Dream Market, the Top Dark Web Marketplace, Will Shut Down Next Month (zdnet.com)

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Dream Market, the Top Dark Web Marketplace, Will Shut Down Next Month (zdnet.com)

Posted by msmash on Tuesday March 26, 2019 @06:11AM from the market-movements dept.

Dream Market, today's top dark web marketplace, today announced plans to shut down on April 30. From a report: The announcement came on the same day Europol, FBI, and DEA officials announced tens of arrests and a massive crackdown on dark web drug trafficking. The timing of the four announcements immediately sent most of Dream Market's users and dark web threat intel analysts into a frenzy of theories that law enforcement might have already seized the site and are now running a honeypot operation. Their fears are based on a similar event from June 2017 when Dutch police took over Hansa Market and ran the site for a month while collecting evidence on the portal's users. Law enforcement later used passwords collected from Hansa Market users to gain access to accounts on other dark web marketplaces.

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I keep wondering why we don't legalize drugs by rsilvergun · 2019-03-26 06:17 · Score: 5, Interesting

There's pretty broad support for it. I know folks who don't want to legalize the hard stuff (think cocaine, meth and heroine) but there's places that have done it and then treated addiction as a medical condition and it's worked well.

It does mean you can't just abandon addicts though, e.g. you can't just lock them up in a hole in the ground, you need to provide treatment, but even then the treatment is often cheaper than paying somebody to guard the hole, so to speak.

--
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1. Re:I keep wondering why we don't legalize drugs by Anonymous Coward · 2019-03-26 06:24 · Score: 0, Troll
  
  Because conservatives are cowards, that's why. I know that sounds like a typical druggie thing to say (oh the government doesnt' want people to think!), but in general, conservatives have shown time and again that they are extremely scared of just about anything that is just a teensy little bit different then their existing life style.
  So drug usage is one of those things, up there with jews, muslims, lgbt, and socialism. It just makes conservatives very scared and because they are cowards, they do what they can to prevent people from enjoying life as they see fit.
2. Re:I keep wondering why we don't legalize drugs by Anonymous Coward · 2019-03-26 06:29 · Score: 0
  
  "I hate capitalism!" he typed into his iPhone.
3. Re:I keep wondering why we don't legalize drugs by Anonymous Coward · 2019-03-26 06:29 · Score: 0
  
  Can't work in America. I can't speak to other countries.
  It's not that it wouldn't be of benefit to the general population, but that's not a criteria anyone in any level of power will even consider as modestly important. What's important is continuing the war on drugs because it feeds the for profit prison system. And that for profit prison system needs a steady stream of non-violent inmates to keep running costs low and prove the necessity of every increased capacity.
  Until America gets over its adicction to profit above all else, there's no fixing this.
4. Re:I keep wondering why we don't legalize drugs by Anonymous Coward · 2019-03-26 06:31 · Score: 0, Insightful
  
  1- Name one place it's been tried and didn't turn to shit (as seen in Vancouver)
  2- The illegal market would continue just as before because legal drugs would be regulated, taxed, and generally expensive (as seen with pot in Canada)
  3- If these drugs caught on, they would eventually require similar programs and laws as there are against smoking. Why go back to that?
5. Re:I keep wondering why we don't legalize drugs by LittleNegative · 2019-03-26 06:34 · Score: 3, Insightful
  
  I'm guessing there are at least a couple reasons to not legalize drugs: 1) Legalization would probably put a dent in big pharma profits 2) Legalization would give cops one less reason to pull over and arrest people.
6. Re:I keep wondering why we don't legalize drugs by Anonymous Coward · 2019-03-26 06:35 · Score: 2, Insightful
  
  Drug mafias are very rich and very powerful, precisely because their product is illegal.
  If you make drugs legal, you pull the rug right out from under them. They don't want this, so they use their wealth and power to apply political pressure to the end of keeping drugs illegal.
  People who don't understand how the world actually works often object to the above statements. They seem to think that the criminal mafias can effectively compete against legitimate drug sellers. They are straight-up wrong, which is why there is no bootleg alcohol mafia, tobacco mafia, or ibuprofen mafia.
  People also think that criminal organizations have no political power. This is because people are idiots.
7. Re:I keep wondering why we don't legalize drugs by Anonymous Coward · 2019-03-26 06:35 · Score: 0
  
  Because once you've done LSD, DMT, mescaline, and psilocin, you'll never see the world though the same narrow field of consciousness required for the mass control of society.
  Heroine and cocaine for slightly different reasons. So that exploited workers don't destroy their health and become unable to work, in their attempts to self-medicate.
8. Re:I keep wondering why we don't legalize drugs by Anonymous Coward · 2019-03-26 06:39 · Score: 0
  
  It's cheaper to give them month's supply of heroin and then cover burial cost. Than dealing with their long-term health issues & locking in prisons and so on.
9. Re:I keep wondering why we don't legalize drugs by Anonymous Coward · 2019-03-26 06:41 · Score: 0
  
  Look at the harm legal drugs like alcohol & tobacco cause.
  These only kill you slowly and they're that bad.
  Make the more harmful drugs legal again and you'll start to remember why we banned them in the first place once you get mugged or robbed by addicts feeding their habits all the time.
10. Re:I keep wondering why we don't legalize drugs by Anonymous Coward · 2019-03-26 06:41 · Score: 0
  
  Yeah, just what we need. A bunch of losers strung out on legal drugs who now turn to robbery and other crimes to feed their habit. You'll have a change of heart when one of your family/friends is murdered by these thugs.
11. Re: I keep wondering why we don't legalize drugs by Anonymous Coward · 2019-03-26 06:45 · Score: 0
  
  Because the money would got to the wrong people, mostly in South America. They are trying to legalize Ectasy though, 90% of it comes from Israel.
12. Re:I keep wondering why we don't legalize drugs by Anonymous Coward · 2019-03-26 06:48 · Score: 0
  
  LOL
13. Re:I keep wondering why we don't legalize drugs by sjames · 2019-03-26 07:01 · Score: 4, Insightful
  
