weren't into what we were doing he'd make sure you still felt accepted. And his friends were for the most part quite successful types. One of the very few people who never did anything to intentionally hurt me. I wonder what he woulda been like if he grew up in a normal family.

[ManOnFire]

I have hung out with people who lived illegal lifestyles of drugs or guns that they didn't immediately open up about until somewhere into the friendship/assocation-ship. Once that happened I just kinda would start distancing myself. Not necessarily because I thought of them as bad people, but trouble usually follows those types. You could be chilling at their place one moment and the next the FBI comes busting in. Not something I ever wanted to get caught in, as I knew other people that had that exact scenario happen to them.

Being a good person can mean so many different things to so many different people. I didn't know your friend so really couldn't say. He died pretty young. I wonder if he thought his lifestyle was all worth it in his last moments.

[Telekinetic-Potato]

I like to think he was trying to make the best of the bad decisions he already made. If he liked you, he'd spend a good amount of time talking about what a terrible lifestyle it was. Saying what else we could all be doing. He knew he was going to die young. Probably was more depressed than any of us could tell.

[ManOnFire]

Maybe he even felt being in a family that was so deep into dealing was a curse on him too.

[exitseven]

No, my Italian Greandmother used to say that if you walk next to someone that limps, pretty soon you will limp too.

[exitseven]

Thanks for the MHO😎

[WhiteSteve]

I guess myself, lmao, and my old den of thieves😝

Weird to call it illegal now, because it no longer is…. it was just weed. Statutes of limitations are up, so I can say out loud that I was on my Boston George shit, lmfao. Nah, not quite that heavy, but we were moving weight and dealing with Canadian connects. There was even a leg in the chain that had a literal Temple Of Doom minecart system under the Quebec/Vermont border. Way less elaborate, I’m sure, but I was always fascinated by that.

My friend who was in the game with me, he’s probably got more of the story you’re thinking of. He was a drum & bass DJ, kind of Pied Piper of a whole crew affectionately known in the area as The Drum & Bass Mafia, lmao. He was also big on the idea of “The Anti-Meathead Union”…. and I was the exception😂 He’d say “Maverick [my nickname with him and only him, haha] is the only meathead allowed at AMU parties! He’s a cool meathead!”, lmfao. He would’ve hated my main crew, who were all UMass football players.

He’d always have me as the de facto security guard at his big house parties, and I’d always be thinking “I don’t know what you expect me to do if a brawl breaks out; I’m ONE guy”, lmao. But we definitely had some shit jump off once in a while and we’d have to eject people the hard way. One time he tasered a kid and the kid pissed himself, lmfao. I’m like “I know you don’t lift or anything, but maybe YOU should be the bouncer”😂

But yeah, those parties were wild. Weed, booze, nitrous, and a bunch of heavier shit I don’t fuck with myself. He lived in the boonies so we never had cops show up, luckily. He’d have been OUTTA HERE if they ever searched the crib and brought the dogs in.

Nowadays…. I’d mostly lost touch with him, maybe I’d run into him once in a blue moon, or he’d send me a random text every few years and say whattup, show some pictures of his kids he has now. But I've bumped into him twice this past summer. The town I get my hair cut in is kind of a small hub city to smaller surrounding towns and has the most bustling downtown in the area, so thats where a lot of homeless people kick it, asking for change, cigarettes, etc.

I was out talking to my stylist as we were both heading to our cars because I was his last appointment (been cutting my hair 25 years now so we’re old friends), and I hear “MAVERICK?” from across the street. Without even looking I knew who it was. I said goodbye to my stylist buddy, and crossed the street. As I got closer, I was horrified. He looked FUCKED UP.

He comes up and gives me a dap and a hug, and I’m looking him over: underweight, raggedy clothes, scabs all over him from some recent accident. He’s like “DUDE! I got hit by a car last week!”, and shows me all his broken teeth from it, telling me they’re getting fixed soon. I’m just like “Jesus…”, but trying to play it cool. He asks if I can walk with him and catch up, so I said ok.

He starts telling me all this kind of street life stuff, telling me he’s knocked out 11 people in the last 7 months or something, how he’s not taking bullshit anymore. He bums a cigarette off some guy, and says “I’m not your usual crazy homeless bum.” It sounded like he was staying somewhere, but he looked hard up, physically. We parted ways after 10 minutes or so, but I left feeling concerned for him.

