A sample of 10 men, incarcerated for trafficking drugs, was selected from a medium-security prison; the sample, consisting of eight white and two black inmates, averaged 38 years of age. Three forms of data collection were used in the study: participants' official records, loosely structured personal interviews with each participant, and field notes. The interviews focused on research questions pertinent to this study and those aspects of the drug trade defined as important by earlier researchers and the participants. The major findings show that nearly all participants were low-level dealers; they became drug dealers primarily to have access to drugs to which they were addicted; subjects reported they "drifted" into dealing and neither made conscious decisions to become drug dealers nor had images of themselves as dealers; although they were low-level drug dealers, the majority of the subjects received long prison sentences. The subjects neither made large sums of money nor sold large sums of drugs. Although they specialized in dealing, they chose not to commit themselves to a career and upward mobility in the drug trade. They had little opportunity for advancement, because they had little contact with upper-level dealers. 6 notes and 45 references