The Cocaine Kids: The Inside Story Of A Teenage Drug RingSince 1982, sociologist Terry Williams has spent days, weeks, and months “hanging out” with a teenage cocaine ring in cocaine bars, after-hours clubs, on street corners, in crack houses and in their homes. The picture he creates in The Cocaine Kids is the story behind the headlines. The lives of these young dealers in the fast lane of the underground economy emerge in depth and color on the pages of this book. |
What people are saying - Write a review
The cocaine kids: the inside story of a teenage drug ring
User Review - Not Available - Book VerdictFrom 1982 to 1986, sociologist Williams followed the activities of a teenage cocaine ring in New York's Spanish Harlem. He tells their story in their own street language (and conveniently provides a ... Read full review
User Review - Flag as inappropriate
Great read.
Other editions - View all
The Cocaine Kids: The Inside Story Of A Teenage Drug Ring Terry Tempest Williams Limited preview - 1990 |
The Cocaine Kids: The Inside Story Of A Teenage Drug Ring Terry Tempest Williams Limited preview - 1990 |
Common terms and phrases
after-hours ain't amount apartment asked baby base brother buyers called cash Charlie Chillie City club cocaine coke comes crack crazy crew customers dealers dealing dollars Dominican don't door drug everything father feel five friends fuck gave getting girls give gonna grams hand Hector it's Jake keep kids Kitty knew later leave lives look Masterrap Max's mean minutes mother move never night once package party person play police problem regular rock says selling shit short smoke snort sometimes spend Splib stay stop story street stuff suppliers talk teenagers tell thing told took trade trying waiting wanted week woman women York young
Popular passages
Page 10 - Money and drugs are the obvious immediate rewards for kids in the cocaine trade. But there is another strong motivating force, and that is the desire to show family and friends that they can succeed at something.
Page 1 - The apartment is crowded with teenagers, all wearing halflaced sneakers and necklace ropes of gold. Doorbells ring every few minutes, white powder dusts the table tops; jaggededge matchbook covers and dollar bills seem to flow from hand to hand. The talk is frenetic, filled with masterful plans and false promises. Everybody has a girl. Everybody has cocaine. Everybody has a...
Page 20 - Coke is Just a way for me to make some money and do some things I would otherwise not have the chance of doing in the real world. Coke ain't real. All this stuff and the things we do ain't real
Page x - Their work has been essential to the growth of a major industry; they have helped establish an organizational structure that sustains a regular market and outwits law enforcement authorities. These teenagers have also found a way to make money in a society that offers them few constructive alternatives. In many ways, these kids and others like them simply want respect: they are willing to risk their lives to attain those prized adult rewards of power, prestige and wealth.
Page x - Every teen aspires to make good. In the cocaine hustle, that means to "get behind the scale" — to deal in significant quantities; it is like landing a top sales job in a major corporation, or being named a partner, after a long apprenticeship, in a brokerage firm with a seat on the Stock Exchange. The kids who get that far have some control over prices and selling techniques, direct the work of subordinates, and, above all else, make large amounts of money.
Page 8 - Those who recruit teenagers are following a tradition that dates back almost twenty years, and was the direct effect of the harsh "Rockefeller laws" mandating a prison term for anyone over eighteen in possession of an illegal drug. This led heroin dealers to use kids as runners, and cocaine importers have followed this pattern: young people not only avoid the law but are, for the most part, quite trustworthy; they are also relatively easy to frighten and control.
Page xi - There are many people without whom this book could not have been written. I would like to thank Albert on the door.
Bibliographic information
| Title | The Cocaine Kids: The Inside Story Of A Teenage Drug Ring |
| Author | Terry Tempest Williams |
| Edition | revised |
| Publisher | Hachette Books, 1990 |
| ISBN | 0306820862, 9780306820861 |
| Length | 160 pages |
| Subjects | › › Family & Relationships / Life Stages / Teenagers Law / Drugs & the Law Social Science / Criminology |
| Export Citation | BiBTeX EndNote RefMan |