A slap to the FBI. Online drug sales triple after Silk Road closure

[Wind_FURY]

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.

[gentlemand]

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.

[The Sceptical Chymist]

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.

Yep, knock one drug empire down and about 3.1415 drug empires pop up in its place.  It's a vicious circle.  People may not realize that in 1900 you could buy morphine and cocaine over the counter at pharmacies.  And the world still functioned.  Today we have drug cartels beheading people to send messages to their competitors.  The alphabet agencies ought to modify their policies, and the president and all his men ought to mandate they do so.  All of the laws to fight the war on drugs have failed, spectacularly so.  There's no need to spend more fucking money on this.  Viva la Silk Road.

[QuestionAuthority]

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.

Perfect summary.

/thread

[Shiroslullaby]

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".

[Yakamoto]

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".

Of course they don't want to win the war, not very many business owners (or people with relatively safe jobs in a "war") want it to end, as long as they're getting paid. Everyone just wants to maintain a stable job and have some sort of income, and there are very few people that don't want to be doing something. And the businesses need someone to be buying guns, bullets, testing equipment, and everything else they need, so they're happy too. As long as there is some enemy to be fought, there is money to be made.

[7788bitcoin]

Silk Road is only one of the many many online channels where drugs are traded. No surprise to me that Silk Road closure has no impact on internet drug sale.

[~Bitcoin~]

There are many way people can sell drugs online and that silkroad only been a good and easier medium for that before but even it goes down there are many other which pops up and still in operation over darknet. All love online shopping these days and there is no suprise that people will not miss the chance of buying drugs easily and anonymously online.

[pooya87]

the fight between FBI (law enforcement in general) and illegal activities like buying drugs is a never-ending-battle. it doesn't matter if they close down one shop, another will pop up. and bitcoin in all this is only the icing on the cake.

[Doamader]

The funny thing is the fbi has just closed the silk road, an online way to traffic, and the real ones keeps seeling and buying all the stuffs, for several years already. Bitcoin camed and they closed it but the fiat keeps circulating for severals years, they tryed to put bitcoin as darkeness currencie for no reason, they should put the dark currencie as the fiat.

[pinkflower]

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".

This is a good point. The men at the top of the order must think all of us are really stupid. We fight and bicker against each other and they are laughing all the way to the bank.

I saw the documentary about Ross Ulbricht and he is far from what the media portrayed him to be as this evil criminal mastermind. I find him to be a smart, loving and gentle person. His sentence was indeed too harsh.

[Kakmakr]

Silkroad only opened the door and lead the way to show criminals how to trade drugs online. The customers prefer not to deal on shady street corners where they get mugged and robbed and even killed. They want to sit in the safety of their homes high on coke, press a button and then the drugs gets delivered to them.

We life in a world of convenience, where people become more lazy every day. ^hmmmmm^

[JeffBrad12]

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

The closure of silk road is not giving meaningful impact, and this fact is unexpected. The way is always there for them to selling a drugs. and until when this is will end?

[NorrisK]

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..

[Mzie]

Triple , and which website are they buying from?

[yayayo]

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!

[QuestionAuthority]

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!

That's right and here's your proof:

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.

Source: http://content.time.com/time/health/article/0,8599,1893946,00.html

[155UE]

Instead of deterring the sales of drug trafficing they inadvertently encouraged it's success 

[BitHodler]

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...

[Doamader]

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...

Well the big problem around online sells and buys that must be trust, something silk road were giving to the costumers, i dont know how it worked, but it were working. Fbi has major issues to handle, the fiat criminal problems but they tryed to stop bitcoin to become one more problem.