How to Buy Drugs

https://www.lrb.co.uk/v41/n21/misha-glenny/how-to-buy-drugs

by QuesnayJr • 7 years ago

294 250 7 years ago

lrb.co.uk

Gomer180010• 7 years ago

“ As a consequence, the drugs available to the informed buyer are of a higher quality than ever before. They are also safer.”

If only we could say the same about the people exploited along the chain of production of these drugs

Apocalypse_666• 7 years ago

I’d buy fair trade drugs if I could

lostgame2• 7 years ago

We can dream...

Gomer180010• 7 years ago

Hell I would too! So long as I could go to sleep at night knowing my money didnt help finance violence and corruption.

Thats why I really hope we legalize recreational drugs. Tackling supply and the demand just doesnt work, people want them.

stinos• 7 years ago

Same goes as for food: buy local, short supply chain etc. Meaning also not every single thing is available, but at least you know what you get and where you got it from. And obviously: depending on where you live there won't be any people making what you want..

standardUser• 7 years ago

One could say the same about workers in food production, low skill manufacturing, natural resource extraction, etc.

Gomer180010• 7 years ago

Yea, but just because exploitation is commonplace doesnt make it right. Thats a terrible justification

journalctl• 7 years ago

One could, and indeed, many do. Exploitation and wage slavery are terrible no matter the industry.

DaiPlusPlus4• 7 years ago

...the people exploited along the chain of production...

Cocaine farmed from Columbia by the cartel's bonded-labour workfocrce? Sure.

A pharm-tech diverting a few boxes of Desoxyn from the Walgreens they work at? No.

Afghan opium? It's a cash-crop in the region; by buying it you're actually helping people escape poverty.

Some mate's attic hydroponics operation? No.

Gomer180010• 7 years ago

Its not just the obvious examples like cocaine and methamphetamines. Im mean MDMA and other synthetic drugs are usually manufactured abroad and smuggled into the UK/US by criminal organizations whose income also finances violence and corruption.

Theres no stopping the demand for party/recreational drugs, we may as well legalize them already. But if you buy these illicitly you should know that you’ve likely financially contributed to despicable acts abroad. I find the idea of ‘safe’ illicitly purchased drugs deeply ironic.

Sysreq1• 7 years ago

Okay but who prescribes Desoxyn? That shit should only be special order.

(Desoxyn is meth btw)

GEBBL• 7 years ago

Is there a non paywalled version of this article anywhere?

fb032• 7 years ago

i have a question: would it be illegal for me or anyone else to access it, copy and paste it somewhere else? this sucks

airstrike• 7 years ago

IANAL but I think so

baroffoos• 7 years ago

Its copyright infringement but as usual, nothing will happen if you did copy and paste it.

nyolfen3• 7 years ago

https://pastebin.com/6ubDvKQ5

QuesnayJr2• 7 years ago

NoScript worked for me.

SlowRobotAhead3• 7 years ago

Worked instantly on iPhone safari with a content blocker. Was surprised to see someone write paywall, because didn’t think my setup would block one.

fb032• 7 years ago

the whole article is inside the page, only hidden by a <div>

Use the source, ctrl-f and search for "background: linear-gradient(rgba(255, 255, 255, 0)" and delete the whole div that contains it.

You are welcome.

kingbirdy• 7 years ago

https://web.archive.org/web/20191105095737/https://www.lrb.c...

naringas• 7 years ago

reader mode! activate!!

