And I absolutely refuse to believe that a guy selling drugs in Baltimore in 1999 didn ' t have a pager . The fact that he didnt have a pager is another indication that he wasnt selling drugs , alongside the facts that he was working several low paid jobs , and that his friend said that Jay was not a dealer . From the cops ' point of view , portraying Jay as a dealer helps their case . It provides an explanation for why Adnan would think Jay would help him . The cops also try to argue , of course , that Jay being a dealer helps explain why Jay agreed to help . Because the story goes Adnan blackmailed Jay by saying that he , Adnan , would tell the cops about Jay ' s weed dealing . This story is silly , imho . For one thing , Jay could just reply by saying if cops come to speak to me , I ' ll tell them you killed Hae . But , for another , if Jay was really a large scale dealer , then he ' d have access to protection . A dealer can ' t just put themselves in the situation where anyone can come along with a gun and say Give me all your product and all your cash . Likewise , a dealer can ' t be in the situation where someone can say Give me 100 dollars or else I ' m gonna tell the cops on you . If anything , the Guilter theory that Adnan bullied Jay into helping him actually requires that Jay was not someone with the tools of the drugdealing trade , and was instead someone who could be easily enticed by whatever it was Adnan induced him with , or blackmailed him with .