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Online Drug Sales Triple After Silk Road Closure, Says Report (nbcnews.com)
The closure of Silk Road -- a marketplace where internet users could purchase drugs and other illegal goods -- in 2013 has had little to no effect on drug sales. According to a new report from RAND, online drug sales have tripled since the site was shut down. NBC News reports: "Since then, an estimated 50 'cryptomarkets and vendor shops where vendors and buyers find each other anonymously to trade illegal drugs, new psychoactive substances, prescription drugs and other goods and services,' have emerged to fill the void, according to the report. The research, which was commissioned by the Netherlands Ministry of Security and Justice, examined data from January and found dealers in the United States had the largest market share with 35.9 percent, followed by the United Kingdom at 16.1 percent and Australia at 10.6 percent. Marijuana was the top seller in January, accounting for 33 percent of illicit drug sales online, followed by prescription medication at 19 percent and stimulants at 18 percent."
People on various sides of various issues try not to believe it, would like not to believe it, but Markets Work. You can't stop them just by making rules against them, not without insanely powerful enforcement mechanisms..., and usually not even then.
Well, that's certainly one creative way to describe the demand driven by physical and psychological addiction.
Who could have ever imagined that this could happen. Remember when we shut down Pirate Bay and completely stopped all copyright infringement? Oh wait, we just spawned hundreds more torrent sites, and even though kickass torrents was just taken down, pirate bay is actually back up again... What a giant waste of money.
the rich are terribly addicted to power and control of fellow man.
I'd like to see a war on rich sociopaths. humanity would move up several degrees if we redistributed the weath these assholes are hoarding.
the middle and lower classes don't have life as good and so they endulge in things that numb the pain of life.
don't blame them. blame the ones who perpetually insist on having a lower class, and pushing us all down there, more and more over time.
there are many wars in classist societies. the war on 'drugs' is a false one and is a distraction to keep us from thinking of how much the 'haves' have. equalize things and stop insisting that people who like things you don't like should be put in prison.
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"It is now safe to switch off your computer."
It causes less deaths than tobacco and alcohol and prohibition of it is just another form of social control. The absurdity of the 'house of cards' that prohibits it has more negative effects on society than the plant has ever caused and that's before we start looking at the plethora of medical benefits it has.
Take marijuana off the black market and the funding for many other criminal operations will dry up.
My ism, it's full of beliefs.
the people who are "fighting" the "war on drugs" don't actually want to "win"
Think about it
Depends what the problems are with the addiction. Tabacco is addictive but legal and it causes all kinds of health issues over time. Addiction alone isn't the reason drugs are illegal. Alcohol's acceptance in western society is probably the greatest of hypocrisies I can think of as proof.
Alcohol is a substantial factor in crime, mostly violent crime. There is also the risk of traffic crashes associated with its consumption.
One of the main reasons to have some substances illegal is probably religion. The altered states of mind pose a direct challenge to the accepted reality that religion prescribes to its followers and are probably the most likely thing to cause cultlike challengers to mainstream religion, not including insanity.
It's also that the corrupt old people in control of the world don't like the fact that drugs make it harder to control the population. (Well you could probably get some junkies to do anything for a fix). Cannabis users in particular question societies control structures and lean towards the far left in general.
The consequences of an addiction with the state are probably worse than the addiction itself is for you and society. Of course some drugs are much worse than others.
I think the worst part of the drugs, even the non addictive substances is probably the mental health issues they can cause. But health issue is what is important about that statement. Psychosis is a real risk of drug use. Methamphetamine and Cannabis in particular.
The cost of these substances is articifically inflated by their illegality making the problems associated with their use increase. One reason to demand addictive substances be illegal is the crime used to fund the addictions. It's all kind of catch 22. The drugs that are plant based could be grown by the user themselves potentially removing many problems but certainly increasing supply and further causing the price to drop.
Either way, the war on drugs is a great way to get the poor and minorities institutionalised as it currently stands. Most of Hollywood would be incarcerated of the goal was to actually go after users. It's more about who is using and who police come into contact with while using.
A fair and just society would create voluntarily segregated areas that allowed for drug use much like a bar does for alcohol. A safe place to consume and a place for junkies to remain to keep society safe from them. We already put them in jail but donwe really need to remove soany rights from them and focus on punishment? I don't think so.
And all this in societies that allow people to legally obtain firearms. I can understand in rural areas where there are dangerous animals. But anyone holding a gun for "self defence" basically is saying they want to shoot someone. Most gun nut lunatics I've met really seem like deep down inside they just want to legally be able to kill someone, just like soany young guys who join the military. The right to bear arms is also great in theory to dissolve the government but it's great in theory much the same way that communism works on paper. People are the problem.
I can't wait for a benevolent AI to rule (support the existence of civilised society) us.
perhaps we could just end prohibition and use the police and our government to pursue more productive endeavours?
Redistributing wealth doesn't create resources.
If we all got $1M USD tomorrow, the inflation would be... unprecedented.
So what's your address. I'll anonymously send you a free sample by mail. Boy are you going to have fun when they execute that no knock warrant!
The real problem is that everything that touches money smells like drugs these days. They'll be ripping open birthday cards to grandkids all day long.
The other problem is they would catch far too many of the wrong drug users. Wall Street and Hollywood would be empty wastelands, for example.