Beware: Your child could be a drug dealer

Mike is the model student. At face value, he is easy going and detached, enough to inspire interest in him.

He attends all lectures and follows up to ask questions. Doubtless, he will achieve first class honours. His mother has his photo as her profile photo and talks about how great a child he is to everyone who cares to grant her audience. “Be like Mike”parents tell their children. 

On Sundays, he screams himself hoarse in the university chapel as the choir master. What most do not know is that the offertory he so gleefully takes to the altar is dirty money, drug money.

He is a drug plug on campus and every drug user and their grandmother has his number on speed dial. He delivers and is careful enough to not get high on his own product.

His ways are simple. He works with a burner phone. All you have to do is text him, expressly stating your request using code language. Upon confirmation of your request, a meeting is arranged and your product delivered. 

This is how he manages to stay afloat, buy those phones that cost more than his tuition and spoil his girlfriend from the beginning to the end of the semester when most people are so broke that they would sell their souls for a plate of noodles.

Mike is not the only one running drugs. Your child, friend, sibling, boyfriend or girlfriend could be running an entire drug empire without your knowledge.

Universities and colleges beat chests about their gates and entry policies that are stricter than some embassies. The fact is that most perimetres are porous and have more entry points than a sack. 

Campuses are havens for drug lords. There is also the search for the ultimate high, the relatively constant flow of cash, the urge to keep up with trends, peer pressure and the general air of permissiveness.

Over the holidays, these small time Escobars search for the latest products on the market. These will then be brought into school, with ease and slowly distributed.

There is always the danger of being caught. When this happens, it’s easier to get out of it than you would imagine. All one has to do is bribe the security guard and all is forgiven and forgotten, until the next time one is caught and has to cough up another Sh400.

Every society has to be complete with the drunkards, hallelujah drum-beating parishioners and your favourite person who happens to be the drug lord. Next time they make it rain, ask them how they made that money.