NamTaf• 7 years ago

On desktop, I just hit esc to stop the page loading after it'd loaded the text, but before all the paywalling had loaded.

pizzaparty24• 7 years ago

Prescription drugs? Because I need some and it takes months and time off work and repeated Dr and specialist and procedure trips just to get an antibiotic called Rifaximin that can cure certain types of IBS. Last time it took six months, a thousand dollars, four or five days off work, and a colonoscopy before I could get a prescription. But they don't prescribe enough to actually cure it. Is there a black market for this? I'm asking for a friend.

anaisbetts3• 7 years ago

Not a black market, but here you go - https://www.inhousepharmacy.vu/p-1614-rifakem-400.aspx

therealx6• 7 years ago

First rule of inhousepharmacy...

sosuke• 7 years ago

There is a black market for prescription drugs like everything else. Grey market really since it is a legal drug. I've used the grey market with success but ymmv.

lostgame2• 7 years ago

And just like the black market for cocaine, what you get in that pill or powder could literally be anything, and there’s no guarantee of consistency between orders.

I believe this is more of the overall point being made in a lot of the comments here - that obviously decriminalization would allow for quality control.

nyolfen3• 7 years ago

if it isn't schedule i, you can usually get it online from india relatively easily

therealx6• 7 years ago

or schedule 2

roberte32• 7 years ago

Alibaba...

A few years back, I was prescribed a anti cancer, prescription drug that costs $4k per box. (5mg per day, 28day day supply).

I went on Ali, and ordered 5lbs of the drug for $100 usd including shipping.

ihattendorf• 7 years ago

Honest question, how do you know you're actually getting the correct drug and that it isn't contaminated or cut with something else?

will_pseudonym• 7 years ago

Interesting. They now have a policy that prohibits the sale of medication. I wonder if there are other less scrupulous competitors of Alibaba...

pvaldes2• 7 years ago

ordered 5lbs of the drug for $100 usd including shipping.

Nothing like the sensation of dying with placebos knowing that you saved $4k dollars and you are smarter than the other guys. Can be done even cheaper: you could have obtained lots of carrot juice for $50 also. Did not worked for Jobs but maybe in your case could be different, why risk not trying?.

Seriously, don't do this. Even legit chemoterapy can dissolve you from inside and I'm not talking metaphorically. There are reported cases of unexpected and massive organ destruction. Chemoterapy is poison, can kill you faster than cancer if you have a secondary hidden condition.

IAmGraydon• 7 years ago

And what was the name of this drug?

sannee2• 7 years ago

Did you need to handle the customs paperwork? I find it hard to believe the customs would just ignore a bunch of strange powder coming through the mail...

And even if they did believe you it was not cocaine, I would still assume they would not be happy about someone importing a prescription drug.

jayalpha• 7 years ago

AFAIK Drugs are not available anymore on Alibaba.

You should not buy such important drugs from a dubious source.

Drugs from an official Chinese Pharmacy are probably very safe. If someone sells sugar instead of antibiotics be assured that he might face the death penalty.

Most raw materials are produces in China anyway, even if the medication is obtained from a western company.

BTW, was the cancer medication for injection?

wolco7• 7 years ago

Had the same problem getting the same antibiotic. Going locally resulted in unnecessary tests as you describe without luck. With me it started with a positive hydrogen breathe test at a naturalpath. Based on those results I went the telemedicine route and said my np recommended an antibiotic. I got lucky and got it filled twice but had to repeatly try but the provider I used didn't charge unless you accepted the prescription.

At the end I still needed more but gave up. Going starch free helped more.

pizzaparty24• 7 years ago

Did you notice a difference at all? Do you think you'll ever be "cured"?

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driverdan• 7 years ago

With me it started with a positive hydrogen breathe test at a naturalpath.

Naturopaths are quacks though. You shouldn't be able to get any prescriptions based on their recommendations.

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ThrustVectoring• 7 years ago

For antibiotics specifically, many manufacturers will sell them "for fish use". This will have an identical manufacturing process, but won't follow the guidelines for packaging, storing, and shipping antibiotics. So a bit more risk, but no prescription needed and significantly cheaper.

Alternatively, Indian mail-order pharmacies will successfully ship most things to the US in a plain brown envelope. It's technically illegal, but there's approximately zero enforcement action against it, the most they'll do is seize the shipment. Painkillers, opioids, amphetamines, and other pharmaceuticals with abuse risk are probably not going to be available this way (or advisable), but everything without a significant abuse risk has pretty much zero arrests.

