I had saved a hundred dollars for the final weekend of

September

. The plan was to buy a 

quarter ounce

for around 70 and then a 

30 pack

for a little over 20. The little extra left over was just a buffer. Some 

liquor stores

charged you more for 

beer

, and sometimes dealers got swamped and couldn't give you a deal.

Why were dealers so keen on giving 

discounts

I wondered. I had never felt entitled to them until the dealers themselves offered them proactively. My friend told me the reason was that dealers were always looking to buy more. Because the more they bought, the more of a discount they reaped. Also, because their dealers were also looking to buy more at a time.

It all felt like one giant

pyramid scheme

, and I hated those, usually. It reminded me of those students who got conned into selling knives or textbooks over the summer, or those people who tried to get you to pay them to be able to sell supplements for them.

However, in the context of

weed

it fascinated me, this web of self interested individuals all trying to get more of the herb into more people as quickly as possible. It felt more like... there was a word they used back when I was in

middle school

... what was it? Ah yes.

trade

. It felt more like trade. The weed trading.

"What's the difference between a pyramid scheme and an actual business," I asked Christian.

"A pyramid scheme doesn't sell the customers any product. The customer is the product." Christian said before nodding his head proud at his reply while staring at the slow burning blunt between his fingers.

"So selling weed. That's a business. Because people want to smoke the weed?"

"Precisely. If you ever go to a pyramid scheme, you'll find a bunch of people who don't actually care for or want the 'product'."

Christian wasn't a real dealer per se. More a daily stoner who ended up providing fellow smoker friends some favors. One of them would hit him up asking if he could get them an

eighth

and he wouldn't say no. Christian would instead buy an extra eighth ontop of his usual order and then sell it to his friend. Over time, people kept asking him, soon people he didn't even know personally, because he became known as the guy with the hookups.

But honestly anyone could get a hook up in

college

. Well anyone who wasn't a dweeb. It was true that you couldn't rub the dealers the wrong way, but the bar was pretty low. What really made someone deal like Christian had more to do with risk. Their tolerance for risk was much higher. Or, maybe they didn't give a shit?