History Main / TheAggressiveDrugDealer

* If you can count the Christian preachers of "Holy Ghost intoxication" as being drug dealers of a spiritual sort, there are those who are rather aggressive as to use intimidation tactics and peer pressure from the congregation unto the doubters and those who see from Scripture that such a thing is a spurious claim that comes from misinterpretation, usually of Acts chapter 2 and Ephesians 5:18, to support that idea.

* Jesse in ''BreakingBad'' turns into one of these when he needs to persuade a shy young girl cashier to accept payment in meth for the gas he just pumped.

* Let's face it. If the old trick of offering a special introductory rate and milking anyone who wasn't GenreSavvy enough to ReadTheFinePrint works for perfectly legal products -remember those "Book Club" outfits whose catalogues used to fall out of the Sunday papers?- then ''someone's'' going to try it with contraband.

* A common mistake for undercover cops trying to make a sale for an arrest, both from seeing this trope in the media and for the same reason the more stupid actual dealers do it - lack of an existing social network that would facilitate more discreet and less aggressive sales tactics, and confusion of aggression and pestering with salesmanship.
* The Opium Wars in the mid-19th century saw ''TheBritishEmpire'' acting as a nation of Aggressive Drug Dealers. The traders (technically smugglers) bought their wares from ships of the British East India Company, which had long looked for something other than precious metals to sell to Chinese traders in exchange for tea, china, and silk to maximise their profits (full holds all the way, you see). The answer was to get the Chinese addicted to opium, which was extracted from poppies grown relatively inexpensively in India.\\
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Various parties (Chinese police, up-and-coming young officials, angry youths, general xenophobes) took on two occasions to enforcing existing anti-drug laws set down by the crumbling Qing administration by way of legally grey action and violence in the trade ports open to foreign merchants. The British responded with vengeance and destroying the Chinese army. \\
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In the course of the Opium wars the British and their Allies won a number of then-incredible victories and managed to get the Empire of the Qing to agree to trade and formal diplomatic relations. The former entailed, among other things, the ceding of a few hundred square miles of territory dotted all over the country and the lease of Hong Kong. \\
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China was not the trading bonanza some had been so foolish as to hope, however, as the country was largely poor and rural. Sichuan-ese farmers had neither the money nor the inclination to buy a music-box manufactured in a British-owned factory (by Chinese workers and made from locally-sourced materials) in the foreign concessions at Guangzhou, for instance.
* Funnily enough, the depiction of the Taliban as evil drug dealers fits entirely with the trope - afghan opium production was ''banned'' by them in 2000, decreasing the production by 94%. Only after their fall did the trade [[IncrediblyLamePun bloom]] again, in 2006 yielding 76% of the world's supply.
* Burma. The much-sanctioned Junta's number one source of revenue is, you guessed it, drugs. Specifically, opium. They oversee its cultivation using their various armed forces, naturally.

** That and the fact that it not only draw attention quickly, but they would receive the maximum punishment, plus change and can kiss leaving prison on parole ([[EvenEvilHasStandards or alive]] depending on the prison) goodbye.
* The case of Harvard psychiatrist Joseph Biederman:
-->Biederman’s financial relationships with drug companies was discovered by the public in 2008, when the New York Times reported the following about him: “A world-renowned Harvard child psychiatrist whose work has helped fuel an explosion in the use of powerful antipsychotic medicines in children earned at least $1.6 million in consulting fees from drug makers from 2000 to 2007 but for years did not report much of this income to university officials.”

-->As part of legal proceedings, Biederman was forced to provide documents about his interactions with Johnson & Johnson, the giant pharmaceutical company; the New York Times reported Biederman pitched Johnson & Johnson that his proposed research studies on its antipsychotic drug Risperdal would turn out favorably for Johnson & Johnson—and then Biederman delivered the goods.

-->Due in great part to Biederman’s influence, the number of American children and adolescents treated for bipolar disorder increased 40-fold from 1994 to 2003. Bloomberg News reported in 2007, “The expanded use of bipolar as a pediatric diagnosis has made children the fastest-growing part of the $11.5 billion U.S. market for antipsychotic drugs,” and today this market has grown to $18 billion.

* During the pre-Prohibition era in the United States, at least one beer company advocated giving free beer samples to underage boys to establish the "taste" for alcohol. The [[DryCrusader Anti-Saloon League]] got a ''lot'' of publicity out of that one.