  You mean as opposed to now where they're strung out on illegal drugs and so have little to lose by adding one more criminal charge?
  Try running the prisons properly and legalizing drugs. Then the prospects are: Avoid crime and use drugs or commit a crime and 'enjoy' a few years in a drug free prison.
  With the significantly reduced prison population and taxes on the drugs, we will easily be able to afford to upgrade the prisons and still save money.
14. Re: I keep wondering why we don't legalize drugs by Type44Q · 2019-03-26 07:22 · Score: 1
  
  I keep wondering why we don't legalize drugs
  That should be obvious to anyone with a pulse: someone is benefitting from their criminalization.
15. Re: I keep wondering why we don't legalize drugs by ShanghaiBill · 2019-03-26 07:30 · Score: 3, Informative
  
  Because the money would got to the wrong people, mostly in South America.
  If it was legal, they would no longer be the "wrong" people. They would be law abiding capitalists.
  During prohibition, alcohol sales and distribution was control by criminals. Today, brewers and distillers are just normal businesses.
  The same can happen with cocaine and heroin.
16. Re:I keep wondering why we don't legalize drugs by cayenne8 · 2019-03-26 07:31 · Score: 3, Insightful
  
  Can't work in America. I can't speak to other countries.
  It's not that it wouldn't be of benefit to the general population, but that's not a criteria anyone in any level of power will even consider as modestly important. What's important is continuing the war on drugs because it feeds the for profit prison system. And that for profit prison system needs a steady stream of non-violent inmates to keep running costs low and prove the necessity of every increased capacity.
  Well, according to the ACLU: "...for-profit companies were responsible for approximately 7 percent of state prisoners and 18 percent of federal prisoners in 2015 (the most recent numbers currently available)".
  While that seems to start being a little high on the Federal side, it doesn't seem to be really THAT high of a number that everyone seems to keep touting as a reason to keep funneling people into the prison system.
  While I agree it could put pressure on the system to try to fund itself, it doesn't appear to be as much of a central problem to legalizing drugs as some would have you think.
  
  --
  Light travels faster than sound. This is why some people appear bright until you hear them speak.........
17. Re:I keep wondering why we don't legalize drugs by Anonymous Coward · 2019-03-26 07:36 · Score: 2, Insightful
  
  1- Name one place it's been tried and didn't turn to shit (as seen in Vancouver)
  Many problems here. First off, Vancouver did not legalize drugs, probably just marijuana. And, that was partly in response to the fact that it was being treated as legal at the ground level already. Hardly a useful example.
  Amsterdam is not a shithole, and certainly not MORE of a shithole than prior to decriminalization. Portugal has had positive numbers (lower youth use, less secondary and tertiary problems from addiction, falling use in general, etc). I honestly, can't think of ANY examples where it did *turn to shit*. Often decriminalization is only tried by desperate areas (shitholes if you will), so it's hard to get a good case study on what will happen to Omaha, NE, Lubbock, TX or Cincinnati, OH if drugs were legal. We simply don't have good places to point to. I've responded to this strawman enough.
  
  2- The illegal market would continue just as before because legal drugs would be regulated, taxed, and generally expensive (as seen with pot in Canada)
  Overtaxation. Sin taxes will definitely do this, especially when you're selling a plant anyone and their brother can just grow. For a drug like cocaine, I really doubt this would be an issue. But, even if it were, just like piracy, it's a pricing problem. The government has introduced regulation (large taxes on pot in Vancouver) which keeps the price of legal product distorted, maintaining demand. Tax it like everything else, and no problemo. No one is going to a drug dealer to save VAT or whatever you have in the great white north. People buying and selling locally should be no real problem, just like any other legal agricultural product like eggs or tomatoes. If pot is still being trafficked into BC, you have either a pricing problem or an availability problem or both. Neither of those are fundamentally the fault of legalization. The availability problem would be because you can't reasonably import the stuff, as it's illegal in the USA.
  
  3- If these drugs caught on, they would eventually require similar programs and laws as there are against smoking. Why go back to that?
  Too late. What now? Invent a time machine? I think you'll have to go pretty far back to get to before drugs caught on.
18. Re: I keep wondering why we don't legalize drugs by Anonymous Coward · 2019-03-26 07:36 · Score: 0
  
  I live in San Francisco where we have a huge homeless/addiction problem. It's common for me to see people shooting up if I walk 3 blocks in SOMA.
  In general I'm pro-legalization for safety and moral your-body-choice reasons. That said, I'm not sure if I still support things like heroine going legal/recreational when I daily see the suffering this addiction causes.
  Hypothetically, imagine a "best drug ever" were to exist. The high fills you eith happiness, elation, and genuine contentment right down to your core. No guilt, no shame. There're no negative health effects, though few see the point in maintaining jobs and friendships when they could be experiencing this. After taking it you're convinced that all human endeavors have been working toward this peak experience. After doing it once no one ever wants to stop doing it. They know they're addicts but see nothing wrong with that. If you tried it too you'd understand.
  Should such a hypothetical drug be legal?
19. Re:I keep wondering why we don't legalize drugs by FictionPimp · 2019-03-26 07:44 · Score: 3, Insightful
  
  Yep, that's why I only buy my whiskey from moonshiners. I'm not paying those taxes and who cares if the product might be total poison. Only suckers pay taxes on whiskey.
20. Re:I keep wondering why we don't legalize drugs by fluffernutter · 2019-03-26 07:45 · Score: 1
  
  MJ is legal now in Canada, but they set the prices in the stores at around the local street price and they never have stock, so while some people go to try it, most people who had a black market dealer before still have that same dealer today.
  
  --
  Laws are rules for the court, but merely a bottom bar to hit for life. Think beyond laws in your actions always.
21. Re:I keep wondering why we don't legalize drugs by fluffernutter · 2019-03-26 07:49 · Score: 1
  
  Marijuana has been legalized in all of Canada since Oct 17, which was the aniversary of the death of Gord Downie of the Tragically Hip, who tragically died of brain cancer on Oct 17, 2017. Some Americans have heard of them. We have stores that have no stock and are five times more expensive than the street, and we can grow 4 plants per household in most provinces.
  
