Page 67 - The Jazzsipper Novel

66

THE JAZZ SIPPER

with a thousand of cats, like Peaty who had a heroin addiction and needed to
be served. Vance figured if he and Babu had fifty clients and a connection to
kilos of heroin they could make $10,000 a day and $300,000 in a 30-day
period. Then, Peaty smiled with his gold teeth leading the way and said now
let me tell you the down side. He even broke down the intense and painful
withdrawal symptoms. Because most people who started out selling, would
eventually begin using it. Peaty said about eight to twelve hours after the last
heroin use, an addict's eyes begin to water; they begin sneezing and feeling
weak. They become depress. They begin experiencing extreme muscle
cramps and spasms, they legs become wobbly unable to stand up, then they
break out in chills and in goose bumps all over the body, they have other
symptoms included nausea, vomiting and intense diarrhea. The withdrawal
symptoms become worse and worse over two to three days. Within a week to
10 days it is over, the problem he said is that an addict who is going through
withdrawals will do anything to get their fix, rather than go through the
withdrawals; he said that he knew of it first-hand. It felt like someone was
sticking needles in his bones, no one in this game can be trusted Peaty said,
no one, not even me.

In New Orleans heroin is sold on the streets of New Orleans in ‘bags’
or ‘papers.’ Mixtures are wrapped in small foil packages, which are placed in
plastic sandwich bags for multiple sales. Bags or papers are sold for $20–$25
each at the retail level, but it is possible to buy a bundle (25 bags) for about
$300. Prices ranged from $16,000 to $30,000 per kilogram, $450 to $850 per
ounce, and around $60 per gram. Security was an important aspect of the
retail street heroin trade. Heroin dealers wanted their customers to return and
therefore they protect their customers with vengeance and brute and deadly