Rock rentals: Study says addicts loaning cars for crack
It ain't Avis or Hertz, but apparently in some circles you can rent a car for as little as a couple of rocks of crack. Of course, that amount may only get you a couple of hours in your borrowed car, but with no credit checks it seems like less of a hassle than mainstream car renting.This newly-emerging trend of alternative car rentals is discussed in a study by The University of Alabama that was published last Friday in the British Journal of Criminology. The UA researchers learned of rock rentals during interviews with Louisiana prison inmates, then confirmed it by talking to several non-imprisoned drug users.
One person interviewed as part of the study said, "That's how we used to ride when we were young. To have a rock rental was like having a brand new car in the neighborhood."
As you might expect, rock rentals don't always get returned on time... or at all. And that's when the real trouble starts. In a story about the study in The Birmingham News, Jefferson County, Ala. sheriff's spokesman Sgt. Randy Christian said rock rentals gone bad are sometimes reported as stolen, which cost his department time and money. One Louisiana town had 792 reported auto thefts in one year, 400 of which turned out to be rock rentals.
You can read an abstract of the study here, but it'll cost you to read the whole thing, and we doubt they'll take anything other than cash.
[Source: The Birmingham News]
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Brett- BMW Advocate 7:32PM (10/22/2007)
hmm, how many pounds of weed in exchange of a new Ford Focus? haha
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Menice 8:49AM (10/23/2007)
pounds?? i can get you an 1/8th....
but they'll want the zip lock bag back if its not the GT.
paul34 7:35PM (10/22/2007)
Sad how desperate addictive and destructive substances can make people, and what it can do to them. And we've advanced as a society?
I oftentimes wonder if we've just exchanged one dark side of society for another.
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Corey L 7:37PM (10/22/2007)
Cocaine's a helluva drug... someone was gonna say it somewhere on this thread.
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J M C 3 8:48PM (10/22/2007)
Thank You counter culture.Millions dead.Society in a shambles
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MidnightPlatinum 9:12PM (10/22/2007)
Cocaine's a helluva drug. Someone was gonna say it a second time in this thread.
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gsolman6 10:22PM (10/22/2007)
"Thank You counter culture.Millions dead.Society in a shambles"
Drugs started way before the counterculture. Look at the cocaine epidemic of the 1890's or SearRoebuck catalogs selling heroin shoot up kits at the turn of the century. And don't get me started on how the "morally superior" elements of society got alcohol banned only to have it backfire on them in the form of bootlegging and the growth of the mafia. And then there is prescription drugs which cause 100,000 deaths per year.
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J M C 3 11:29PM (10/22/2007)
The counterculture marketed it.In music ,culture ,festivals(woodstock),movies,activism...the list goes on."They'll be fighting in the street with our children at our feet and the morals that they worshipped will be gone" The Who.Yep death.People like Gerry Springer are happy though.
gsolman6 11:38PM (10/22/2007)
That wasn't exactly a rebuttal. Still at least the
counterculture
people weren't hypocrites like Hill Billy Heroin, aka oxycontin, addict Rush Limbaugh
who once said that drug users should be sent "down the river."
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BREW730... 11:52PM (10/22/2007)
This "trend" is nothing new. Addicts have been doing this since crack infested the country. They actually spent money on this "study"? What a waste of time and resources. These brainiacs are 20 years too late with their findings...
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scotbrown09 5:27AM (5/07/2009)
This is a wonderful opinion. The things mentioned are unanimous and needs to be appreciated by everyone.
Car Rentals
XJ 8:49AM (10/23/2007)
Nothing new here. My cousin "rented out" his car for some dope. But the drug dealer never returned his car back. So one night he confronted the dealer to get his car back. The result? Well, he got his car back, but not without two bullet holes on the driver side door.
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Galley 9:03AM (10/23/2007)
I've got four bottles of Yuengling Light in my fridge. How many rental minutes will that get me?
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ugg.tryptophan 5:35PM (10/23/2007)
Sweet, now I have a use for all my extra crack!
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