  --
  Laws are rules for the court, but merely a bottom bar to hit for life. Think beyond laws in your actions always.
22. Re:I keep wondering why we don't legalize drugs by cayenne8 · 2019-03-26 07:50 · Score: 3, Informative
  
  1- Name one place it's been tried and didn't turn to shit (as seen in Vancouver)
  You might look at Portugal, as that they pretty much legalized/decriminalized all drugs...and they have actually had a positive result.
  I"m surprised more countries don't start looking at their model.
  
  --
  Light travels faster than sound. This is why some people appear bright until you hear them speak.........
23. Re:I keep wondering why we don't legalize drugs by fluffernutter · 2019-03-26 07:50 · Score: 1
  
  at around five times* the local street price
  
  --
  Laws are rules for the court, but merely a bottom bar to hit for life. Think beyond laws in your actions always.
24. Re:I keep wondering why we don't legalize drugs by Anonymous Coward · 2019-03-26 07:50 · Score: 0
  
  The prison industry is full of private enterprises that like the inefficiency, because that is more money for them. They also like laws that create lots of criminals, for the same reason. Their wealth makes them a powerful lobby....powerful enough to influence the government away from any reasonable suggestions that little you might make.
  The only arguments for drug legalization that might gain any traction are: more jobs created; more tax money.
25. Re:I keep wondering why we don't legalize drugs by Anonymous Coward · 2019-03-26 08:06 · Score: 0
  
  You think that making drugs legal will transform responsible people into losers?
  You think the only thing stopping losers from using illegal drugs now is the fact that they are illegal?
  You live in a very strange world.
26. Re:I keep wondering why we don't legalize drugs by Anonymous Coward · 2019-03-26 08:22 · Score: 0
  
  I know folks who don't want to legalize the hard stuff
  Besides legalization there is also decriminalization which should not be confused with keeping hard stuff illegal.
27. Re: I keep wondering why we don't legalize drugs by Anonymous Coward · 2019-03-26 08:24 · Score: 1
  
  Do you want cults? Because that's how you get cults.
28. Re:I keep wondering why we don't legalize drugs by Anonymous Coward · 2019-03-26 08:31 · Score: 0
  
  I even support making hard drugs legal and free. With a rule that to get the drugs and while under the influence you need to be locked up in a padded room to make sure you don't cause harm to anyone else. The cost would be far lower than current policing and health system costs, and crime would drop to almost zero.
29. Re:I keep wondering why we don't legalize drugs by BringsApples · 2019-03-26 08:38 · Score: 0
  
  Surprise surprise!! There are actually people in the world that don't want to have to deal with zombie-like idiots that are strung out on drugs, walking around everywhere.
  
  --
  Politics; n. : A religion whereby man is god.
30. Re:I keep wondering why we don't legalize drugs by Anonymous Coward · 2019-03-26 08:57 · Score: 0
  
  People probably said the same thing in 1790 when they legalized religions. And they were right: freedom comes with heavy costs. But prohibition is even worse, which is why so many friends and family have already been murdered. Under legalization, you get fewer of these murders.
31. Re:I keep wondering why we don't legalize drugs by Anonymous Coward · 2019-03-26 09:05 · Score: 0
  
  "....so they use their wealth and power to apply political pressure to the end of keeping drugs illegal."
  Aaaaaaahahahahah! Hahaaa aaaaaaahahahaha!!!
  tin foil hat conspiracy theorist much? CITATION NEEDED. prove with one example of verifiable, reputable story.
  you can't. you just ASSUME this is true, because you want to think that life is a bad movie. that's why you WON'T be able to supply ONE SINGLE example of a verifiable, reputable example of this "conspiracy" being true IRL.
32. Re: I keep wondering why we don't legalize drugs by Anonymous Coward · 2019-03-26 09:08 · Score: 0
  
  You live in a shitty province. Quebec prices are equal or less than street prices at smaller volumes (7g or less)
33. Re:I keep wondering why we don't legalize drugs by Anonymous Coward · 2019-03-26 09:08 · Score: 0
  
  Price examples from America, for reference:
  Today in California, I pay $50 for 1/8 oz of excellent hydroponic seedless bud.
  Price in Florida black market when I bought the same amount of the same quality weed in college in 1999, twenty ago: $50.
34. Re: I keep wondering why we don't legalize drugs by Cajun+Hell · 2019-03-26 09:09 · Score: 1
  
  Are you asking if the internet/entertainment industries (basically every dollar that Google-to-Netflix-to-Facebook-to-Disney is fighting for) should be legalized? Yes, I think the people who are trying to turn us into wireheads are just trying to give us what we want. Liberty and the endless monetized pursuit of happiness is what we come here to Slashdot to talk about every day. If that conflicts with Life, oh well, two out of three ain't bad.
  
  --
  "Believe me!" -- Donald Trump
35. Re: I keep wondering why we don't legalize drugs by Anonymous Coward · 2019-03-26 09:22 · Score: 0
  
  You're talking about ketamine
36. Re:I keep wondering why we don't legalize drugs by Anonymous Coward · 2019-03-26 09:30 · Score: 0
  
  I don't even consider them human. Anyone who would willingly damage their own sentience doesn't deserve to have it.
37. Re: I keep wondering why we don't legalize drugs by Anonymous Coward · 2019-03-26 09:33 · Score: 0
  
  Adding Jews to the mix sounds far fetched. Why are the conservatives ardently supporting Israel? Trump himself is doing them more favors than any previous president, and conservatives had to call out the Democrats for not doing anything about antisemitism within their ranks?
38. Re:I keep wondering why we don't legalize drugs by Anonymous Coward · 2019-03-26 09:40 · Score: 1
  
  Making drugs legal won't instantly transform hordes of otherwise-responsible people into drug users. Despite drugs being illegal, they are easily available basically everywhere; so the people who want to use them already are.
  Your laws aren't making "those people" vanish. Your laws are just ensuring that tremendous amounts of wealth and power are being funneled into the hands of mafia bosses, instead of lawful tax-paying citizens.
39. Re:I keep wondering why we don't legalize drugs by Anonymous Coward · 2019-03-26 10:03 · Score: 0
  
