A drug dealer is someone who sells drugs illegally. Drug dealers can range from individual drug users buying a little extra of their drug to save money or to help pay for their habit, to groups working within highly organized money-making operations that run like any other business.
Traditionally, drug dealers are seen as a key part of the problem of addiction in our communities, and stereotypically, there is a lot of overlap with "pushing" controlled drugs such as marijuana, heroin, meth and cocoaine. Although this is the case with some drug dealers, in reality, there is a lot of variability among drug dealers, the types of drugs they sell, the reasons they sell, and who they sell drugs to. For example, there is currently an underground market for prescription pain medications for people who have chronic pain and are addicted to painkillers. When their pain medication use escalates, they are often labelled as "drug seeking," and their physician or insurance company may cut off their supply to the medications they need to control their pain, so they may turn to a drug dealer to purchase these drugs.
