[Mpls] Hood Pot Market to relocate DT; RT hopes gang violence abates; Hardcore Commute?

[Laura and lloyd]

On Saturday, April 30, 2005, at 10:00  AM, Barbara Lickness wrote:
> Mark Wilde said:
>
> And I would argue against the idea that all the buyers are "from the 
> suburbs" as people like to claim.  The people buying live right next 
> store to the people selling.
>
>
> Me: Mark you are only partly correct. According to the stats, 60% of 
> the people buying the drugs drive in from the suburbs or other rural 
> areas in Minnesota and Wisconsin. 40% are local.  Perhaps if the 
> dealers set up satellite operations at Ridgedale or Southdale or the 
> Eden Prairie Center it would be more convenient for them and our 
> incidents of violence would decrease dramatically.
>
> Barb Lickness, Whittier

It is futile to speculate where the buyers come from in what 
percentages. We might just agree that the public is complicit in 
illegal sales by supplying the demand and thus the market growth. True, 
Target and Walmart need to know where their customer base comes from. 
Drug dealers and distributors probably do too. We can argue endlessly 
whether they are local or suburban. But it is what it is, whatever we 
might speculate. The market is there is sufficient depth to make this 
business profitable.

Illegal or legal will have little effect on the under 18 market in a 
future legal scenario. For now, the buyer age spectrum is under 18 to 
no ceiling.

There are just too many in the public who are buyers and thus there is 
a ready supply of dealers and sellers that the larger scale 
distributors can rely on. Bullets in the head are part of the risk 
category.

The mayor was exhorting a reduction in public buying to decrease 
demand. Otherwise law abiding citizens and others should pay attention 
to this.

Best,

Laura



Laura Waterman Wittstock
Minneapolis, MN
612-387-4915
www.laurawatermanwittstock.com
http://laurawatermanwittstock.blogspot.com/