  Making drugs legal, and providing treatment options... is MASSIVELY less cost than:
  - mega militarized power tripping police gestapo harassing you for all kinds of stupid shit, like even traffic tickets, they're reveneurs looking for that drug score to prop them up further
  - giving HARMLESS DRUG users CRIMINAL RECORDS for fucking what... nothing... so they CANT GET A JOB or find ways out of their problem because of that label.
  - the entire system of dealing thieving and underground secrecy murders turf wars... all that stupid shit COMPLETELY GOES AWAY upon full legality.
  You no longer have to live afraid of druggies and gangbangers because they can just go pay $2 for drugs off the shelf at the local grocery store.
  MAKE NO MISTAKE... illegal = money = crime = prison = gestapo = failure ... ONE GIGANTIC CIRCLE JERK OF FAIL.
40. Re:I keep wondering why we don't legalize drugs by Anonymous Coward · 2019-03-26 10:07 · Score: 0
  
  Drugs aside... the prisons don't need upgrading.
  What needs upgrading is everyone's stupid beliefs that they have the RIGHT to RULE OVER and STEAL FROM others who have done NOTHING to them.
  Search youtube: Mark Passio, Keith Knight, Larken Rose
  Free and correct your mind, improve society along with it.
  You and your children will be a lot happier and more free.
41. Re: I keep wondering why we don't legalize drugs by Anonymous Coward · 2019-03-26 10:29 · Score: 0
  
  A lot of support for Israel is based on apocalyptic Evangelical ideas that Israel needs to exist in order for the second coming of Jesus Christ to come about. It needs to exist as part of an apocalyptic battleground for a future war. Note that they expect Jews to convert to Christianity or burn in hell.
  There's plenty of anti-Semitism in conservative circles too, but they tend to temper it with their feeling that they're obligated to support Israel and Jews until the second coming (where, again, they expect Jews to convert to Christianity).
  Also, the idea that doing whatever Netanyahu wants is a "favor" to Israel is perhaps poor short term thinking (assuming that what Netanyahu and his government is doing are actually good for the long term health/future of Israel as a country).
42. Re:I keep wondering why we don't legalize drugs by Anonymous Coward · 2019-03-26 10:38 · Score: 0
  
  Cool and all, but unless you’ve got a suggestion for how to hook up with someone who will have good product within, say, two hours of walking out of the airport, I’m pretty much stuck with the legals.
43. Re:I keep wondering why we don't legalize drugs by Anonymous Coward · 2019-03-26 10:38 · Score: 0
  
  From the standpoint of the non-addict it's optimal to give hard drugs away free with no questions asked. The crackheads committing petty crimes and violent crimes to sate their habit are gone (many killing themselves via OD, and the others out of sight/mind.) Pot could be sold at free market price with fewer side issues than alcohol or tobacco - I see no need to subsidize recreational use.The real casualties would be drug lords and the economies of several South American countries would collapse. Absolutely a cost effective alternative to the war on drugs. True there would be deaths, misery, and DUI but likely less than from the current war on drugs. Pot would no longer be a gateway drug as you no longer had to visit your friendly neighborhood drug dealer who is motivated to sell you on a higher margin product. There is also the side benefit of sharpening up the human gene pool.
44. Re:I keep wondering why we don't legalize drugs by Anonymous Coward · 2019-03-26 11:17 · Score: 0
  
  Because conservatives are cowards, that's why. I know that sounds like a typical druggie thing to say (oh the government doesnt' want people to think!), but in general, conservatives have shown time and again that they are extremely scared of just about anything that is just a teensy little bit different then their existing life style.
  So drug usage is one of those things, up there with jews, muslims, lgbt, and socialism. It just makes conservatives very scared and because they are cowards, they do what they can to prevent people from enjoying life as they see fit.
  Sounds like you are afraid of those who think different as well.
45. Re: I keep wondering why we don't legalize drugs by Anonymous Coward · 2019-03-26 11:19 · Score: 0
  
  Is the suffering caused by heroin or is it caused by being homeless with few prospects?
46. Re:I keep wondering why we don't legalize drugs by Anonymous Coward · 2019-03-26 11:29 · Score: 0
  
  Is your goal to make a loophole so stupid that no one will do it and there will be nothing to distinguish your society from the current one other than someone paid for a bunch of padded rooms that no one uses? Many people use drugs socially. Many use drugs to enjoy things like music or movies or the woods or relaxing after a day of work. There are few drugs that are enjoyable alone in a padded room.
47. Re:I keep wondering why we don't legalize drugs by Anonymous Coward · 2019-03-26 11:56 · Score: 0
  
  That has to be one of the lamest conspiracy theories I've heard in a while. All private prisons together generate a grand total of about $400M in profits and those profits come at the expense of taxpayers (plus the remaining tax money for their total revenue). That's a completely insignificant amount as an industry, so why would a politician choose to support that over billions in tax revenue from legalizing drugs? Granted politicians are not always the brightest people, but you don't have to be a rocket scientist to figure this one out.
48. Re: I keep wondering why we don't legalize drugs by demonlapin · 2019-03-26 12:06 · Score: 1
  
  Ketamine is a pretty interesting drug, but I wouldn’t say that most people enjoy it without a lot of preparation for the experience. You can send people to some pretty strange places with K. I’m an anesthesiologist, and I have effectively been a tripsitter for people on ketamine. Like I said, strange places.
49. Re:I keep wondering why we don't legalize drugs by Anonymous Coward · 2019-03-26 13:56 · Score: 0
  
