STREET SALE OF HEROIN - A PROFITABLE WAY OF MAKING A LIVING

The aim of the study was to give an outline of the financial environment of heroin-sale at street level in Norway and the possibilities of making retail sale of heroin a living. Data were gathered through police records and interviews with informants at street level. Retail sale price has been nominally stable at 300 Nkr (28 Pound, i.e., 1 Pound = 11 Nkr) per end-user dose since 1978. This price is coupled to the price of one standard service by street prostitutes. Both the end-users and retailers formally make their living from social welfare payments. The retailer purchases from a wholesaler batches of up to 10 g of heroin at a cost of 50 000 Nkr (4800 Pound). At monthly intervals of delivery this yields 120 000 Nkr (11 500 Pound) as net tax-free income per year, on top of the social welfare payments, even when the retailer and his accomplice consumes a third of the purchased quantity. Crime of gain on the part of the retailer is negligible, due to increased risk of also disclosing his drug trafficking.