Living the high life - Confessions of a Rotorua drug dealer

By CHERIE TAYLOR in Rotorua
In a good week Bob can make up to $5000.

But for every business transaction he makes, he also risks going to jail.

Bob operates a "tinnie" house, selling cannabis to "clients" who include everyone from students to well-to-do business people.

He isn't proud of what he does but felt he didn't have many options after losing his job as a mill worker nearly six years ago.

Two older siblings talked Bob into his current trade, operating a tinnie house from the Rotorua home he shares with his wife and kids.

At least two of his former workmates have followed him into the illegal drug trade.

"It's not a business you tell too many people you are involved in," he said.

Sitting at his kitchen window Bob scrutinises people as they walk through the gate of the modest home.

The house looks no different to other homes in the same street.

But share his space and you soon lose count of the people who come to the back door to hand over a green bill in exchange for a small piece of tinfoil containing the illegal drug cannabis.

He admits business is booming despite recent drug busts in the area scaring off a few clients.

"I don't know what all the fuss is about though. It's just a herb made by God.

"Dak [cannabis] is nothing compared to the evils of alcohol and they have legalised that. You just chill out after a smoke [whereas] people get aggressive when they are drunk."

Growing up on whanau land in the Central North Island, Bob said cannabis was a normal part of life during his formative years and by the time he was 16 he was hooked and smoking daily.

"Dad smoked it. It was just a social thing that everyone did."

He never thought he would end up selling it to support his family but life's circumstances pushed his hand after he lost his $1800 weekly pay packet.

He not only lost his weekly income - his car and furniture had to go too.

"Look, I never aspired to be a drug dealer. I thought I would always make an honest living but when you are down and out desperation leads to desperate measures for survival. I was backed into a corner," he said.

Six years down the track Bob has several regular customers and makes an average $3000 a week.

He said he made $5000 in the 24 hours leading up to the Big Day Out in Auckland recently.

"You wouldn't believe it. As soon as we sat down there would be someone else at the door."

However, he won't divulge how much he had to spend to make that amount or how many tinnies he could roll out of a $300 ounce.

Business operates by "word of mouth" and clients come from all walks of life. The youngest is about 17 and the oldest in their late 60s.

"You'd be surprised. There are professional people, business owners, people you'd never dream were smokers, who buy and buy regularly."

Bob doesn't like selling to teenagers but says people can't bury their heads in the sand and deny they are smoking drugs.

"My own kids smoke. I'm not proud of that but at least I know they aren't getting into harder drugs like P. I feel sad to see my own kids doing it but who am I to judge them?"

Each week he travels out of town to pick up ounces of the illegal drug, supplying a friend he used to work with enough to keep a tinnie house in Taupo open as well. When the indoor-grown drug supply dwindles, he buys "bush weed" from another guy he used to work with.

"It's horrible when you run out. The look on people's faces when you tell them you have run out is amazing. It's like you have cut out their heart."

Bob has been busted twice - he says he feels a bit like the guys on Dukes of Hazzard when transporting his supplies.

"It's just like during prohibition. People were boot-leggers and got arrested and jailed. Sooner or later the same thing will happen with marijuana and people will be able to buy it anywhere," he said.