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adultSwim• 7 years ago

Katherine Bean's Bottle of Lies documents how the same companies will produce drugs to lower safety standards when producing for countries with lower safety regulations.

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harry8• 7 years ago

"for fish use" - everything in me is screaming "NO!"

Antibiotic resistance is going to be so horrendous. Watching children die. Sooner, because "For fish use". I feel sick.

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555552• 7 years ago

Yes you can order on the clearnet from Indian pharmacies. I've ordered rifaximin this way. It's expensive, about 130$ for a 14 day supply. For my SIBO it, like all antibiotics, causes total symptom relief while I am on it and then the symptoms come right back once I go off. Good luck.

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aszantu• 7 years ago

Check meatheals.com for ibs and gutsense.org for an explanation

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tejinderss• 7 years ago

Get it from India. You can buy any antibiotics without prescription in India. And get it posted anywhere.

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hycaria• 7 years ago

Honestly diet is the cure, not an antibiotic (screwing your flora is no long term strategy). They are just doing their job the right way.

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ryanmercer• 7 years ago

First, have you looked into medical tourism? That might be a solution to just take a week off and go to a medical tourism friendly country. Looks like it's 2$ a day in Colombia (based on the wiki entry) vs 62$ a day in the United States so if you're insurance isn't cover a good chunk of it, that savings should soften the travel cost some.

Is there a black market for this?

Sorta? A lot of prepper types will keep various fish antibiotics, which you can buy freely and legally online (in the United States anyway) that just happen to conveniently come in gel caps in human dosages. Personally I always keep a bottle of amoxicillin, penicillin and cephalexin on hand and replace them every 18 months or so (I've never taken any of them, but I take comfort knowing they are sitting in a drawer if there's ever some crazy scenario where I need one of them and pharmacies are dry).

I've never seen rifaximin though (probably because it is new and fantastically expensive).

Examples:

- Fish Mox & Mox Forte (Amoxicillin)

- Fish Flex & Flex Forte (Cephalexin/Keflex)

- Fish Zole & Zole Forte (Metronidazole)

- Fish Flox & Flox Forte (Ciprofloxacin)

- Fish Pen & Pen Forte (Penicillin)

- Fish Cin (Clindamycin)

- Fish Sulfa Forte (Sulfameth/Trimethoprim)

- Fish Fungus (Ketoconazole)

- Fish Mycin (Erythromycin)

- Fish Doxy (Doxycycline)

- Fish Flucon (Fluconazole)

- Fish Min (Minocycline)

- Bird Biotic (Doxycycline)

- Bird Sulfa (Sulfamethoxazole/Trimethoprim)

- Bird Azithro (Azithromycin)

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SlowRobotAhead3• 7 years ago

The idea the police prevented access to a well protected site to move traffic to a site they had control of is fairly clever.

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blackflame3• 7 years ago

Clever yes, but I wonder about the legalities of it

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johnzerka• 7 years ago

I lurked Dread (reddit for Tor) pretty often during the Dream vs Wallstreet market battle. Wallstreet was well regarded as a solid market, whilst Dream was continuously called a LEO honeypot. I'm pretty convinced that all this talk was FUD spread by the German cyber-police after reading this article.

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eindiran3• 7 years ago

A few years ago the police did something similar by running a honeypot site called Hansa [0]; they gained control of the site, but rather than shutting it down immediately, they quietly ran the site for a few months, making changes to it in the background. Then, they siezed the big darknet market at the time, Alphabay [1], which drove everyone on the site, dealers and users alike, onto Hansa.