Then I saw him again last month, and he’s got this crazy limp. He’s like “Dude! I fell off the roof of my apartment! They put a rod in my leg!” I guess that had happened a month ago. And he’s like king of the tweakers out there, he knows all the homeless people; and I’m not a judgey guy so I treat everyone with the same respect…but I have to admit I felt a little embarrassed, looking normal, and then I’m just hanging out with obvious derelicts. Like this woman came up, addict-skinny, sunken cheeks, track marks all over her. People probably thought I was buying or selling drugs, lmao. And I dress pretty fly, so me next to them looks CRAZY😝

He's sitting there telling me about these cloned plants he wanted to give me, hyping up how good they are, like it’s still 2002. I’m just thinking to myself “Dude…you’re gonna die, man. Stop this. All of it. Get help.” I’m not sure what kind of drugs he’s fucking with, but it’s definitely more than weed.

And he’s apparently still trying to deal, presumably just to the tweaker crowd. He told me on a prior bump-in maybe 15 years ago that he had “been in the system” since he had seen me, so he obviously got busted for something and did some time. Doesn’t sound like he DJs much anymore. He used to fly to Europe and do shows, he had a bit of a name in those circles. Told me “wasn’t that flush anymore”, so I think he’s just dead broke and getting by.

I don’t even know what to do about it. He’s an old friend, but like we were tight BECAUSE of business. Truth told, I think he’s a tremendous douchebag, and so do most people. Like people would find out we were cool and be like “You’re friends with HIM?”, and I’d always have to be like “Yeah, no, I get it. For whatever reason, he’d just give me the shirt off his back…but I totally get not liking him. He’s definitely an arrogant asshole.” He just never did anything terrible that I knew about that would merit severing the friendship; he was just full of himself and it showed in his treatment of others. But it was douchey, not evil.

So…I don’t know, I guess this isn’t my issue to take on. I wouldn’t even know what to do for him. And he was always cool to me, in the sense of not being an asshole (usually…. its kind of just who he is, lmao). We took some road trips together with many, many years of prison time in the trunk. Statutes are up, as I said, so I can say I was his “collections” enforcer when people needed encouragement to pay him owed money.

So I mean…I’ve done some dirt for this dude. And come to think of it, he wasn’t shaking down delinquent borrowers for me. I think he just liked having a goon; and at my young age, I think I liked the cachet of being one. And honestly, if he had ever gotten pinched, I can’t say with any confidence that he’d have kept his mouth shut about me and others. I could absolutely see him ratting.

So, I’m just kind of bummed for him but don’t really know what I could do. He’s not a guy you can be like “Hey, man…. are you alright? Maybe you should think about getting clean.” Sounds like this day and age, he’d swing on me for it. He just looks like the ending of a cautionary tale. I hate to see it. I know a lot of people who would love to see it, probably, but not me. It’s just crazy to see someone you once knew turn into a shell of their former selves. And he’s the last guy to know. He’s walking around, talking big, threatening to beat the shit out of other tweakers, it’s crazy.

Sad shit, man. I hope he pulls out of it, but I think he’s just not gonna be a guy who lives to see 80😞

[Telekinetic-Potato]

I feel that. You kinda know the fun's gotta end one day but it hits different when it finally starts to.

[shish_kebab]

I had a friend who was an illegal alien. His family snuck into Mexico from El salvador. His mother and father like Mexico so much they stayed and the kids proceeded north. The coyote told them that when the border patrol spots them they need to run fast but always follow the coyote. If they stray off on their own they'll get caught but if they follow the coyote they'll make it.
Sure enough the border patrol spotted them at night and they bolted behind the coyote. They managed to escape and now live happily ever after. The reward for breaking the law was becoming American citizens with plenty of benefits.

[KostasKouvalis]

Yeah. I had a buddy in HS who was a kleptomaniac, we'd sometimes have him bring us stuff from the Dollar Tree.

And this kid on my street was into all sorts of trouble. Gangs. Drugs. Underaged smoking. Fist fights. Vandalism. Trespassing. Theft. Animal abuse. Counterfit currency. You name it, he's probably done it. Last I heard of him, the police found him and another kid I know, passed out in a car high on pretty much anything they could get their hands on. I have no clue what became of him.

And my best friend in high school was big into vandalism, and piracy and got me into it as well.

And some of my old buddies from high school got into drug dealing.

[Anonymous]

My uncle dealt in ilegal cigarettes, marajuana, coccaine, e tablets, dvd copies, PlayStation games, porn, sex toys, diesel, and anything else that might of fell off the back of a lorry. He actually made a good living at it.

[NathanDavis]

all I will say is that... I live in the Texas/Mexico border...

[Alexson_stormzy]

Practically yes and true

[queenofcardio]

Yes..

[Agape93]

Yeap, several times