The drug traffickers are making money. Death has never impacted a drug dealers dealings in any way. When you have a choice of abject poverty, or basic poverty while watching those around you make easy money, couple that with youth naivety and you have the recipe for how to make a drug dealer.
We currently have a problem with Somalia youth who've come from refugee camps who come to Canada as youth with most likely PTSD and they have to navigate Canadian teens. The culture shock, the technology, the fact they're put in classes with students the same age, but they're not as sophisticated, couple that with poverty and the predators wanting petty dealers...these kids don't stand a chance...
Drug dealers usually start out as children. They learn to survive in a terribly violent environment. It's not easy.