Before the influx of users, they had modified the site to record a lot of data that a normal darknet market wouldn't. For example, instead of discarding photo metadata, it would extract it for law-enforcement use. They changed built-in PGP encryption software on the site, so that when people used it, it would first record the information entered before creating the message and sending it to the other user, which allowed them to get information like mailing addresses. Instead of hashing and salting passwords, they recorded them in plaintext, which allowed them to capture accounts on other markets when users had recycled usernames and passwords.

The operation, called Operation Bayonet [2], was complex enough that several different law enforcement agencies from Europe and the US were involved. The Dutch police, Interpol, the FBI and DEA etc. It was quite an interesting case.

[0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hansa_(market)

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AlphaBay

[2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Bayonet_(darknet)

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x2203• 7 years ago

You can protect against these attacks and maintain your privacy by doing the following:

1. After you take a picture, open that image on your computer and take a screenshot of that image and crop as needed. This removes all camera metadata.

2. Use a program for PGP encryption. Type out your message on Notepad or whatever, encrypt it locally, then paste the encrypted message into the website's message box.

3. Use a randomly generated username and password. Generate a different username and password for each site.

Don't break the law, kids!

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nloladze2• 7 years ago

Just decriminalize it already. Tax it, inspect for quality and offer tax-free mandated psychiatric and clinical checkups every six to eighteen months (paid for by taxes and imports) and start busting dealers and suppliers for tax evasion; not possession or intent to distribute. 50% to 90% user rate drop, far less overdoses and overall huge tax increases.

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gambiting3• 7 years ago

While I can see the argument for decriminalisation of most drugs, I can't believe something like fentanyl should ever be. Just like you can't legally buy cyanide without a permit - it's just too dangerous to allow free market distribution.

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jdc• 7 years ago

The rise of fentanyl trafficking is largely a result of prohibition. Imagine you are a drug smuggler. Now would you rather have truck load worth $100k or a briefcase worth $100k?

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Daishiman• 7 years ago

It's much easier to criminalize something like fentanyl when less harmful opiates (and alternatives to opiates) are around.

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Consultant32452• 7 years ago

The language I like to use is systemic risk. Legalize or decriminalize everything that's not a systemic risk. Overuse of antibiotics presents a systemic risk. Grandma's heart medication does not. Fentanyl is a borderline wmd.

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stickfigure2• 7 years ago

What makes you think there would be a market for fentanyl if alternatives were legal?

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swiley2• 7 years ago

If by cyanide you mean hydrogen cyanide that sounds to me like something trivially easy to manufacture on your own. The permit thing must be to protect people from hurting themselves.

EDIT: yeah it is, if I’m reading Wikipedia right (and it’s accurate, I’ve seen bad chemistry on it before) a teenager could make it with ammonia and charcoal from Walmart.

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namirez• 7 years ago

Decriminalization /= Legalization

Decriminalization means an activity is no longer criminal, but it can still be punishable as a civil infraction, like crossing a red traffic light.

When it comes to hard drugs, some people advocate for decriminalization but not legalization. So in your example, fentanyl will still be illegal.

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shermozle• 7 years ago

I doubt there'd be much demand for fentanyl if other opiates were available but the problems with it are caused by unknown quantity and quality. Solve that and overdoses get a lot rarer. "This amount is what you need to get high. More than that is dangerous."

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colonwqbang• 7 years ago

The article states that Dream Market did not allow the sale of fentanyl.

Most of the time when you hear about fentanyl it's because an unscrupulous distributor added it where it shouldn't be.

I strongly suspect that the main thing keeping fentanyl popular is government policy.

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zelly5• 7 years ago

Fentanyl, cyanide, heroin, and meth should all be legal and over-the-counter.

I don't think the government should tell a woman what to do with her body, and I don't think the government has a right to tell you what to do with yours.

When you advocate for drug legalization from the perspective of safety, then you get into doublethink territory. Some people simultaneously want cannabis and hallucinogens to be legalized yet want the tobacco age increased to 21. Cannabis is not exactly safe. Methamphetamine has been prescribed for decades for legitimate medical use, and hallucinogens have caused permanent schizophrenia. If cannabis were suddenly proven to be extremely dangerous, would you reverse your position and become a prohibitionist? Do you really want to prioritize safety over freedom?