This isn't how it happens. No drug dealer in their right mind would attract attention to themselves this way, especially not in the middle-class environs these commercials are aimed at. Any who do will get caught very quickly, and be far less likely to actually get customers. Also, the purpose of selling drugs is to make money -- yet many of these types of films seem to imply that dealers are just [[CardCarryingVillain really evil people]] [[ForTheEvulz who like getting little kids hooked on drugs]], even if they have to give said drugs away for free. The dealer giving away free drugs or forcing it onto the victim is the equivalent of burning a bag of money.

* Spoofed, skewered, and danced on in the ''CloneHigh'' episode "Raisin the Stakes: A Rock Opera in Three Acts". The eeeevil "Pusher" causes the entire student body to get addicted to (wait for it) ...''smoking raisins''.

* Apparently, these actually do exist at the middle school level when kids are most susceptible to pressure. Sometimes with "free samples."
** Of course, it tends to not ''stay'' free forever, which might explain why it nearly isn't as common in real life as the media would make it out to be. Drug dealers don't want to "push this junk on kids" just ForTheEvulz. They're doing it to make money, and kids have very little money of their own. It's a lot more likely to occur at the high school and college level, where the pressure is very similar but disposable income is more likely.
*** That and the fact that it not only draw attention quickly, but they would receive the maximum punishment, plus change and can kiss leaving prison on parole ([[EvenEvilHasStandards or alive]] depending on the prison) goodbye.

* In ''VideoGame/{{Fallout 2}}'', Jet was specifically engineered to be extremely addictive (as well as produce a short high, so customers would need to buy more). However, the dealers aren't particularily pushy, since the client base in the three areas it can be found (New Reno, The Den and Redding) are well-established. However, if you take on the quest to solve the Jet-overdose murder of Chris Wright, his father will insist that the boy was forced to take the drug; he's vehemently anti-drugs, has made his stance clear to his whole family, and refuse to even consider the alternative of his son doing it voluntarily. It's never revealed how it played out, but since the Jet canister was intentionally poisoned to guarantee death, whoever provided it likely wouldn't have taken no for an answer.

* The [[MoneyDearBoy corruption of mental health institutions]] by Big Pharma is an excellent case study. [[http://www.counterpunch.org/2013/05/21/the-green-shadow-cabinet-and-a-mental-health-declaration-of-independence/ An example]] can be found in the case of Harvard psychiatrist Joseph Biederman:

--> Yo man, drug dealers don’t sell drugs. Drugs sell themselves. It’s crack. It’s not an encyclopedia. It’s not a fucking vacuum cleaner. You don’t really gotta try to sell crack, OK? I’ve never heard a crack dealer go, “Man, how am I going to get rid of all this crack? It’s just piled up in my house.

* Chris-R, the ruthless drug dealer from ''TheRoom'', who is willing to sneak into Johnny's apartment while he and ''three other people'' (Lisa, Mark, and Claudette) are inside, and then work his way up to the roof and force Denny at gunpoint to give him the money, but [[ClusterFBomb can't wait five minutes for it to arrive]].

-->Due in great part to Biederman’s influence, the number of American children and adolescents treated for bipolar disorder increased 40-fold from 1994 to 2003. Bloomberg News reported in 2007, “The expanded use of bipolar as a pediatric diagnosis has made children the fastest-growing part of the $11.5 billion U.S. market for antipsychotic drugs,” and today this market has grown to $18 billion.

Granted, legitimate businesses ''do'' give out free samples all the time, but the drug "samples" would have to be enough to actually get someone high, and the lady at the supermarket handing out free morsels of some new cookie isn't risking 25 years for doing so. It is theoretically possible that the Aggressive Drug Dealer would be pressing drugs on kids so that when they are addicted they will then have to get the money (whether stealing it from their parents, selling their belongings, etc.) to buy drugs. But again, this would be high risk for minimum gain. It's easier to find people already willing to buy drugs and sell to them at a low-to-moderate price to get them hooked on one particular reliable dealer. Dealers ''will'' sometimes reserve better quality drugs (read: less dilution) for newcomers, and then either cut the drugs to a lower percentage (if they've got the time and inclination) or keep the drugs which they know are of a lower purity for repeat customers who they know are already hooked and less likely to shop around (although even then there's only so far you can lower the grade before you lose customers, and only certain drugs which you can risk doing so with that will actually cost you ''less'' time, money and effort). Remember, kids, drug dealers are running businesses too[[hottip:note:and drug dealers, remember that demanding sexual favors from pennyless junkies may be fun, but it isn't putting any money in the bank]].

