Honestly, as someone who hangs around “criminals”... as long as you actually pay your drug dealer nothing that will ever be reported as a crime is going to happen. Most crime that would be perpetrated against a stranger is property crime, and poor individuals by and large aren’t the target of it. If you’re a shopkeeper, sure.

On the other hand, I’ve seen more than enough people being arrested for nonsense, having done nothing but tick an officer off in some apparently random way - and these people will always be released immediately before the police would have to explain to a judge why they had arrested this person. Being detained is plenty scary enough, and could cost you your job.