Bankruptcy Filings Soar As Street Dealers Cope With Marijuana Legalization Laws
Â Twenty-one states and the District of Columbia have legislation regarding marijuana legalization in active committee. What may be a boon for increased state tax revenueÂ and for sellers of home gardening supplies, is apparently tipping the scales in the other direction for local independent street dealers, many of whomÂ are feeling the pinch.âAll of our new bankruptcy clients now are walking in off the street, wanting to file,â says Lance Powell, financial advisor and bankruptcy attorney.Â  âWhen we ask what they did for a living, more and more say âI was a dealerâ or âI sold weed on the corner.âÂ  Itâs crazy.Â  Itâs good for my business, but it means itâs bad for somebody elseâs,â he added.âUsed to be I could just stick my big toe out the window, and customers came âround,â said struggling dealer known locally as âFreeman the Treeman.âÂ  Now, I canât get arrested!Â  Itâs a damn shame,â he said.Local bottle and can collector Lee Fan, known for her shopping carts towering with impossibly balanced plastic bags filled with returnableÂ water bottles, soda and beer cans, is also suffering.Â  âEverybody picks up bottles now, not good for me, not good for my income.Â  Dealers canât sell street marijuana so much, so now they pick up bottles.Â  Free money.Â  Streets are much cleaner, but now I take a big loss,â she said, guiding her now half-empty carriages in a sad trail down the street.Effects are also felt below city sidewalks and penetrate far down into local subway systems. Â Rider Mabel Watson, standingÂ besideÂ her Lower Manhattan Seventh Avenue subway entrance, had this to say:Â  âWith all these laws getting more and more relaxed, street people have to change jobs.Â  Me, I got glaucoma in my eye, but now I got a voucher to go to the drugstore to get mine instead of all this street mess.ââSo,â continued Watson, âI see my local man, âPuffPuffâ down in the train the other day sellinâ candy like the kids do to raise money.Â  Probably the first real job he ever had, but anyway he comes up to me and says, âwhere you been Mabel?â and I tell him I donât need him no more.Â  He gets all in my face, tells me âBuy some of my candy then!Â  Itâs only a dollar, bitch!Â  I mean, maâam,â â like thatâs gonna make it all right! Â I bought 2 peanut M&Ms and some DOTS just to get that fool out my face!ââItâs incredible how many things are affected,â said Powell, as he processed another bankruptcy claim for a new client, nicknamed Mr. Kush.Â  See that guy leaving right now?Â  He used to own this neighborhood. Â Cars, fancy clothes, everything.Â  Now he comes in here almost broke. Never thought Iâd see the day when all this would change so fast. Iâm swamped,â said Powell, eyes bloodshot and glassy. âItâs from all this extra work and no sleep, honest,âÂ he added, as he returnedÂ to a growing stack of new claim forms.