One of the day-to-day things I do with my website is manage the "comments" feature. Most people who feel moved to comment do so on the social media that I use to market the blog, so most of this just involves removing spam. (Frankly, I wish more people would use the blog to comment, as those ones stick with the story instead of disappearing by next week.)
I recently published a seven part series on addiction, initiated by an interview with Morgan Dandie Hannah. When I checked on the comments, I was astounded to find the following spam message from someone identified as Lydia lopicova.
Hi There, Thank you for sharing the knowledgeable blog with us I hope that you will post many more blog with us:- Buy Carfentanil Online,Buy Carfentanil Online,Carfentanil for sale,Oder Carfentanil Online USA,Buy Carfentanil Online UK,Carfentanil Online for sale in UK. Email:hahuunam7394@gmail.com Click here for more information:- more info
If you look at "Lydia lopicova" profile on Blogger, you can see that she has four different websites that she manages. Between them, they sell:
- Adderall
- Roxicoden
- Xanax
- Fake university credentials
If you look at the "more info" link above in my spam quote, you can see that someone is running a full-service illegal drug supermarket, including:
 |
| Yup, that's what is supposed to be carfentanil---10,000 times as potent as morphine! (Screenshot by Bill Hulet) |
I'm going to include a few more screen shots because I strongly suspect that a lot of this stuff is eventually going to be taken off line---so I want a record for future generations to show how loopy things had gotten by the beginning of the 21st century. Here's the generic "patter" that they use to start the page. (I wonder if this is done to "spoof" any artificial intelligence program that would be on the look for this sort of activity?)
Welcome to Amazing Drug Store Online
Our Drug Store Online wants you and your family to be healthy and satisfied with your health care. Medical counselled care medical plans have their own doctors, consultants, clinics, pharmacies, and pills shop.You can choose the medical health care website or direct contact for all your health care use. Medical handled care medical plans offer special and best health care such as checkups, habit tests for adults, and shots for children and youngster that can comfort you stay healthful. You can go to your primary care provider (PCP) 1st, unless it is an emergency or a family planning visit. Our pharmaceutical plan has a member services department or an after-hours number that you can call. Keeping or changing your medical plan does not disciple your ability for next programs.
Check out the wide variety of items to help "you and your family to be health and satisfied with your health care"
There's also four helpful payment methods to allow people to avoid that icky criminal law stuff---.
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It's the season for giving. If you can afford it, why not give a subscription to the Back-Grounder? Pay Pal and Patreon make it easy. It'll give you a warm glow to know that you are doing your bit to build independent media in Guelph.
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When I first started looking at the website I wondered about whether it was "for real" or just a way of swindling naive would-be criminals out of their bitcoins. But looking around on line, I found a couple reputable sources that would seem to indicate that yes, this is a real thing.
What's fascinating about this is the fact that this stuff isn't on the dark web or deep web, but the clear web. For those you who---like me---didn't know about this stuff until now, here's a definition of each:
- The dark web is the dangerous, illegal stuff that is hidden from people. Think kiddie porn, sales of stolen identities, mercenary bot armies, spy stuff, illegal drug bazaars, etc. It also includes things like hidden communication systems that allow people in authoritarian countries (like China and Iran) to still use the Web to share info and organize. It's also used by journalists who want to protect their sources when they have explosive stories---like the "Panama Papers" story about foreign tax havens.
- The deep web is the place where legal but still secret info gets shared on a strictly "need to know" basis using sophisticated protection on websites hidden from search engines and which can only be accessed using passwords, fingerprint or retinal scans. Think about money transactions sent by banks, credit card companies, etc.
- The clear web. Information sent out to anyone who wants to know about it. This blog, for example.
According to a 2018 article in the Dayton Daily News
In a report released late Wednesday, the Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations, chaired by Sen. Rob Portman, R–Ohio, found that Chinese websites selling fentanyl and carfentanil are incredibly responsive, supremely confident in their ability to get drugs into the United States and likely responsible for some of the tens of thousands of U.S. deaths from drug overdoses that occurred last year.
Among them, according to the report, was a 49–year–old man from a small town near Cleveland who paid $2,500 over the course of 10 months to an online overseas seller between May 2016 and February 2017, receiving 18 packages in return. One package sent from China spent just an hour in customs before being released for delivery. The man died in early 2017. His autopsy report said his death was caused by “acute fentanyl intoxication.”
In an April 2019 press release from the Australian National University and published on Medical Xpress. It says that in Australia there is a big shift taking place in the importation of illegal drugs from China.
Accessing these drugs is almost as easy as buying a book on Amazon. Australia is a good market, because Australians pay a premium for drugs.
There are fewer sellers selling big amounts and many sellers selling small amounts and it is in such small amounts, it makes it easy to move. It is like ants moving houses and terrifically profitable.
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I'm making a fuss about this, because there is a assumption in our culture about criminals importing drugs into this country. It may or may not have ever been true, but if we can believe what I've reported above, it certainly isn't now.
A great many movies and television shows are based on this understanding. Here're three:
In a nutshell, this is the idea that there are big, bad, mobsters who are controlling the wholesale importation of drugs. Opposing them are the police who are the "thin blue line" between these awful folks and the naive children of ordinary citizens who can be seduced by dealers into becoming hooked on these awful poisons.
What I hope I've pointed out in this series of articles (and with this addendum) is---at least now---this appears to be total and utter nonsense. The real "dealers" who hook the citizens on these drugs turn out to have often been well-meaning doctors who were bamboozled by the salesmen for major drug companies into thinking prescription opioids like oxycontin were perfectly safe. And the big bad drug tycoons who distribute these illegal drugs to street dealers now appear to be just business people in China who use all the same sorts of modern web-based techniques that any other business uses. In other words, the people flooding the streets with horrid stuff like fentanyl and carfentanil are merely capitalists---just like the folks at Amazon and Walmart.
What this all means to me is that the only way we can really cut down on the number of addicts in our city is not by cutting the supply of drugs, but rather by cutting down the demand for the product. And that can only come by spending a lot of money dealing with the problems that afflict these people in the first place. We need to deal with homelessness, childhood trauma, poverty, domestic violence, and, put real coin into supporting people with all types of mental illness.
Anything else is just a fantasy fueled by ideology.
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