 |
| mobile AOD screening |
Anyone who regularly purchases illicit drugs is likely to be familiar with the term “Silk Road”. For those unfamiliar with it, Silk Road was an online black marketplace where people could buy illicit drugs like ecstasy, opioids, psychedelics, and precursors. They could also buy books, apparel, drug paraphernalia, and herbs and supplements. It began as a secret site on the “Darknet” that only people heavily involved in drugs knew how to access. It was shut down a few months ago by the United States Federal Bureau of Investigation for money laundering, drug trafficking, and computer hacking conspiracy.1 Now there is speculation as to where the 100,000 people around the world, who were regularly using the website, will turn in order to buy their drugs.
An Australian Problem
It is important to understand that Silk Road was taken down by U.S. law officials, but the use of the black market was not just a “U.S.” problem. Research was conducted on the awareness of Silk Road, the consumption of drugs purchased on the website, and the reasons people turned to Silk Road in the first place. Of the Australians included in the study (2,761 people), 53 percent had heard of Silk Road, compared to 65 percent in the U.S. and 40 percent in the United Kingdom. It was also reported that 7 percent of Australians surveyed had purchased drugs through Silk Road. The most common drugs purchased were MDMA, Cannabis, LSD, and the 2C family. The primary reasons Australians (and others) used Silk Road were the availability of a wider range of drugs, a higher quality of drugs, convenience, and the fact the site offered a vendor rating system.2
In October 2013, three men were charged with masterminding the website which sold illicit drugs and malicious software in addition to the other products mentioned earlier. Australians used the site regularly during the two-and-a –half years it was in operation. Assuming that Australians who used Silk Road will continue to buy, consume, and reuse the drugs they once obtained through the online black market, the question now is: Where will they go?
When the FBI documents were revealed, it was discovered that Australia was only behind the UK and the USA as the biggest source of Silk Road customers. They saved more than 75 percent of the price of drugs by purchasing them online. They could also get the drugs delivered by post. Now that their main source of drugs is shut down, where will they go? Some will go back to the streets, where there is no such thing as vendor ratings for drug dealers. Some will try to find new online sources. Since the drugs sourced in Australia costs so much more than those sold on Silk Road, there are drug users who will pool their money and buy in bulk.3
Taking New Forms
The degree of desperation to find new drug sources is directly related to the level of addiction, of course. However, the closure of Silk Road does not mean the online black market is gone. There are others like Sheep and Black Market Reloaded that have been in operation for a while. A new Silk Road is likely to appear also.
The underground websites are extremely sophisticated, using technologies like Tor that enables anonymous browsing and PGP for communications that is encrypted. Bitcoins are often used to pay for the transactions. Silk Road used all of these highly sophisticated technologies, and it is believed that it is still considered useful for anonymous buying and selling despite Silk Road’s closure. Silk Road was detected largely as a result of mistakes made by the website’s creators which enabled the FBI to locate the “Darknet” servers and hack into them.
It does not matter to employers where people obtain illicit drugs. Employers care about drug use impacting work performance and workplace safety.
However, it is important to understand what is going in the world of drug buying and selling because the more knowledge the better in the effort to maintain drug free workplaces. Consult with Mediscreen to learn more about an onsite drug testing and health screen system that can help businesses administer high quality programs.
No comments:
Post a Comment