Daniel is 23 year old. Wearing a smart suit and shiny shoes, he has just finished a day at work. His mobile rings. He answers: “One hundred and eighty? One fifty mate that’s my final price.” Hanging up abruptly, he turns to me and apologises, turning his phone off. We are sat in an understated house in Sheffield. Daniel has already offered me a brew, as I sip it, I enquire to the deal:

“He wants to charge me one eighty for Mandy, he’s having a laugh.” Mandy is a form of ecstasy known as MDMA, Daniel is a drug dealer.

“If someone over dosed off my product, I would feel responsible even though I didn’t make them do it.”

At just 16 Daniel stopped following his dream of becoming a footballer, and fell into a world of alcohol and drugs.

It would be easy to assume that as Daniel got kicked out of home and became a more regular user of narcotics and alcohol that his world would spiral out of control. But even as a teenager Daniel proved himself to be an innovative entrepreneur, turning his habit in to a business when times became hard.

“What started off as going down to the pub with my mates, taking a few pills on a Friday, turned into buying 50 pills and selling them at a profit.”

Selling ecstasy was just the start. Daniel was soon being pushed into selling cocaine.

“The guy didn’t really give me a choice. He gave it to me for free, and I whispered into the right ears at the pub and before I knew it, it was gone. I’d made £80 and then I was buying two and a quarter ounces, putting  the quarter ounce (seven grams) aside for myself and was making £1200 profit a week.”

This carried on for about a year before Daniel down scaled his dealing, realizing the high risks involved in his activity.

In the UK you can receive a maximum of seven years for possession of cocaine, and if you are found guilty of intent to supply, you could face life imprisonment.

Daniel insists he has only one close call with the law, and although the legal consequences of what he is doing are always at the back of his mind, he has had other experiences that have also put him off being as heavily involved in the future:

“I’ve been beaten up a fair few times, stabbed, robbed; I’m paranoid, looking out of my window as soon as I hear any suspicious noise, always having to watch my back.”

When you think of the description “drug dealer”, you conjure up your own image. Whether this be some unemployed skin head from up North, or Denzel Washington’s portrayal of a wealthy drug Barron in American Gangster, their story never seems to go smoothly.

Just a glance at the website of the most infamous drugs help charity FRANK, you can see it is riddled with stories from people whose lives have been consumed from addiction to cocaine.

Sam who is 25, and her husband who is 26, both use cocaine on a regular basis. She writes:

“This addiction is ruining my life, not financially, because as it happens we both have good jobs and can afford it, but mentally.”

I asked Daniel if he feels any responsibility to those who buy drugs off him, “If I knew someone was in a delicate situation, calling me at 9am, sweating and shaking, then I would tell them to go home.”

“If someone over dosed off my product, I would feel responsible even though I didn’t make them do it.”

So apart from his the £50,000 a year; cash, and nice watches, are the risks that Daniel takes everyday worth it?

“Your lifestyle stops you from spending the money on relevant things. I don’t have much to show for it, some nice clothes but that’s about it. Bit of a waste really.”

If you have a problem with drugs or alcohol and want help, there are many website available online for confidential help and advice.

No real names have been used in this piece.

DRUG FACTS

• An estimated 2 million people in the UK have drug addictions
• The most used drug is cannabis
• An estimated 74 million people aged between 15-64 has used cannabis at least once
• The 2007/08 British Crime survey estimates that 2.39 million 15-59 year old have used ecstasy in the last year
• In 2009 two people died from taking an ecstasy type drug, six dies from taking it with another drug