Well...
a) the story is 100% true, no exaggeration. If you choose not to believe it, that's your lookout, I just happen to know the guy well enough to know it is definitely true.
b) It may not be a matter of strict necessity for EVERY coke dealer to possess a shooter, but trust me that for this guy to have continued doing what he was doing on the scale he was doing it, he had to choose either to get one or get out. He's been doing it for a long time and is getting on, and decided he didn't need the aggro. Plus he was by that point too well known to risk continuing without some personal protection, and it was certainly fucking his health.
c) It's true that it isn't hard for a dealer on this scale to get hold of a couple of grand cash; but this would entail being in debt to someone else for most of that money. Making a couple of grand profit, however, especially in a short period of time cos you're in fear of your kneecaps, is NOT easy - it takes a hell of a lot of running around. If it was that easy, everyone would be doing it.
d) In point of fact the guy who the story is about happens to be one of the nicest people I know, he just happens to have taken more drugs than Keith Richards and William Burroughs put together. He has suffered - in terms of both stress and his health, not to mention some of the situations he has found himself in - for his life decisions, but he's an unusually nice geezer and very fair. That said, of course crack is effin nasty shit, but the coke and crack scenes round these parts have defo got a lot nastier in the last ten years anyway.
(rampants, Fri 14 May 2010, 14:20, 1 reply)

you forgot one...
e) it is bullshit and you're either very gullible or a liar yourself.
( CaptainCrackerjack live trout, slow motion, Mon 17 May 2010, 12:30, closed)