THE MARIJUANA
DELIVERY NETWORK
Adam’s customer, who was
always someone who’d been referred by a friend or a prior client, could examine the 2.5 grams
of fragrant flower clusters before
handing Adam $50 in cash. Adam
wouldn’t make much small talk —
on most days he’d have between
10 and 15 more deliveries to make,
meaning he’d often bike upward
of 30 miles a day during a typical
nine-hour shift.
For nearly two years throughout 2007 and 2008, Adam (whose
last name has been withheld to
protect his identity) delivered
weed for a small, illegal company
he and a friend started in New
York City. His territory covered a
wide swath of Brooklyn — from
the neighborhoods of Greenpoint
and Bushwick to eastern Bed-Stuy
and down to Park Slope — and included lower Manhattan, too.
Delivering pot, Adam could
make up to $250 a day, tax free.
At his previous job selling car
rims, Adam had made about $66
per day after taxes. So when the
opportunity arose to pedal vials of
cannabis around New York City, it
was a no-brainer.
“I enjoy smoking weed immensely,” Adam says. “It was my
way of meeting people and get-
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ting out and seeing and learning
everything I could about the city.
I learned the streets of Brooklyn
like the back of my hand.”
It all started not long after
Adam first moved to the city after majoring in history at a college up state. “The gentrification
Delivering pot, Adam could
make up to $250 a day, tax
free. At his previous job selling
car rims, Adam had made
about $66 per day after taxes.
happening in the Williamsburg,
Bushwick, Fort Greene area” during that time had created “an untapped market for selling weed,”
Adam said.
The work was physically taxing,
and Adam lost several bikes to broken wheels and thieves; but he says
he loved the job, particularly getting
to interact with New Yorkers.
“I met people from all walks
of life connected by their love of
weed. I’d deliver to fancy buildings with doormen in the West
Village and to artists living in
brownstones. I got asked out on
dates and invited to dinner parties by my customers — all kinds
of stuff,” he said.
There are more than a dozen
marijuana home delivery com-