Basically the only substances that the government has grounds to prohibit are things like weapons-grade plutonium which actually (not rhetorically) could harm more than just one being.

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refurb5• 7 years ago

Why not?

Just mandate it can’t be solid unless diluted. Can’t sell pure powder. Properly diluted, it’s no more dangerous than other opioids.

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gao8a• 7 years ago

I am slowly retreating from this school of thought seeing how ineffective states and provinces in the US and Canada have done with decriminalizing cannabis, resulting in an arguably more thriving black market that differs than the one pre-legalization. Call me pessimistic but I think as we decriminalize other drugs their black markets will mutate in a similar way.

In addition I am curious on your opinion and that of others on if a line should be draw and what characteristics that line is to be drawn on.

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meerita2• 7 years ago

If they can't compete with the legal option, or, if the legal option has too many requirements, there will be black market. This apply to any business.

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al2o3cr• 7 years ago

    offer tax-free mandated psychiatric and clinical checkups every six to eighteen months

Right after the mandatory yearly liver exams for everybody who buys booze

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DaiPlusPlus4• 7 years ago

As someone concerned about my drinking habits - I actually want this. I assume a good overview of liver health can be ascertained through urinalysis or a blood test?

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nippoo• 7 years ago

One of the big hurdles with full legalisation / taxation which you're suggesting (as opposed to decriminalisation) is how to deal with the approval processes for future substances.

Do you just grandfather in a certain number of existing drugs (ie marijuana, MDMA, etc?)

What happens when a new substance hits town? The approval process for new therapeutic drugs is huge and very expensive - and only major pharmaceutical companies can generally bear the cost (plus the safety requirements are stringent enough that many currently illegal drugs wouldn't pass).

If you allow future street/recreational drugs to get a free pass (and tax them), you're opening a loophole for new pharmaceutical drugs to make it to market without due approval and safety checks.

Decriminalisation (Portugal-style) is a different thing altogether, but you don't get the tax revenues and the implicit sanctioning that brings.

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leetcrew3• 7 years ago

legalization doesn't have to mean that you can just walk into CVS and buy any drug you want, and it certainly doesn't have to mean that your doctor can recommend unapproved drugs to you.

legalization is compatible with certain reasonable constraints. advertisement of any drug (maybe even FDA approved) can be prohibited. sale of unapproved drugs can be restricted to certain specialty stores so there's no risk of people assuming it's safe just because it's at their pharmacy or grocery store. you can mandate warnings on the packaging and/or at the entrance to the store. you can say no such stores within x feet of a school.

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PeterisP6• 7 years ago

I'd argue that for most customers the various drugs are somewhat feasible substitutes for each other, many of them fill similar needs. The introduction of new "products" seems to be driven by supply side because they're easier to manufacture or transport, because some chemicals aren't yet illegal, etc.

IMHO if a limited number of mostly well-understood drugs (from different types) would be legalized, then it would seriously undercut the demand for any of the new substances.

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blotter_paper• 7 years ago

If you allow future street/recreational drugs to get a free pass (and tax them), you're opening a loophole for new pharmaceutical drugs to make it to market without due approval and safety checks.

I'd love being free to buy pharmaceuticals without the approval of my government and doctor; that's a feature, not a bug!

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GordonS• 7 years ago

What happens when a new substance hits town?

I don't mean to detract from the point you were trying to make, but a lot of the novel psychoactive substances that have appeared in recent times (e.g. synthetic cannabinoids such as spice) only ever came to be because of current drug regulations - they were created because in many countries individual drugs are outlawed, so if you create a new one, it will be legal to sell it for a time.

