n a city where you can get just about anything delivered to your door _ groceries, laundry, Chinese food _ a pot smoker named Chris finds comfort in knowing that a quality buzz is just a phone call away.
His call to a pager prompts a return call from a cheery dispatcher who takes his order for potent strains of marijuana.
Within a couple hours, a well-groomed delivery man _ sometimes a moonlighting actor or chef _ arrives at the doorstep of his Manhattan apartment carrying weed neatly packaged in small plastic containers.
"These are very nice, discreet people,'' said the 37-year-old Chris, one of the home delivery marijuana customers who spoke to The Associated Press on condition only their first names be used. "There's an unspoken trust. It's better than going to some street corner and getting ripped off or killed.''
He is among a growing legion of otherwise law-abiding professionals in New York and elsewhere who rely on door-to-door delivery to meet their marijuana needs. Though the phenomenon isn't new, home pot delivery become more prevalent thanks to a shrewder brand of dealing that has transformed the operations into corporate-style businesses.
"It's certainly been the trend in the past 10 years in urban areas that are becoming gentrified,'' said Ric Curtis, an anthropology professor at John Jay College of Criminal Justice who specializes in the drug culture.
As pot smokers have become more genteel, so have the dealers, adopting distribution methods designed to put their customers at ease and avoid the messy turf wars associated with other drugs.
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