Thread: What do they call the kids who handle the drugs and money for dealers?

The dealers employ kids to stand on the corners, handling the money and drugs so they themselves don't get implicated. There is a term, but I can't recall it.

I thought it might be mule, but that's more of someone who carries over longer distances.

Handlers?

Maybe, but I thought there was street slang for them.

if you'd only asked this yesterday. I work in jail but i'm off till monday. There are literally thousands of dealers being housed on Riker's Island I could ask this question to.

They're called 'peddlers'. As in they peddle the drug to prospective clients.

Pushers

I am pretty sure they are called 'peddlers'.

Yes, your cat is cute. I guess peddlers is it, though I'll either work with it or around it.

pushers

I thought they were called pushers too.

Pushers are the main dealer and the one that introduces kids/people to their first experience. Gang dealers and other smart dealers who sell off the street often work through juveniles because juvenile offenses tend to be less harsh and their juvenile criminal record is sealed or at least not admissible when they turn 18 (at least what I've been told). Also, as long as the arrested juvenile doesn't roll over on them, they are safe.

I used to watch a lot of exposition type news shows.

The pusher works above street level. The street dealers work for him. The kids you are talking about aren't selling, just holding. They turn into dealers when they learn the trade and start selling. In some countries they may be called molestados or abusós when they do double duty as street prostitutes, or sometimes when they don't but it's assumed they do. The term prostituto is generally reserved for those who are only prostitutes. Those associated with drug dealers may work one way daytime, holding drugs and money, the other way at night, usually targeting North American, European, or Japanese tourists. Their earnings go to the dealer they are associatd with, who gives them a percentage of the money and a small piece of candy. Failure to report earnings can result in termination of the relationship with prejudice.

Edit - I may have written some of those shows, especially if they were about Asia or Central America. You are right that the pusher is often the one who introduces a new user to the product, usually a freebie, but then steps out of the picture.

I guess things have changed in the quarter century or so since I was a youth worker and crisis counsellor; that, or words have different meanings in different countries or jurisdictions.

All pushers were dealers; not all dealers were pushers.
A pusher was the lowest level dealer in the drug hierarchy; also called the street seller, street dealer, or candyman; often the trade was used to support a habit.
A young (teenage or high school) pusher was sometimes called a juggler.
Anyone below the pusher was simply a runner (delivery boy), a tout (introducer), or a steerer (mostly coke and H).

That was the generic trade; some terms for street sellers were drug-specific.

Everyone has offered a different set of definitions, so every time and every venue must have its own street language for the drug trade. That shouldn't be surprising, since every time and every venue has its own street language for everything else.

remember the song "God damn the pusher man". According to that the dealer was a man with a bunch of grass in his hand, but the pusher had sold his soul.

Anyway, I would call those kids "Runners".