This article presents a thematic analysis of the process of becoming a dealer of illicit drugs in a University community during the period between the mid sixties and early seventies. After separating the themes which defined the experience—prestige, paranoia and profit—attention turns to how these themes interwove to produce the stages involved in becoming a “dealer.” In the final section interest turns to some ways this process of becoming deviant parallels other instances of within-and-between-system social mobility.
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