The "traditional" drugs are more than enough for most psychonauts - why risk some novel substance with an unknown safety profile if you could legally and safely obtain high-quality cannabis, MDMA, cocaine etc?

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r3trohack3r• 7 years ago

I’d like to preface this by saying I support full legalization.

Incentivizing the legalization of drugs (or any vice for that matter) through tax structures makes me uncomfortable. I worry that it creates a positive feedback loop where the government generates tax revenue off it’s population’s addictions. Under this, it seems that effectively treating addiction is a double loss for the gov. It cost tax money to treat addiction, and the addicts were generating taxes.

I watch what legalized gambling in Illinois is doing. Those video poker machines at local restaurants are destroying lives. But with the current tax structure, the _state_ is the addict because it is dependent on the taxes those machines are generating.

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matt-attack• 7 years ago

I worry that it creates a positive feedback loop where the government generates tax revenue off it’s population’s addictions.

Do you loose a lot of sleep over the fact that the government is doing this today with, for example, alcohol? Alcohol is an insanely destructive drug. It decimates families, relationships, careers, lives, etc. No one at all seems to say the government need to "stop profiting off the taxes". It frankly never comes up. Sure we talk a lot about how to help those who reach the stages of addiction, but there's never guilt over the tax revenue.

I'm asking you to honestly think why this is any different.

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avita1• 7 years ago

Tobacco taxes have been found to discourage smoking among certain populations [1].

Perhaps that's not a fair comparison because the way legalization has been going, at least in the U.S. looks like a cross between tobacco and gambling. Taxing tobacco feels like the more correct metaphor, but I'm not sure why.

[1] https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3228562/

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kleer001• 7 years ago

Drugs are not gambling. Almost can be addictive.

Drug legalization is about harm reduction for those already addicted. It makes it possible for them to get help for actual problems. Also it makes it less attractive to younger people as it's no longer recognized as "rebelling". AND it cuts off the flow of money to organized crime!

Portugal. Look into the drug situation in Portugal.

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davchana• 7 years ago

I agree, what you said has literally happened in my Place, Punjab India. Government gets a good chunk of money from 5ax on Alcohol, but at same time the religious beliefs prevent drinking. Politicians promise to curb alcohal sale, come to power, & do nothing because state depends on that tax. Funny reasons of tax like Education Cess on each bottle have been levied to justify alcohal sale.

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meowface• 7 years ago

What drugs are you talking about? The article opens up talking about MDMA, which is generally non-addictive and taken infrequently. Some governments tax the sale of cannabis, which is probably a lot more psychologically addictive than MDMA. And of course they tax the sale of alcohol and tobacco, which are both a lot more physiologically and psychologically addictive than MDMA. What are your thoughts on those substances, and the government's role?

I'm in favor of just legalizing/decriminalizing it all. For drugs that are highly addictive, like heroin and meth, instead of the government selling them or taxing them, taxes from the less addictive substances could be used in part to fund treatment and recovery programs.

MDMA does have a lot more potential for physiological harm (including brain damage and death) than cannabis despite being much less addictive, so that may need to be in an in-between category that's focused more on prosecuting people selling impure products, and education (imagine FDA warnings and advice on every MDMA tablet), without most of the addiction recovery aspects.

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nloladze2• 7 years ago

I knew someone would say this. Full legalization for narcotics for drugs such as; heroin, methamphetamine and even "peaceful" psychedelics will spawn a whole host of problems our society isn't ready to deal with, including; psychiatric, welfare, substance abuse and worst case, the above 1984 situation you mentioned. It's why opiates were partly banned (besides the racist overtones) in the earlier part of the 20th century. If you want to see a historical example, look at China's opium crisis in the 19th century.

Full legalization is not the correct path, full decriminalization, subjective taxing, quality assessment and proper counseling and support is.

