the economics of drug dealing are like a pyramid scheme, you get paid significantly below average wage as a dealer (what i assume the road man term is here). 

ive read articles where the average hourly wage was as low as ~ 1$ (where the minimum wage was about 10-15$). 

so then why do people still choose this? 

pay increases substantially as you move further up the distribution, but it only REALLY becomes worth the risk:reward when you have a few hundred dealers under you. 

example: 
you have three tiers, with the highest paid "leader" getting between 50-130k a year, the "officer" who is the second highest paid gets around 12k a year and the street level seller gets around 2500 a year. granted, he only works 20 hours a week. 

other studies have street sellers earning around 750$/mo. 

here is my source:some hypotheses: 
[1] people are really bad at dealing drugs to only make such little money. either at business or marketing 
[2] they deal drugs as a side hustle, like your average college weed dealer who does it for the extra cash. 
[3] barriers of entry are so low and the business so simple that it's worth it for the "upper level management" to flood the market since the incentive for them is "distribution at any cost".