Bitcoin Forum

It's probably the purest definition of whack-a-mole that there'll ever be. People like drugs. People like buying things online. Once someone manages to successfully decentralise it, though I've no idea how you could do that in terms of escrow, they'll be with us until the end of time.

It's probably the purest definition of whack-a-mole that there'll ever be. People like drugs. People like buying things online. Once someone manages to successfully decentralise it, though I've no idea how you could do that in terms of escrow, they'll be with us until the end of time.

You guys act like the agencies actually want to win the war.
If they eliminated all drugs  they would be out of a job. 
They aren't trying to get rid of drugs. 
They have a system set up where they get to buy cars, guns, planes, all types of high-tech equipment,
employ police on the street, secret undercover agents, prosecutors and judges, and a prison industry to lock all the offenders up.
Its a business, and they are making a ton of money off a neverending "war".

You guys act like the agencies actually want to win the war.
If they eliminated all drugs  they would be out of a job.  
They aren't trying to get rid of drugs.  
They have a system set up where they get to buy cars, guns, planes, all types of high-tech equipment,
employ police on the street, secret undercover agents, prosecutors and judges, and a prison industry to lock all the offenders up.
Its a business, and they are making a ton of money off a neverending "war".

NBC news has reported that online drug sales have tripled since the closure of the Silk Road. http://www.nbcnews.com/tech/internet/online-drug-sales-triple-after-silk-road-closure-n627576

It's probably the purest definition of whack-a-mole that there'll ever be. People like drugs. People like buying things online. Once someone manages to successfully decentralise it, though I've no idea how you could do that in terms of escrow, they'll be with us until the end of time.

Exactly. Even draconic sentences won't help to stop people from buying and using drugs. There are a lot of (Asian) countries that have extremely strict drug laws, yet drug use is far from extinct in these countries. If governments had a real interest in reducing drug abuse, it would be much better to focus on education on the user's side rather than illusory trying to drain supply (which will only drive up prices and make drug use more dangerous).

Ironically, the Silk Road closure and sentencing of Ulbricht led to a decentralization of the marketplaces, which will make it much harder to control. The media exposure of the case may have even encouraged users to search for drug offerings in the so-called "dark web".

ya.ya.yo!

Portugal in 2001 became the first European country to officially abolish all criminal penalties for personal possession of drugs, including marijuana, cocaine, heroin and methamphetamine.

"Judging by every metric, decriminalization in Portugal has been a resounding success," says Glenn Greenwald, an attorney, author and fluent Portuguese speaker, who conducted the research. "It has enabled the Portuguese government to manage and control the drug problem far better than virtually every other Western country does."

Compared to the European Union and the U.S., Portugal's drug use numbers are impressive. Following decriminalization, Portugal had the lowest rate of lifetime marijuana use in people over 15 in the E.U.: 10%. The most comparable figure in America is in people over 12: 39.8%. Proportionally, more Americans have used cocaine than Portuguese have used marijuana.

But there is a movement afoot in the U.S., in the legislatures of New York State, California and Massachusetts, to reconsider our overly punitive drug laws. Recently, Senators Jim Webb and Arlen Specter proposed that Congress create a national commission, not unlike Portugal's, to deal with prison reform and overhaul drug-sentencing policy. As Webb noted, the U.S. is home to 5% of the global population but 25% of its prisoners.

I think the increased popularity will only grow in the coming years as it has never been this easy to buy drugs just from behind your computer.

Even certain Youtubers are showing how easy it is to buy a few gram of cocaine or weed and receive it via mail...

We all know that Ross Ulbricht was made an example of and was given a sentence so hard that they thought it will discourage others from following the footsteps of DPR. They were wrong.

NBC news has reported that online drug sales have tripled since the closure of the Silk Road. http://www.nbcnews.com/tech/internet/online-drug-sales-triple-after-silk-road-closure-n627576

This is a link to the study that was made about it. https://www.rand.org/content/dam/rand/pubs/research_reports/RR1600/RR1607/RAND_RR1607.pdf

This could be a silent victory for all the supporters of DPR and deep inside they are laughing at the authorities. I know I am.