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snagglegaggle4• 7 years ago

I fully agree. I was hoping the increasing popularity of nicotine vaporizers would show people just how much money taxes are siphoning off of their alcohol and tobacco purchases. It looks like it is working, especially with marijuana, as people are still incentivized to buy black or grey market goods due to high taxes.

Most of these taxes are called sin taxes, and are higher because of a value judgement the government is making... and should not be making.

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grawprog• 7 years ago

start busting dealers and suppliers for tax evasion

This is already one of the ways they go after drug dealers if they can't get evidence of them dealing. Every successful long term drug dealer I've met also has a 'real job', as in, something to declare on the tax forms.

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eloff• 7 years ago

What got me the other day was an article about how widespread drugs are in the prison system. If you can't even keep them out of such a locked down and controlled environment, it's a fools errand to think you can keep them off the streets.

Just legalize it, tax it, get rid of the criminal element here. Focus on education and rehab as a way of dealing with the negative effects. Way better bang for the buck than the war on drugs.

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mirimir• 7 years ago

Just decriminalize it already.

Just leave it at that. And treat it just like food. It's immoral for governments to be stipulating what drugs people can use.

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Koshkin• 7 years ago

How about decriminalizing tax evasion as well, while we are at it?

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sedeki2• 7 years ago

I agree with you on legalization. However, I imagine these cool kids in my surrounding neighborhoods (that like to intimidate people etc etc) using them and it makes me think twice.

It feels like it would be anarchy. Which I believe most people think too.

With the risk of sounding grumpy. Some people are really immature and deliberately anti-social and defying social norms.

But I still think legalization is good.

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mindslight• 7 years ago

start busting dealers and suppliers for tax evasion

Or you know, just end criminalization and be done, because those laws should never have been created in the first place. Setting up heavyweight tax enforcement regime would allow the continuation of the same structured thuggery that exists today, just with new job titles and new law references to memorize.

The biggest moral hazard is from companies ramping up and becoming pushers at-scale. The more regulations there are to comply with, the more the market will centralize towards that.

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stickfigure2• 7 years ago

Fascinating. What sort of legal liability would someone take on by publishing 'secure darkweb marketplace software' as open source?

Asking for a friend interested in civil liberties and civil disobedience.

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blackflame3• 7 years ago

Well you might want to familiarize yourself with this story first: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ross_Ulbricht

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hombre_fatal• 7 years ago

You're responding to someone asking about developing open-source software, not deploying and operating it.

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wolco7• 7 years ago

Writing open source software designed for the .onion network is different than running a drug platform over the darknet.

Writing software doesn't get you in trouble. Choosing to stock ads for products like guns/drugs might.

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wolco7• 7 years ago

The same as some who writes an application like wordpress.

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wmf• 7 years ago

Like https://openbazaar.org/ ?

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brendonjohn• 7 years ago

full-service dealers advertise their wares is through Snapchat or WhatsApp:

Oh dear, just because a snap disappears doesn't mean a record doesn't exist.

While Snapchat (I don't know about WhatsApp) says that they "typically" don't retain your expired story data, you only need one of your friends/followers to be using a third-party app that does capture and retain data for your record to persist.

I'm guessing that the moment an account is of interest to law enforcement, a social network organization is obligated to start persisting and reporting account data.

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therealx6• 7 years ago

Most snapchat/whatsapp dealers are 100% fake. Engage with them and see how fast it turns into the same scam language someone on Craigslist trying to buy your item from another state is.

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0xdeadb00f• 7 years ago

Most snapchat/whatsapp dealers are 100% fake

You'd be surprised how dumb some dealers can be. (This also depends on the location). I may or may not know of people who used to operate on Facebook Messenger, Instagram, but Snapchat is surprisingly popular.

Most dealers who have half a brain use Wickr (it being closed source; I still don't approve, but it's better than Snapchat).

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bigzyg33k• 7 years ago

WhatsApp/Text message is a really common form of marketing for dealers in London

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rkangel• 7 years ago

It's raising the bar to where you need a warrant though. It means that the police can't just subscribe to that person and see everything that's gone on.