  Markets don't always turn on a dime. Sometimes it takes, you know, time, for market forces to take their effect.
  And even so, the post was about drug mafias, as in groups of organized criminals. A few independent backyard dealers are a far cry from a drug mafia.
50. Re:I keep wondering why we don't legalize drugs by Anonymous Coward · 2019-03-26 14:01 · Score: 0
  
  here
  and how about this one, quote: "The vast sums of money involved can compromise legitimate economies and have a direct impact on governments through the corruption of public officials."
  This found via a casual one-minute google search.
  All you can do is mock and ridicule, because you don't have the education needed to participate in such a discussion.
51. Re:I keep wondering why we don't legalize drugs by Anonymous Coward · 2019-03-26 14:41 · Score: 0
  
  It also feeds "policing for profit" and the prices of OTC and prescription drugs. The war on drugs and the war on terror might as well both be the war on Eurasia and the war on Eastasia except Orwell was wrong in that we do not need peace with either of them for their inherent purpose to be effective because these two wars are veiled wars on ourselves by our own manufacture and under our own critical design. See the following for illustration:
  Operation Ajax. The 1953 Iranian coup d'état set the stage for further destabilization in the middle east (CIA)
  Operation Cyclone (The CIA trains the Mujahideen including Bin Laden)
  Iran Contra affair some 20 years later (The CIA imports more Cocaine than anybody in history under the oversight of the very same president that started "Just say no")
  War in iraq. Leads to the war on terror and the U.S. patriot act. (We initially supported Saddam.)
  All of these things are of our own device. I probably left some things out. Oh yeah, we backed Castro initially, but that is kind of a sideline.
  But the whole point is that we wouldn't have all of these wars if we kept our filthy hands to ourselves.
52. Re:I keep wondering why we don't legalize drugs by Anonymous Coward · 2019-03-26 17:11 · Score: 0
  
  You must be communist...
53. Re:I keep wondering why we don't legalize drugs by gweihir · 2019-03-26 18:28 · Score: 1
  
  Indeed. The base-problem is that we have these fuckups in society that want to control what other people do, no matter what. And they think the only thing fun in live should be prayer.
  In actual reality, anybody that wants drugs can get them. None of the deterrents work. The deterrents waste an extreme amount of money though and cause massive secondary damage. So legalizing drugs would have a number of advantages.
  First, the cost goes down massively and the quality goes massively up and becomes reliable. That means anybody that has their habit under control stops suffering the insane side-effects of the enforcement of stupid laws and the risks of buying variable quality and the need to generate oodles of money to buy the stuff. That already solves a large part of the problem. Also, anybody that does not have it under control can get help much easier and far better information on how things actually work will become generally available.
  Second, legalizing it opens the door for less addictive, less harmful drugs. I am sure the large pharma companies already have a few of these ready and research would certainly be intense. Of course, evil corporate monsters being what they are, you would still need laws limiting addictiveness so that they do not try to make and sell more dangerous stuff. We saw that happen with Big Tobacco in the past. These laws and their enforcement will be tricky and they should certainly not be done by the fuckups currently in charge of "fighting" drugs.
  And third, all those insane and destructive efforts to fight drugs will stop being a burden on society. A wave of new additions is very unlikely to happen. The current opioid problem in the US was caused by the doctors and some really evil people in the pharma industry, not the patients. That is why some regulation and enforcement will still be required, but none of it should be targeted at the users.
  Side note to the most dumb counterargument somebody will surely bring up ("You just want to use drugs!"): I do use drugs: Sugar (psycho-active and pretty destructive for the metabolism long-term if abused), caffeine (pretty benign, comes with mild withdrawal symptoms) and alcohol (probably the No 1 killer drug on the planet), all in moderation. No, what a "drug" is is not defined by law. It is defined by its medical effects. Anything else is just disconnected from reality.
  
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  Most ACs are not even worth the keystrokes to insult them. Be generically insulted by this and ignored otherwise.
54. Re:I keep wondering why we don't legalize drugs by gweihir · 2019-03-26 18:30 · Score: 1
  
  Indeed. You may also find this research pretty much proves this: https://www.theauthoritarians....
  
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  Most ACs are not even worth the keystrokes to insult them. Be generically insulted by this and ignored otherwise.
55. Re:I keep wondering why we don't legalize drugs by gweihir · 2019-03-26 18:32 · Score: 1
  
  It is clearly part of what is going on. The other part is that religious fuckups deeply desire to control what others can do with their bodies. No fun except in prayer. Some even say this openly. It is really a coalition of evil.
  
  --
  Most ACs are not even worth the keystrokes to insult them. Be generically insulted by this and ignored otherwise.
56. Re:I keep wondering why we don't legalize drugs by gweihir · 2019-03-26 19:19 · Score: 1
  
  You forget all the people employed to keep the "non-profit" prisons running. And all the suppliers. And all the judges, police, prosecutors, etc. They all want profits or job-security. The mere fact that the US has a lot of people behind bars (the only thing were the US is a real world-leader) creates huge incentives for keeping that going. Utterly perverted incentives.
  
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57. Re:I keep wondering why we don't legalize drugs by gweihir · 2019-03-26 19:25 · Score: 1
  
  1- Name one place it's been tried and didn't turn to shit (as seen in Vancouver)
  Many problems here. First off, Vancouver did not legalize drugs, probably just marijuana. And, that was partly in response to the fact that it was being treated as legal at the ground level already. Hardly a useful example.
  Amsterdam is not a shithole, and certainly not MORE of a shithole than prior to decriminalization. Portugal has had positive numbers (lower youth use, less secondary and tertiary problems from addiction, falling use in general, etc). [...] I've responded to this strawman enough.
  The prohibitionists need to keep this strawman going, mostly with direct lies, because the have no rational arguments. They need to distort the perception of reality of others or they lose and their real motivations become obvious ("no fun except in prayer", desperate desire to control others, plain greed, plain maliciousness, etc.).
  
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58. Re:I keep wondering why we don't legalize drugs by gweihir · 2019-03-26 19:28 · Score: 2
  
  >
  I"m surprised more countries don't start looking at their model.
  That would need rational politicians that actually try to understand stuff instead of just plain pushing their ideology and winning elections at any cost. We only have a tiny number of them and they are not very successful. What we get is those drunk with thirst for power and for control over others.
  Maybe this can be the next thing some small country tries: Politicians that actually care to find out the facts and then act according to them.
  