Making something illegal has never once stopped people from producing or acquiring it, never ever never.  Prohibition is a failed methodology.

I don't think it is the FBIs fault by closing down Silk Road. If they had left it open, Silk Road would be three times bigger (or more) by now and drug sales would still have trippled.

The only thing now is that there are numerous places where people go to buy rather than one, which makes it more difficult to keep an eye on.

All business is shifting online. You order your electronics and even groceries online now. Those numbers probably also trippled in the same time. Would anyone really expect the drug trade not to follow a similar trend? In a few years every post office might have drug dogs to pick the packets out..

Prohibition of something doesn't work, that's right. Especially when it comes to a product (drugs) that sees it demand increasing and increasing. Beside that, it's normal that the sales in this part of the market is going through the roof. Dealers from the streets more and more start to shift their business to these so called black markets. Where they normally only sell their stuff in their local area, they can now target a world wide audience.

Here's the sad truth for Ulbrich and all people convicted of nonviolent drug crimes. The US has no retroactive clemency, amnesty laws automatically releasing prisoners when the law changes. Presidential or gubernatorial commutations are a PR no-no and almost never done. Even if all drugs af any kind were instantly made legal the previously convicted would remain in the custody of the profit monger the Corrections Corporation of America.

https://montanacorruption.files.wordpress.com/2013/07/prison-cca-america.jpg

If you break the law that was implemented at the time, you should pay the price. The drug trade has more far reaching consequences than simply being illegal products. There are associated crimes directly attributed to these products that needs to be controlled to protect the community.

People steal to buy drugs, people drive under the influence of drugs and kill other people in the process. Drugs should never be legalized. Alcohol is legal, and look at all the problems we are being faced because of that. Just last week one of my friends died because of alcohol related problems. ^hmmmm^

It's an never ending battle. I don't understand why they even bother, no matter how many times you close Silk Road, by the time you catch the guy there are 10 news Silk Roads. Why can't adults take drugs freely? And I don't even drink beer.

It might possibly be better for people to buy drugs from home, over the internet, than having people go to street corners, in bad neighborhoods, after dark, to buy drugs.

We all know that Ross Ulbricht was made an example of and was given a sentence so hard that they thought it will discourage others from following the footsteps of DPR. They were wrong.

NBC news has reported that online drug sales have tripled since the closure of the Silk Road. http://www.nbcnews.com/tech/internet/online-drug-sales-triple-after-silk-road-closure-n627576

This is a link to the study that was made about it. https://www.rand.org/content/dam/rand/pubs/research_reports/RR1600/RR1607/RAND_RR1607.pdf

This could be a silent victory for all the supporters of DPR and deep inside they are laughing at the authorities. I know I am.

We all know that Ross Ulbricht was made an example of and was given a sentence so hard that they thought it will discourage others from following the footsteps of DPR. They were wrong.

NBC news has reported that online drug sales have tripled since the closure of the Silk Road. http://www.nbcnews.com/tech/internet/online-drug-sales-triple-after-silk-road-closure-n627576

This is a link to the study that was made about it. https://www.rand.org/content/dam/rand/pubs/research_reports/RR1600/RR1607/RAND_RR1607.pdf

This could be a silent victory for all the supporters of DPR and deep inside they are laughing at the authorities. I know I am.

This is a link to the study that was made about it. https://www.rand.org/content/dam/rand/pubs/research_reports/RR1600/RR1607/RAND_RR1607.pdf

I would not give much importance to that study. Sure I've been reading it quickly, but from what I understood their estimate of a sales triple comes from the size of drug listings and the number of feedbacks each vendor had received. Those can be fake. We've seen that with restaurants and hotels in tourist guides.

Thing is everytime another Silkroad gets raided, an equally large amount of Bitcoins are confiscated by the Federal Bureau, and when that happens the Bitcoin's price falls a bit. It again falls a bit more when they put it on an auction. So afterall are they aiding the Government to have more control on the price of Bitcoin by not keeping their funds and identity safe?