With a staff of 50, daily profits running into thousands of dollars and bodyguards and pretty girls to protect and pamper him Bob felt in control.

A thousand customers a day flocked to buy his marijuana, heroin and cocaine while he kept the Police at bay.

But while the law never nailed him the drugs eventually did.

After pedalling deadly narcotics through the heroin AIDS epidemic of the 1980s as one of the Island's biggest drug dealers, a repentant Bob got religion and went straight.

Ironically he then fell prey to the same drug himself as he struggled to cope with depression in the 1990s.

Now he is straight again and keen to blow the myths behind the "bling, bling" lifestyle of the major drug dealer which masked a wealth of personal insecurities. He started out in 1979 selling marijuana because he couldn't find work due to poor reading skills which meant he couldn't even fill out an application.

Things were simpler on the streets.

"I wasn't bringing the drugs in. I was a small time pusherman."

Even so the profits were high. Knocking out $5 bags he raked in $500 a day. By turning most of the profits back the business grew as Bob (not his real name) got drugs smuggled on the plane from Jamaica.

People came from all ends of the Island to buy his wares.

The Police also came, although not quite so regularly, and they left empty-handed as spotters earning $100 a day had already tipped Bob off.

But there was pressure ? people wanting to rob him of profits which ran from $5,000 to $20,000 a day.

"If you are controlling five sites you are just rolling in money, turning money."

People would front for him so he could bank his cash in mainstream financial institutions and even earn interest.

He learned valuable business skills the street way ? finding out who could handle sales and be trusted with selling bigger quantities.

Women were a vital cog in the machinery. "They can move drugs, change money, run messages, then you can turn them out ? prostitute them. You do whatever you want, you are in control."

Control is a word Bob uses a lot when discussing the old days.

"When you are a drug dealer you feel superior when you get clientele coming to you for your product you feel you are in control. You are making money, you have no respect for the people who buy it.

"If you didn't pay I would beat you up, take collateral, a Rolex, rings, chains.

"People do nothing, you are in power, you have bodyguards, 50 people working for you. You are the man, you are the guy."

But he was always careful. Careful not to be too flash or get the fancy car which would have people asking questions about why a jobless man could afford it. Instead his partying was done on lavish trips.

At home he was the model of vigilance, paying as much attention to the Police as they paid to him.

"You know they bust every Friday, you check their routine, they always bust early in the morning.

"If they have a scanner, you get a scanner to scan their scanner. You are watching them the same way they watch you."

But he got tired of a life which he found degrading.

"The drug life might seem glamorous but it is not."

Although Bob had every material thing ? cars, houses, fine shirts ? he knew something was missing.

"It is not a life when you cannot spell 'car' or 'house' or 'shirt'."

He moved out of drugs, tried to give his life to the Lord but in the 1990s out of work and suffering from depression he turned to heroin.

The result was a debilitating and painful addiction which lasted eight years. Bob's lingering popularity on the streets meant he got drugs free ? which only served to compound the addiction.

"A lot of people were surprised I got caught up in it, I had been more of a closet smoker, not out in the open but that made it worse."

He couldn't function without the drug and swindled for a fix.

Bob eventually pulled through. Clean for the last ten years, he now has to deal with feelings of powerlessness and face up to his illiteracy problem.

"Its like being a baby again, learning how to survive without substances."

Now he struggles with his conscience knowing people have died from addictions he made money fuelling.

"I have seen guys being chopped up for owing $20 and guys getting beaten up. I saw pretty young girls from good homes being turned out and prostituting themselves for $50.

"I come from a good family, a good upbringing but I got caught up in the hype and the money.

Bob helps out at drug counsellors Focus who he credits with helping him beat his addiction.

It puts him in a good position to know what is going on in the streets.

"Right now it's more powerful than ever. More people are hooked on heroin, more people are using rocks.

"There's ecstasy ? a lot of types of drugs flowing through the island right now."

While "Tommy," the other big drug dealer spoke to has called for drug laws to be liberalised, Bob says they should be properly enforced.

The current approach was nothing more than propaganda argued Bob who has seen Jamaicans move into the drug scene to compete with local pushers.

Asked what should be done he said: "Shut down every corner, shut down all the drug dealers on the island.

"But it isn't happening, they do it outside. They bring a chair and sit on corners. They have phones ? all they need is a desk.

"Isn't there a law against loitering?"

@EDITRULE:

Next: Recovered addict Randy Leverock on his drugs hell.