That capsule from the pigeon

[thekumquat]

At the end of Thuggery, Patrick realises he has the capsule of drugs, presumably pretty pure cocaine, from the pigeon they found, and hands it to Peter, in exchange for his rosary being returned to him.
"Souvenir? Fair exchange is no robbery..."

What do people think would happen to it eventually?

My feeling is Peter would persuade Patrick to sell it to someone in London, as Patrick lives there most of the time and may well go to school there later, mostly because I can't conceive of any scenario where a certain P. Marlow plus an ounce of Class A substance doesn't go horribly wrong, but open to all suggestions.

Google suggests that wholesale cocaine in the early 80s was being sold for around £200 a gram, so I suspect they would be tempted to try to sell the stuff. Or would they chuck it in the river, never to be seen again until a swan started choking on it?

Comments

[lilliburlero]

Does this innocent enquiry mean you are writing more fic? Yes please!

I think there was a bit of discussion along these lines during the 2014-15 readthrough, including one horrifying scenario in which Peter hides it in the Shippen for it to be unearthed and sampled by an inquisitive Fob.

I'm thinking getting caught with that sort of quantity of coke with intent to supply carries a possible life sentence? And could even Anthony Merrick's machinations get them out of that one? *blanches* NO LADS JUST SAY NO

But also, so delicious as a fic prompt...

[thekumquat]

It may take a while - I wrote *one* little character study in response to an ignored prompt, happened to be sharing anecdotes of teenage clubbing experiences at the same time, looked up the name of the local dealer to see whether he'd become a management consultant, artist or dead, and turns out he is related to someone quite famous and some obsessed teenagers have produced quite the Wiki on him. And that much of what he gave people to believe at the time was pure bollocks.

Patrick Merrick meets someone who talks a lot of bollocks - that works...

Next thing I know I've got about 30k of novel fragments on my phone and *think* I know how to fit them together.

Don't hold your breath.

[thekumquat]

Looking it up, under 150g of cocaine is category 3 of 4 where 4 is least serious (up to 5g coke), and supply within the UK, if you aren't managing other people, 2-4 years. If making clear profit and involving others, 3-7.

If you have split it so have under 5g,then it's between a 'high level' community order and 3 years.

That's for adults. For the PM Society, a YOI is possible but unlikely, but there would be a criminal record from caution or discharge. Of course, they will, like you, probably assume life imprisonment is the standard response and act accordingly (recklessly...)

[lilliburlero]

I'm kind of relieved to know the courts don't actually wallop people as hard as I was imagining - I can never make much sense out of sentencing - but yes, I can totally see them catastrophizing (possibly in a way that involves their legendary firearms non-safety record, or the other one in the pair of Cousin Ambrose's throwing knives.)