San Franciscan drug dealers are making serious money selling sugar in the form of sweets to the city’s residents in the open-air drug markets, The San Francisco Standard reported Sunday.
Vendors stuff bags full of sweets and sugary foods, often making $40-50 per hour on average by just selling sugary sweets and selling out of candy and chocolate in minutes, the outlet noted. Some vendors confessed that they used food stamps to purchase the sweets, while others admitted that they stole the candy, The San Francisco Standard reported. (RELATED: CBP Doctor Attempted To Get Fentanyl-Laced Lollipops For Helicopter Trip: Whistleblowers)
There’s a drug that’s selling faster than fentanyl in San Francisco: sugar. Duffel bags full of sweet treats are selling out in minutes at the city’s open-air drug markets. https://t.co/hyEKtXCT5n
— The San Francisco Standard (@sfstandard) February 20, 2024
Reporters for the outlet witnessed $50 worth of candy being sold on the drug market in less than 10 minutes.
“Some of this shit might get you higher than dope,” Jay Dog, the pseudonym of a seller of Kit Kats and alleged gang member, told the outlet. “The dope is garbage.”
“Even if we’re not doing drugs anymore, we’re still addicts,” a man named Bill told the outlet. “Drugs are just one of our vices.”
These drug markets are often targeted by the San Francisco police, the outlet noted. Police have arrested over 2,300 in a crackdown against street vending violations and illicit activity at the drug markets, the outlet reported.
The distance between sweets and drugs may not be as wide as some think. Some researchers have found a connection between sugar and drugs like opium in activating similar brain functions. One study found that there is an entire body of literature that supports “the connection between opiate use and development of preference for sweet tastes.” Another study found that there were situations where sugar addiction could develop.