This villain took away the need to actually address the culture-gap between adults and children/teens. "Talking to your kids" by [[ScareEmStraight scaring them]] with this monster was a lot easier than trying to understand the social environment one's child was in, and instilling values that would stand up and that they agreed with.

Modern anti-drug [=PSAs=] have been taking a different approach in the last few years, by encouraging children to be "above the influence" in all respects toward peer pressure, not just in regard to doing drugs -- given the producers of WesternAnimation/DungeonsAndDragons' experience, this would probably [[TheComplainerIsAlwaysWrong have been rejected as "anti-social"]] by the MoralGuardians of TheEighties -- and also showing that if your friends go get high after school, you don't have to go with them, and [[SarcasmMode shockingly]], they'll just agree to see you tomorrow instead.

A subtrope of DrugsAreBad. It should be noted that people do offer each other free drugs often enough, but these people are usually drug-using friends. They're aggressive drug buyers and users, not dealers. The anti-drug commercials were trying to get kids to say no to their friends who offered them drugs in high school (or middle school), but for some bizarre reason, it was the dealers who were depicted as aggressive distributors of free drugs.

That said, this trope ''can'', in fact, be TruthInTelevision, as some of the examples below show. Go figure.

* Avoided in the ''[[WesternAnimation/{{Jen}} Jem and the Holograms]]'' episode "Alone Again", with Bobby Braddock, a sweet-talking drug dealer.

* Joule from ''VideoGame/{{Galerians}}'' in the [[NoTellMotel Babylon Hotel]]. [[UnfortunateImplications The only outright drug dealer in the game also seems to be the only black man in the game.]]

Granted, legitimate businesses ''do'' give out free samples all the time, but the drug "samples" would have to be enough to actually get someone high, and the lady at the supermarket handing out free morsels of some new cookie isn't risking 25 years for doing so. It is theoretically possible that the Aggressive Drug Dealer would be pressing drugs on kids so that when they are addicted they will then have to get the money (whether stealing it from their parents, selling their belongings, etc.) to buy drugs. But again, this would be high risk for minimum gain. It's easier to find people already willing to buy drugs and sell to them at a low-to-moderate price to get them hooked on one particular reliable dealer.

This isn't how it happens. No drug dealer in their right mind would attract attention to themselves this way, especially not in the middle-class environs these commercials are aimed at. Any who do will get caught very quickly, and be far less likely to actually get customers. Also, the purpose of selling drugs is to make money - yet many of these types of films seem to imply that dealers are just [[CardCarryingVillain really evil people]] [[ForTheEvulz who like getting little kids hooked on drugs]], even if they have to give said drugs away for free. The dealer giving away free drugs or forcing it onto the victim is the equivalent of burning a bag of money.

Modern anti-drug [=PSAs=] have been taking a different approach in the last few years, by encouraging children to be "above the influence" in all respects toward peer pressure, not just in regard to doing drugs - given the producers of WesternAnimation/DungeonsAndDragons' experience, this would probably [[TheComplainerIsAlwaysWrong have been rejected as "anti-social"]] by the MoralGuardians of TheEighties - and also showing that if your friends go get high after school, you don't have to go with them, and [[SarcasmMode shockingly]], they'll just agree to see you tomorrow instead.

A subtrope of DrugsAreBad. It should be noted that people do offer each other free drugs often enough, but these people are usually drug using friends. They're aggressive drug buyers and users, not dealers. The anti-drug commercials were trying to get kids to say no to their friends who offered them drugs in high school (or middle school), but for some bizarre reason, it was the dealers who were depicted as aggressive distributors of free drugs.

* Subverted in a few years old public service announcement. The aggressive drug dealer turns out to be a trusted adult who was role playing with the kid.

* This strange species of drug dealer turns up in the ''ComicBook/TeenTitans'' anti-drug specials (produced as part of the "Just Say No" initative).

* One bizarre example pops up in a CaptainAmerica anti-drug comic where Cap has to fight this type of drug dealer. [[spoiler: Who also happen to be a race of aliens who seek to subjugate humanity by using drug addiction to weaken humans.]]

* Frankie Lideo, the villain of ''Film/{{Moonwalker}}'''s "Smooth Criminal" segment. It's a particularly egregious example since, unlike your average Aggressive Drug Dealer who's in it to get kids hooked so as to keep a healthy flow of customers, he appeared to be in it for the sheer malicious joy of getting kids hooked on drugs.
** Well, that and the fact that if he actually manages to pull off infecting the world's children with drugs he'll be famous and make it into the history books. Famous as a ''monster'', of course, but famous nonetheless.
* This was the Evil Scheme in the movie ''Film/LiveAndLetDie'' - Mr. Big intends to flood the US with free heroin, driving the Mob out of the market, then cornering it at a highly inflated price to the multitudes of new addicts.

