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I've never really understood how the police calculate the street value of drugs. Maybe they take a few samples of the market each week, to establish the current price of each drug on the market, to establish the value of drug seizures... destroying them after purchase, of course!
One of the great
ways to grow your economy is to promote tourism. Basically, you convince people to come to your city because it's sexier than the one they live in, then you sell them a shitload of trinkets that were probably made in the visitor's hometown and exported to the destination city anyway.
Back to the idea. D-Dollars are currency items that have an enhanced value in certain locations, where they are desirable. That way, the people who yearn to visit your city (say) can bring money from their country with them. Designation of the type of drug the currency represents must be made in advance.
While they may have money with a face value of only $200 where they come from, it has a street value of $15,000 when they spend it in Metropolis City, if they decide it's heroin cash. If they decide on EkkyDollars then it may only have a street value of $2000 but will be accepted in far more locations than would HDollars. And so on.
Boggs Bills
http://artscenecal....es0999/JBoggsA.html
[DrC]'s link to JSG Boggs and his 'alternative' currency. [wagster, Feb 28 2006]
Adjusted Accounting of Drug Bust Values
Adjusted_20Accounti...0Drug-Bust_20Values
A previous HB conversation regarding 'street value'. [DrBob, Feb 28 2006]
[link]
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//"These dollars each have a street value of $80 in New York"//
So, sorta like Canadian dollars? |
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I guess so. Except that CAN$ are worth slightly less than USD, aren't they? |
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What I'm getting at is that these notes have a sliding scale of value, based on how many places will accept them. You may nominate a high street value, but find that there's only one diner that will take them. |
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"Get this, Judy, After I finished cutting her hair she wanted to pay me in Benny Bucks!, yeah, that's right. Who takes Benny Bucks?"
"Well, Claire, the other day the guy at Saks wouldn't take my Dilaudid Dimes."
"What?"
"He wanted Meth Money"
"Ha HA Ha ha. Meth Money. That's almost as bad as Valium Vouchers"
"Oh here's the check. Are you payin' in Dope Dough or Quaalude Quarters?"
"I'll see if I can slip 'em some Peyote Pesos"
"Oh yeah. Me too." |
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Exam Question:
A quarter oz of hash costs £15 but an oz costs £40. You, as a Customs and & Excise officer, intercept a haul of roughly one Metric Assload of Hash. When reporting the value of the drugs seized do you:
a. Give a fair estimate of the value, taking into account economies of scale and the fact that only certain buyers can process a Metric Assload of hash and therefore have a better bargaining position than the seller; OR
b. Weigh the haul and divide into however many instances of the smallest dealable bit and multiply by the largest single recorded amount paid for such a small amount of drugs? |
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//I've never really understood how the police calculate the street value of drugs.// |
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Through personal experience, I'd bet+ |
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I don't understand this idea - I walk into a shop and loudly proclaim that my $50 is ACTUALLY worth $100? |
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The only thing I can think of is that it's one of those jokes people play on tourists. Like turning up to the local pub with your pet lobster on it's string lead, sitting down and having a pint of guinness. The bar appears unphased, while astounded Foreigners nudge and whisper to one another in hushed tones, stealing photos for the album back home. Meanwhile everyone in the pub is having a time, covertly pissing themselves laughing. |
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Wishful thinking UB, just wishful thinking. |
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B-b-b-but where’s the drugs? This doesn’t work without them. |
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Oh, we are all so cynical and jaded, aren't we? |
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An interesting thing I've heard done in small American cities is to use unofficial local currency. The example I know about is in Ithaca, NY, where (last I heard) the "hour" was theoretically supposed to represent one hour's work or about $10. The idea was to have money that could only be spent in smaller local establishments and wouldn't end up in the bank accounts of a corporate chain. To bake this idea in this way, I guess you could determine a favorable exchange rate, so tourists could get a lot of the local currency for $1, but somehow fix prices so merchants would still give you a lot for one unit. Then the merchants could spend the local currency for the same going value, so they would technically still have gotten a fair price as long as the money wasn't converted back. |
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The less things change the more they stay the same; once again pushing away the wrong notion that the best things in life are ... unlike yourself. |
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Think of the arbitrage possibilities. Buy heroin dollar futures with current meth dollars, expecting something will happen to the poppy crop in afganistan. |
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Or petrodollars, betting something will happen to the oil fields in Iraq. Errr... wait... |
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[calum]
(1) Yes. It's the same logic as when a few dozen 10cm seedlings are described as having a 'potential street value' of hundreds of thousands of dollars.
(2) Assload - I thought they were called mules. |
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//petrodollars// Has anyone worked out whether it would be better to stop trying to get rich by burning oil and just sit on it (figuratively) and wait for the price to go up? |
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//I thought they were called mules//
Indeed. The drugs mule often has to, eh, evacuate his ass to deliver the product. |
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If I worked hard as a rent boy, say I made £300 a night and worked for twenty years, I would have a 'street value' of about £2million. |
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//If I worked hard as a rent boy// Fnaaar. |
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I experienced something in a similar vein when I went to India a few years ago.
I was approached by a gentleman in the street who wanted to buy some Rupees from me. I thought that this was rather a strange request as the exchange normally operates the other way round.
Nevertheless, assured that he was a legitimate businessman, I said I might be agreeable to the transaction at which point he produced a pocketful of £1 coins which he had 'collected' in various ways and which, it turned out, were absolutely useless to him (it's Dollar or Sterling banknotes or nothing apparently). So I managed to unload a few non-exchangeable (at the time) rupees at a rather attractive exchange rate.
Of course, I had to spend the rest of the day with pocketsful of change and my trousers dragging down past my knees but what enterprising businessman doesn't have to make sacrifices? |
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I love these money changers in Asia. I met one who literally had the money on the inside of his coat. Slightly better exchange rate than the banks etc, and much more convenient. Also worth it just for the theatre. |
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