Drawing on observational Research and interviews with drug dealers, the researchers found that retail-level dealers tend to emerge from within the scene rather than coming from outside, and that they reflect and maintain the ethos and norms of the subculture. Benefits of drug dealing (both financial and interpersonal) encourage existing chemsex participants to take on the role of dealer, while challenges of maintaining the lifestyle (the physical and emotional demands of ongoing participation in drug and sex sessions) mean that their drug dealing careers are often short-lived. Schierano and Potter argue that, as in other drug-using scenes, retail level dealing is a product of the subculture - and the patterns of use and social supply within it - rather than parasitical to it.
"As with other drug-using scenes centered on electronic dance music, night clubbing and parties, the distinction between drug user and drug supplier is largely an artificial construct. Most participants are involved in social supply, at least at the level of sharing drugs, as the shared experience of drug use is central to the activities that define the subculture and to its participants´ identity as members. But high levels of drug consumption demand more than just social supply: ´real´ retail level dealers are essential, and it seems both important and inevitable that these come from within the subculture.
On the one hand, the users/customers prefer to obtain drugs from those within the scene for convenience, but also to protect themselves from the potential risks of having to contact external dealers. On the other hand, the combination of profit-making, popularity - the sense of being needed, or even being loved - and related opportunities for sexual encounters make escaling from social supplier to dealer attractive. However, the status of drug dealer is far from problem-free, and the stresses accompanying the role led most of our participants to deal for only a limited period of time. But the dynamics of the scene as a whole seem to ensure that there is always someone else ready to take their turn ..."
