[tobadzistsini]

Growing up I remember all the ads about avoiding narcotics talking about getting hooked on free samples and then going to jail for theft and/or possession. The people behind that propaganda didn't know drugs do cost money, dealers being dorky teens and twenty-somethings who are about as dangerous as a butterfly. But this propaganda also illustrates how some elements aren't very bright. The internet age with free email, free social media, etc. got everyone hooked and now Zuckerberg, et al. are giving doe-eyed, hat-in-hand, and crying poverty. If people were wise to those PSAs, past and present, they'd see how the loyal opposition has been playing with their cards face-up on the table under the guise of good intentions. Much like the pedophile scare during the teens, pun unintended, with Comet Ping Pong and then come 2024 it's revealed Epstein and his cadre of deviant cronies were doing it all along while deflecting poorly to innocent parties. Goodness knows what else is still right in front of our noses but their reality hasn't come to fruition in the zeitgest.

[carlosjobim]

> getting hooked on free samples

It's not a free "sample": drug dealers give their stuff for free at parties where vulnerable young people are in the form of sharing what they are themselves taking. Then they have that teen on the hook for extortion and having them do things or pay "debts". I "gave" you some drugs because you're my friend, but now you have to pay back, you have to do this favor, take this stuff from here to there. Another common thing is that the "debt" has to be paid in money again and again and again. You don't want us to go talk to your parents who think you're their perfect little boy/girl? You don't want them to know that you took drugs, do you?

As dangerous as a butterfly... It's a filthy world on all levels, filled with demonic people who spend all their time thinking about how to use and abuse others - the more innocent the better.

I know it's a tangent.

[olyjohn]

Do you have personal experience with going to high school parties and drug dealers being there trying to get you hooked on drugs? I ask because the scenario you're presenting here sounds like something out of a movie or TV show, and not real life.

[carlosjobim]

You understood the opposite of what I wrote. Read the comment again, it's not about being hooked on drugs at all. It's about having them on the hook for blackmail.

And yes: Taking drugs or hanging out with people who take drugs is enough "kompromat" for a teen to then be extorted by drug dealers, because they don't want their parents to know.

Especially in countries where the law looks very lightly on extortion, looks very favourably on "young offenders", and is very lacking in empathy for young victims.

Not to mention: Do you think a 15 or 16 year old wants to go to the police and tell them that they are being used by drug dealers, when the first thing the police is going to do is also book the teen for drug use?

Drug dealing aren't just Mexican cartels or hood gangs, it's a network with branches into everywhere, and they need a constant supply of victims. Read some court proceedings from low-level drug cases, and you'll see how these criminals operate. It's not like TV.