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59. Re:I keep wondering why we don't legalize drugs by gweihir · 2019-03-26 19:34 · Score: 1
  
  ...(many killing themselves via OD)...
  That does not happen. With clean, medical grade drugs, even heroine addicts do not have a reduced life-expectancy (and can even work regular jobs). This is one of the lies pushed in the "war" on drugs. Alcohol, smoking, sugar and fat are a different story. They do massively impact life-expectancy unless used very carefully.
  
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60. Re:I keep wondering why we don't legalize drugs by Joey+Vegetables · 2019-03-27 04:39 · Score: 1
  
  Natural law does not countenance the idea of imprisoning people for the mere possession, use, or sale of anything, so long as no one is harmed thereby without his or her informed consent. But neither does it condone the practice of knowingly, negligently, or avoidably causing harm to another without said consent. So under law, these substances would probably remain available, but there would be no incentive to maximize the concentration or potency of any of them (this is an artifact of their "illegal" status), whereas there would be a huge incentive to avoid harming one's customers, not only for fear of losing a customer, but because there would be penalties, with teeth, for doing so. Just as right now you can't sell "beer" with 99% alcohol content, or cigarettes laced with PCP, you would not be able to sell fentanyl mislabeled as cocaine, nor for that matter 99% cocaine marketed as 5% cocaine. Hence, you could go after anyone making or selling adulterated and/or excessively potent substances. But you could not go after users and imprison them for any other reason than their being a clear and present danger to themselves or others, and even then only temporarily and probably in an environment conducive to their rehabilitation, rather than one that deliberately, and for the crassest of political reasons, promotes recidivism instead.
  
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61. Re:I keep wondering why we don't legalize drugs by Anonymous Coward · 2019-03-27 06:15 · Score: 0
  
  " All private prisons together generate a grand total of about $400M in profits and those profits come at the expense of taxpayers"
  Does this include the profits from prison slave labor? Prisoners are employed for pennies on the dollar compared to the actual value of the work they do.
62. Re: I keep wondering why we don't legalize drugs by fluffernutter · 2019-03-27 07:49 · Score: 1
  
  Just so that we can level-set, the street price is $3.50/g here. $6 gets you primo stuff. What kind of prices are you seeing in Quebec?
  
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63. Re:I keep wondering why we don't legalize drugs by fluffernutter · 2019-03-27 08:04 · Score: 1
  
  Here an ounce on the street is $220. I know someone who gets an ounce for $180 through the mail.
  
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64. Re:I keep wondering why we don't legalize drugs by fluffernutter · 2019-03-27 08:34 · Score: 1
  
  Oh and that's Canadian $
  
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the real solution by slashmydots · 2019-03-26 06:36 · Score: 2, Interesting

I was shocked to hear that people were sending the drugs Fedex, USPS, and UPS like it was ebay or something. When I asked online why they can't just put drug sniffing dogs in all USPS mail hubs, everyone said it's unreasonable search and seizure. That sounds ridiculous to me. If a cop looks in the window of your car and see a pile of drugs, they don't need your permissions or a warrant to "search" it at that point. The same goes for sniffing drug residue off the OUTSIDE of a box and then opening it. That would instantly solve the entire problem because without a shipping carrier, there is no dark web drug sales. Why are they not doing this?!?!
1. Re:the real solution by Anonymous Coward · 2019-03-26 06:43 · Score: 2, Insightful
  
  If a cop looks in the window of your car and see a pile of drugs, they don't need your permissions or a warrant to "search" it at that point.
  What if they just walk the dogs around every window of every house in your neighborhood?
2. Re:the real solution by Anonymous Coward · 2019-03-26 07:01 · Score: 0
  
  As long as they clean up the dog poo, I'm fine with that.
3. Re:the real solution by sjames · 2019-03-26 07:04 · Score: 4, Interesting
  
  If they did that, they would be forced to admit that there's enough residue on common items that the dog would alert to everything.
  For example, money. Pretty much all of it will test positive for at least cocaine.
  The dirty secret: Most of the time the dog alerts due to subtle cues from it's handler, not from something it smells.
4. Re:the real solution by anglico · 2019-03-26 07:12 · Score: 3, Informative
  
  When I was a UPS Driver in Santa Cruz we would get back to the building with our pick ups and there were San Jose PD drug sniffing dogs going over the conveyor belts. Any hits and they would pull the packages aside and then let the dogs go over them more thoroughly outside.
  The dogs were from the San Jose PD, and I don't know how many centers they would check, or maybe it was just Santa Cruz, but it happened every fall during harvest time. I told my grower friends if they are going to use UPS, make sure to use Next Day Air, those are taken from the truck to the airport shuttle pretty quickly to make flights out, so the dogs never got to sniff those.
  This was back in 2000 though, so things may have changed until it became legal.
5. Re:the real solution by Anonymous Coward · 2019-03-26 07:16 · Score: 0
  
  This is incredibly easy to get around with coffee.
6. Re:the real solution by LaughingRadish · 2019-03-26 07:35 · Score: 1
  
  Envelopes and parcels jostle together an awful lot. That means that enough residue for a dog to smell will easily pass from the envelope or parcel with drugs to one without. That means a lot of false positives. That means unreasonable search and seizure.
7. Re:the real solution by AvitarX · 2019-03-26 07:37 · Score: 3, Interesting
  
  let's see.
  1 dog, 6 packages/minute (unlikely they could actually do one in 10 seconds)).
  8 hours sniffing/day (no idea how many they actually can work, but between food, and walks, and what not, seems reasonable)
  that's 2800/dog/day
  UPS sends 15.8 million packages/day on average.
  So that's 5600 drug dogs (though they'd need 50% more in the winter).
  So, 4000 for the dog, 1000 for the training stuff, 2500 for food and vet over it's life, for 5 productive years
  1500/year * 5000 is 7.5 million/year.
  Of course, 5200 handlers is likely another 150 million or so.
  And to cover Christmas we're at 50% more.
  That's a lot of money, ignoring the fact that a 10 second per package bottle neck would make shipping that many packages practically impossible.
  