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_57jb• 7 years ago

This writer is brilliant. Never have done (and really never was that interested in) drugs, but the air of mystery and cat & mouse that he wrote in was just fantastic.

A very serious subject with very real consequences but what a ride that story was. Well written and well played.

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paultopia• 7 years ago

Yeah, agreed---the end is particularly well done. The reveal about the police strategy with the DDOS!

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boomskats• 7 years ago

Spoiler alert!

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mbrock• 7 years ago

Consider an LRB subscription, a lot of their essays are really great.

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seisvelas• 7 years ago

Haha here in CDMX I live a few blocks from Tepito and you can't walk in on a busy day without someone trying to sell you weed or coke.

I personally stick to my drug of choice: pambazos. I don't even want to quit.

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not_real_acct• 7 years ago

When I went on vacation to Europe, that was one of the most noticeable differences from the United States. In Prague in particular, people were aggressively selling drugs.

And I look like a complete Square.

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yessenia1• 7 years ago

The last paragraph claims police DDoS attacked a site. Is this legal?

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melcor• 7 years ago

Depends on what laws you're considering. So not knowing exactly which country the server was located in or the country the police that enacted the DDoS are from it is hard to say if it's legal or not.

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jalla• 7 years ago

Who will sue the police? Who will investigate the police?

LEA and intelligence agencies operate in legally grey areas because the know they can get away with it and the politicians are happy that results can be shown.

Parallel construction is often used, involving private sector 3rd parties.

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spacemanmatt3• 7 years ago

CO cops just won on appeal for demolishing a home to catch a thief who made off with a shirt and belt from Wal-Mart. It's doubtful they could be held accountable for pigging up a computer network.

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henearkr3• 7 years ago

I completely agree that legalization and education is the only rational solution. In many countries people are already too confident in the legal system to make life choices for them, and they tell with a straight face that anything "is good for health because else why would it not be made illegal already?".

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henearkr3• 7 years ago

Okay I am going to contradict myself a little bit now... actually, today the state is also healing people when they are sick, using tax money for that. So, just letting people make themselves sick and then suck up tax money to get back on their feet is very counterproductive... which is why "prevention" is so important, and why so many substances are regulated or forbidden.

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x2203• 7 years ago

The state is not a business and does not have to make decisions based on the cost/benefit analysis from a monetary or tax collecting perspective. In the US for example, LSD and psilocybin are illegal even though there is zero chance for chemical addiction or dependence. In Canada and the US you can get a prescription for Klonopin, which sounds roughly as addictive as cocaine. People have gone to rehab for Klonopin addiction--for a prescription anti-anxiolytic!

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bsimpson• 7 years ago

tl;dr:

A dark web drug marketplace was well-secured, but a competitor was not. Frustrated law enforcement is rumored to have DOSed the well-protected site to drive buyers to the less-well-protected site, which was promptly seized by LEOs.

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rambojazz• 7 years ago

I'd rather not know that an article exist than being told "you have 1 free article this month".

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neonate• 7 years ago

http://archive.is/wwOyk

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n2j32• 7 years ago

or https://outline.com/C4gf4U

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justaj• 7 years ago

Nah, at least I can view archive.is links without JS enabled.

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pvaldes2• 7 years ago

Medicines: Schedule a free consult with the doctor in your healthcare area. Obtain a stamped and signed recipe based in his/her professional opinion. Ask for the product in the next pharmacy and exchange your recipe for the product. Pay a small amount or nothing at all. Say thanks and have a good day. Finish.

Illegal drugs: Are you fishing? Good try.

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ur-whale• 7 years ago

http://archive.is/wwOyk

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doublerabbit• 7 years ago

Agora was another market who made sailed off in to the sea keeping true to their words. Everyone got their money from escrow, no one was scammed and was always under DDoS.

One of the true market legends of the time.

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