This is all channel nine's fault.
If they hadn't broadcast a show that turned a fat nobody into a cool gangsta by selling drugs, Wicks wouldn't have set out to be Newcastles own "Fatboy" kingpin.
Did Chris want to be Benji?
All jokes aside, whether or not Houston was involved dealing or just an accomplice by association remains to be seen. I don't think the police would have taken so long to charge him if it was just a matter of not dobbing his mate in, but I'm not privy to any of the facts, so I'll reserve judgement.
If anyone thinks that drug use, especially ecstasy, isn't rife through all facets of society that involve people from their teens to their thirties, you need to wake up. A lot of corporate managers have eyes like headlamps and grins like a madman on friday and saturday nights.
I don't think money is an issue for Wicks and associates; in my opinion it is far more likely an image and power desire, to be cool, to be important, to call the shots.
Billions of dollars are made by mega corporations each year from artists selling how f**king cool it is to be an amoral, high roller gangster.
You can't honestly say that it hasn't become the apex of a large portion of youth culture to be a pimpin' gangsta, with gold chains, a gun, a posse of bad ass (american spelling intentional) homies and a string of hos. Look at how what was once the culture of f**ked up housie kids (no judgement there; I'm from housie stock) and ex cons has become a blooming culture of child, nanna and girl bashing 'lads'. Personally, I think the satanic mass murdering lyrics of death and black metal bands to be an improvement on the sh*te that gets pumped onto commercial radio by record company manufactured 'gangstas'. Not easy to get rich, popular and laid by killing virgins in the name of Nyarlothotep.
the problem is with modern pop culture, not Rugby league, not Newcastle. The individuals involved are to blame. If i was dealing smack in my spare time, where does that become my employers fault?
Please excuse all my non current gang lingo; I find the whole ideal of being a cowardly thug hiding behind a gun and gang of other gutless turds pathetic, so I'm not exactly with it.