Drug rehab centers in Santa Barbara, Calif. and across the rest of the state maintain a constant influx of patients, some of whom have been supplying their addictions through the dark Web.
Unreachable through typical Internet browsers and search engines, the dark Web allows drug addicts to purchase and ship illegal drugs with bitcoins from the comfort of their own homes.
The Silk Road, far removed from the streets of Santa Barbara, was a dark Web black market for illegal drugs until the Federal Bureau of Investigation shut it down in 2013. Version 2.0 resurfaced in November of 2013. A year later, Silk Road’s founder Ross William Ulbricht was arrested and eventually sentenced to life in prison.
Law enforcement officials and rehab centers that viewed this shutdown and arrest as winning the battle over online drug markets were sorely mistaken.
Despite the shutdown of the infamous Silk Road, drug addicts continued to use Bitcoin to purchase illegal substances over the dark Web. The 2015 Global Drug Survey, led by addiction psychiatrist Dr. Adam Wintock of Kin’s College London, found that 23 percent of the 100,000 people polled admitted to purchasing drugs online for the first time in 2014—a 10 percent increase from 2013.
This data indicates that the Silk Road was only a small thread in the overall fabric of the dark Web drug trade. Santa Barbara residents looking for drugs online can now peruse the 25 or so markets that took over the dark Web after the Silk Road absconded its throne.
In a ranking of countries’ dark Web drug buys, the United States ranked sixth. 11.2 percent of Americans polled had bought drugs online–8 percent in the past year and 3.2 percent before 2014.
Rehab centers have recently seen a rise in admissions for MDMA, LSD and marijuana addictions, the three most popular drugs purchased with Bitcoin. Dark Web drug markets give addicts an anonymity that typical street drug purchase lacks. Drug rehab centers in coastal cities like Santa Barbara warn that the clandestine nature of dark Web transactions can make it more difficult for family and friends to identify addiction.
Bitcoin is typically used for illegal purchases because its transactions are considered anonymous. University of California at San Diego computer science researcher Sarah Meiklejohn has found a way to trace Bitcoins but noted, “There are ways of using Bitcoin privately… But if you’re a casual Bitcoin user, you’re probably not hiding your activity very well.”
With the number of dark Web drug purchases increasing from year to year, it’s easy to hypothesize a concurrent increase in drug addiction and admissions to rehab centers around the world.
Alex Kirkwood is a health writer reporter for Fusion 360, an SEO and content marketing agency. Information provided by Miramar Recovery Center. Follow on Twitter
Unreachable through typical Internet browsers and search engines, the dark Web allows drug addicts to purchase and ship illegal drugs with bitcoins from the comfort of their own homes.
The Silk Road, far removed from the streets of Santa Barbara, was a dark Web black market for illegal drugs until the Federal Bureau of Investigation shut it down in 2013. Version 2.0 resurfaced in November of 2013. A year later, Silk Road’s founder Ross William Ulbricht was arrested and eventually sentenced to life in prison.
Law enforcement officials and rehab centers that viewed this shutdown and arrest as winning the battle over online drug markets were sorely mistaken.
Despite the shutdown of the infamous Silk Road, drug addicts continued to use Bitcoin to purchase illegal substances over the dark Web. The 2015 Global Drug Survey, led by addiction psychiatrist Dr. Adam Wintock of Kin’s College London, found that 23 percent of the 100,000 people polled admitted to purchasing drugs online for the first time in 2014—a 10 percent increase from 2013.
This data indicates that the Silk Road was only a small thread in the overall fabric of the dark Web drug trade. Santa Barbara residents looking for drugs online can now peruse the 25 or so markets that took over the dark Web after the Silk Road absconded its throne.
In a ranking of countries’ dark Web drug buys, the United States ranked sixth. 11.2 percent of Americans polled had bought drugs online–8 percent in the past year and 3.2 percent before 2014.
Rehab centers have recently seen a rise in admissions for MDMA, LSD and marijuana addictions, the three most popular drugs purchased with Bitcoin. Dark Web drug markets give addicts an anonymity that typical street drug purchase lacks. Drug rehab centers in coastal cities like Santa Barbara warn that the clandestine nature of dark Web transactions can make it more difficult for family and friends to identify addiction.
Bitcoin is typically used for illegal purchases because its transactions are considered anonymous. University of California at San Diego computer science researcher Sarah Meiklejohn has found a way to trace Bitcoins but noted, “There are ways of using Bitcoin privately… But if you’re a casual Bitcoin user, you’re probably not hiding your activity very well.”
With the number of dark Web drug purchases increasing from year to year, it’s easy to hypothesize a concurrent increase in drug addiction and admissions to rehab centers around the world.
Alex Kirkwood is a health writer reporter for Fusion 360, an SEO and content marketing agency. Information provided by Miramar Recovery Center. Follow on Twitter