In drug sane states it's true.
Here in Penn State, I knew several students sentenced to months for selling around 3 grams of weed. Many brilliant Engineering students that didn't realize how much sh** they could get into.
Over here, you must either do time for selling or rat somebody out.
An old buddy of mine was set-up by a "girlfriend" in this town. He sold her some of his Rx painkillers and she was an informant. The guy was highly regarded in the Business school and already had a job lined up for 200k after graduation.
He never sold anything before but the mandatory minimum was something like a year.
The whole thing ruined his life and he killed himself last year. A victim of the drug war that turns friends into "informants".
What ever happened to "Honor Among Thieves?"