This guy says ‘I’m going to kill you if you don’t pay me back,’ and the customer just says ‘you’re going to kill me over $400?’ and then the dealer says ‘no, I guess not.’ And that was the end of it. There’s no real threat of violence, and the market seems to operate just fine all the same.

Sociologist Scott Jacques surveys the unique nature of the middle class drug trade, from lower levels of police attention to an emphasis on conflict avoidance, and explains why free drugs, not money, is often the motivator for entering the trade.

Scott is co-author of the new book Code of the Suburb: Inside the World of Young Middle-Class Drug Dealers.