* Parodied in the Literature/{{Discworld}} novel, ''Discworld/FeetOfClay'', where dealers try to sell the drug 'slab' to troll-children. The troll watchman Detritus runs his own version of the 'Drugs - Just say no' posters, aimed at the ''dealers'': "Slab: Just say [=AarrghaarrghpleasennononoUGH=]". Considering the reputation of Detritus and his [[{{BFG}} converted siege-crossbow]] 'The Piece-Maker', it's probably one of the more effective methods of [[ScareEmStraight scaring 'em straight]].

* [[JustifiedTrope Justified]] in Harry Turtledove's WorldWar series, as the drug in question is [[AlienCatnip ginger]]; ginger is a) much cheaper than street narcotics; b) completely legal (until the Race tries to ban it); and c) kickstarts the Race's mating instincts causing them to spontaneously create prostitution and (sadly) rape.

* In the TaiwaneseSeries ''[[Series/BlackAndWhiteTW Black And White]]'', Gao Yi sents a subway train full of hostages hurtling down a dead-end spur while simulaneously aerosolizing a potent narcotic so everyone on board is zoned and now hooked on it.

** It should be added that, as the ''entire'' song portrays the Old Dope Peddler as if he was selling candy, not dope, it's PlayedForLaughs. Also, this song was recorded in [[OlderThanTheyThink 1960]]

* A huge MassiveMultiplayerCrossover inspirational film ''CartoonAllStarsToTheRescue'' including {{Garfield}}, the ''WesternAnimation/{{Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles|1987}}'', ''TheSmurfs'', Series/{{Alf}}, Franchise/WinnieThePooh, Slimer from ''TheRealGhostbusters'', [[WesternAnimation/LooneyTunes Bugs Bunny]], ''WesternAnimation/DuckTales,'' ''AlvinAndTheChipmunks,'' and ''MuppetBabies'' was create to combat this enemy, which included a foreword from GeorgeHWBush. It's always fun when a sitting president has to talk about a show featuring Smurfs, especially one that clearly didn't know what a Smurf was five minutes before they turned the camera on.
* Avoided in the ''JemAndTheHolograms'' episode "Alone Again", with Bobby Braddock, a sweet-talking drug dealer.
* The public service announcements for the ''GIJoe'' cartoon had aggressive criminals. Two kids home alone, revealing over the phone that they are home alone. A stranger's car drives up to the house... and drives off when noticing the Joe soldier Roadblock, a tall bald black man in a skimpy top, standing on the lawn. FridgeLogic kicked in years later.

* A random encounter on the road in ''[[TheElderScrollsVSkyrim Skyrim]]'' is an orc who will offer you some of the banned drug[[FantasticDrug Skooma]]. You have the option to buy some off him or refuse and threaten to report him and if you choose the latter, he will attack you.

* A huge MassiveMultiplayerCrossover inspirational film ''CartoonAllStarsToTheRescue'' including {{Garfield}}, the ''WesternAnimation/{{Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles|1987}}'', ''TheSmurfs'', Series/{{Alf}}, WinnieThePooh, Slimer from ''TheRealGhostbusters'', [[WesternAnimation/LooneyTunes Bugs Bunny]], ''WesternAnimation/DuckTales,'' ''AlvinAndTheChipmunks,'' and ''MuppetBabies'' was create to combat this enemy, which included a foreword from GeorgeHWBush. It's always fun when a sitting president has to talk about a show featuring Smurfs, especially one that clearly didn't know what a Smurf was five minutes before they turned the camera on.

* It's an urban myth that pimps do this to keep their prostitutes from leaving them, simply because purchasing drugs eats into their profits. However, there are plenty of prostitutes who work to support a drug habit.

* KingdomOfLoathing has A Suspicious Looking Guy, who gives you a free sample of [[GRatedDrug "Goofballs"]], which boost your stats for a while, but [[DrugsAreBad make your parents worry about you]]. If you don't keep taking them, you suffer Goofball Withdrawal, which is one of the worst (Non-) StandardStatusEffects in the game. Each time you go back for more, the price goes up. Aside from getting you addicted, and then price-gouging you, he's not particularly aggressive.