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8. Re:the real solution by ShanghaiBill · 2019-03-26 07:39 · Score: 3, Insightful
  
  If they did this, an obvious counter-measure would be for the drug gangs to pay an insider to smear a bit of cocaine paste on random packages.
  Misting all the packages with capsaicin would also work.
9. Re:the real solution by Anonymous Coward · 2019-03-26 07:52 · Score: 0
  
  > I told my grower friends
  You're saying that so casually, like everybody's got "grower friends"
10. Re:the real solution by Anonymous Coward · 2019-03-26 08:12 · Score: 0
  
  That would instantly solve the entire problem because without a shipping carrier, there is no dark web drug sales. Why are they not doing this?!?!
  What are you talking about? That wouldn't solve the problem,. it would make the problem much, much worse
  It's already hard enough to get good drugs on the 'net.
11. Re:the real solution by Anonymous Coward · 2019-03-26 08:24 · Score: 1
  
  Everybody has grower friends. Some just don't know it.
12. Re:the real solution by Anonymous Coward · 2019-03-26 08:30 · Score: 0
  
  Because drug dogs are there to look frightening and disrupt the planning stages of (drug smuggling, terrorist attack) and they don't actually work all that well. They've found at least some supposedly trained dogs are useless and will just signal drugs when they think that's what the handler want.
  Go ahead and search drug testing kits too. After they find drugs they'll often use totally useless tests despite the fact that accurate tests do exist to find drugs, it's very common to use kits invented in the 50s and long known to be bullshit (if you see a cop breaking open ampoules to pour some shit in a test tube and swish it around... that's probably the one.
  It's so strange that even all of this is not even disputed somehow this information doesn't get back to police departments.
  I wonder why?
13. Re:the real solution by Anonymous Coward · 2019-03-26 08:34 · Score: 0
  
  Anything mailed from my house has probably been used to funnel weed into a bowl.
  I'm a regular freedom fighter
14. Re:the real solution by del_diablo · 2019-03-26 08:38 · Score: 1
  
  There is a bigger horror here:
  What if Big Brother decides that its okay, and start tracking down people sending cocaine paste packages? I can see forced verification of return address to ship becoming common if somebody bothered.
  Generally the most interesting thing about enforcement is that it works so long its actually consistent and upheld. And what isn't enforced won't be enforced and will go nowhere.
15. Re: the real solution by Anonymous Coward · 2019-03-26 09:49 · Score: 0
  
  Dogs are trained for coffee. Vacuum sealer to the rescue
16. Re:the real solution by Jfetjunky · 2019-03-26 09:58 · Score: 1
  
  The dirty secret: Most of the time the dog alerts due to subtle cues from it's handler, not from something it smells.
  
  That's certainly an interesting assertion. Is it anecdotal or have people/studies shown this?
17. Re:the real solution by Anonymous Coward · 2019-03-26 10:10 · Score: 0
  
  That's because cops are corrupt.
  Cops DO NOT work for you.
  They work for the State, which is also inherently corrupt and entirely AGAINST YOU.
  The State does not give ONE SINGLE FUCK about you.
  Wake up.
  Search youtube: Mark Passio, Keith Knight, Larken Rose
  Free and correct your mind, improve society along with it.
  You and your children will be a lot happier and more free.
18. Re:the real solution by Anonymous Coward · 2019-03-26 10:46 · Score: 0
  
  Yes people have done studies that show this. I quickly searched "drug dog double blind tests" and got "Handler beliefs affect scent detection dog outcomes". You could search more thoroughly, but I think the answer to your questions is yes. We have studied this, and the dogs are biased by their handlers. My impression is that it is not insignificant either, but that's just me talking now (from a vague recollection of reading an article in the past).
19. Re:the real solution by sjames · 2019-03-26 12:20 · Score: 1
  
  The AC's link is good. Here's another
  Even ignoring that, the problem is more fundamental. Let's imagine for a moment the world's one and only infallible drug sniffing dog. He alerts to the SMELL of drugs. That is not the same as alerting to drugs actually in the package. If someone else's package full of drugs got damaged, there may be drugs ON the innocent package. If it rode in the back of a hot truck next to an imperfectly sealed box of pot, it will smell like pot. In either case since it is rare for only 2 packages to be carried together in a truck, far more packages will smell like drugs than actually contain drugs.
  Of course, in real life no dog is infallible. They all have a significant false positive rate above and beyond the innocent packages that came in contact with drugs.. When most of the packages checked do not contain drugs, it means MOST packages a dog alerts on will be innocent, which is more or less the opposite of reasonable suspicion.
20. Re:the real solution by Anonymous Coward · 2019-03-26 14:00 · Score: 0
  
  There an average contamination of money is 16 millionths of a gram. I very much doubt a dog can smell that.
21. Re:the real solution by sjames · 2019-03-26 15:51 · Score: 2
  
  You might be surprised. How much trace do you suppose you leave in a footstep? We know dogs can smell that and differentiate between two people.
22. Re:the real solution by Anonymous Coward · 2019-03-26 18:37 · Score: 0
  
  How did you think they sent it? DHL?
23. Re:the real solution by gweihir · 2019-03-26 19:37 · Score: 2
  
  You overlook two things: First, getting drugs is actually easy. And second, it is mostly tolerated, simply because doing something effective would cost a lot of people their jobs. The same people that are employed in the "war" on drugs, incidentally. So they just need to make enough arrests (mostly small, the occasional larger one, but never threatening the whole business) to keep the fear going and to justify their pay-checks. But they must never actually put a real dent in the thing.
  
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24. Re:the real solution by gweihir · 2019-03-26 19:41 · Score: 1
  
  Also, the whole thing does not work on the tech side in the first place. If it did, the packaging of the wares would just be upgraded to something the dogs cannot snuff though. Also, it is absolutely no problem to send, say, 10% fake shipments to people that never ordered anything, probably with just the carton soaked in the stuff to set off the dogs, but not endanger anybody at the target. That would kill the dog idea pretty fast. They would collapse from overwork and no useful result would ensue.
  
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25. Re:the real solution by strikethree · 2019-03-27 04:11 · Score: 1
  
  I worked at a UPS hub in San Diego and they had no drug sniffing dogs. Sure, if a driver noticed a massive marijuana smell from a package, the package would be given to the police, but it is not hard to keep your package from being so smelly that the driver picking it up has no idea what is inside.
  There may be drug sniffing dogs in some distribution centers but certainly not in all; furthermore, it is likely illegal (not tested in a court of law, yet) to have a dog at a distribution facility.
  
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26. Re:the real solution by Anonymous Coward · 2019-03-27 06:42 · Score: 0
  
  https://www.nytimes.com/2016/07/10/magazine/how-a-2-roadside-drug-test-sends-innocent-people-to-jail.html
27. Re:the real solution by Anonymous Coward · 2019-03-28 01:12 · Score: 0
  
  Hell, clean my windows so they can look in, and im fine with that too!
Don't think they aren't doing that to 8chan rn by Anonymous Coward · 2019-03-26 06:38 · Score: 0

8chan honeypot as hell!
There's no message on DM anywhere about this. by Anonymous Coward · 2019-03-26 06:43 · Score: 0

Haven't seen the message shown in the screenshot on ZDNet either before or after logging in.
1. Re:There's no message on DM anywhere about this. by Anonymous Coward · 2019-03-26 18:52 · Score: 0
  
  you should look harder
Ddos by Anonymous Coward · 2019-03-26 09:38 · Score: 0

The Ddos against Dream has been making it very awkward to actually use just for purchases so it must be awful for the vendors. It's a shame as it was a good market to me personally, keeping me away from actual criminals and various assholes in the real world. Dare I say it enabled me to become more effective for my community and colleagues.
Why is there such a pervasiveness about drugs? by k6mfw · 2019-03-26 10:50 · Score: 1

What's with this obsession with drugs? It seems everywhere there's this about drugs, that about drugs, war on drugs, legalize drugs, outlaw drugs, prescription drug costs, drug lords, drug commercials, miracle drugs, drug addicts, etc. OK, I drink coffee everyday so I guess I'm a druggie like everyone else. It seems to me just think a fraction of effort and money put into drugs were to be put into something else (i.e. fix all the rusty bridges or fix all the broken HVAC in schools) but maybe we simply don't have that mind set.

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1. Re: Why is there such a pervasiveness about drugs? by Anonymous Coward · 2019-03-26 13:30 · Score: 0
  
  Try some, then you'll know what it's all about. I'm 2 hours into a half tab of acid at the moment and I feel great. Not enough to cause hallucinations but enough to create a nice glow and sense of happiness and connectedness. Try some hallucinogens, they might show you what "drugs" are all about.
2. Re:Why is there such a pervasiveness about drugs? by Anonymous Coward · 2019-03-26 14:46 · Score: 0
  
  It's because it isn't really about drugs. They are more of a Mcguffin. It's about the money.
3. Re:Why is there such a pervasiveness about drugs? by Anonymous Coward · 2019-03-26 17:08 · Score: 0
  
  We are drugs. Even if you did not drink coffee you would still get high. Sure people would say its a natural high but the chemicals in your body still contain drugs. Go for a run? You gonna get drugged. Not everybody lives in existential certainty, they will use drugs to get their brain to act and perform differently sometimes for the better sometimes for the worse. Funnily enough the drug that causes the most pain is the one that is both legal and considered a right of passage. As for your final statement you could say that about many things like war, television, sports events, religion, elections....
4. Re:Why is there such a pervasiveness about drugs? by gweihir · 2019-03-26 19:45 · Score: 1
  
  Doing something positive with the money? Naa, we cannot have that. Doing negative things like fighting some trumped up evil is far easier, because you do not actually have to be effective. Some small victories here and there, the occasional larger one, but never anything decisive and never even attempt to win overall. That way you can be seen doing "good" all the time without needing any actual success or endangering your job.
  
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You are government property by Zack · 2019-03-26 12:25 · Score: 1

You are government property. That's why they get to decide what substances you can, can't, and must consume. People don't like corporations? Corporations don't send armed men to your house in the middle of the night to abduct you because you have a plant they don't like.
Government is the worst, freedom is so much better.
Sex and drugs by Anonymous Coward · 2019-03-26 17:12 · Score: 0

... collected from Hansa Market users to gain access to accounts on other dark web marketplaces.

Don't use re-use your banking and illegal marketplace passwords for other accounts.

... massive crackdown on dark-web drug trafficking ...

Humans have been mixing sex and drugs for many tens of thousands year: No amount of legislation and crackdowns will change that.
so people reusing passwords by Anonymous Coward · 2019-03-26 17:31 · Score: 0

we need to talk...you do know sysadmin can see your passwords right?
You must be new here by Anonymous Coward · 2019-03-26 20:09 · Score: 0

Ah, perhaps not.
I mourn for Slashdot by Plugh · 2019-03-27 01:24 · Score: 1

I came here to find the one thing I figured my fellow Slashdot geeks would be on top of: the technical details of how these people were de-anonymized. Another JavaScript exploit? Tor flaw? What? Instead I see pages of tired debate about drug legalization that I could get on any Facebook post. I want the tech details. Any pointers?

--
Part of the Second American Revolution!
1. Re:I mourn for Slashdot by Anonymous Coward · 2019-03-27 06:37 · Score: 0
  
  My thoughts exactly. These people should turn in their pocket-protectors, and go rant on some social site.
2. Re: I mourn for Slashdot by Plugh · 2019-03-27 07:53 · Score: 1
  
  From the various links in TFA, looks like somebody ODâ(TM)d, had a manila envelope, which surveillance (cams & mail routing info) tracked to sender. Repeat a few times, announce âoeWe are Coming for Youâ and âoeDarknet is not Safeâ coordinated press releases. Meh. Physical delivery is definitely the weak link in the DNM chain. I blame government-monopoly mail systems.
  
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