In October 2013, the FBI shut down Silk Road, a thriving online black market where, with a bit of technical know-how, you could to purchase things like illicit drugs, forged documents and weapons. Think Amazon, but for drugs and other not-so-legal things. The FBI may have hoped that shutting down Silk Road would take a bite out of illicit drug sales online. But if anything, it appears the opposite has happened.
I think and hope that this trend will continue. You are taking all the violence and crime out of the equation while emphasizing safety and fair trade. You're taking the dealers selling to kids and replacing them with adults who can responsibly make their own decisions what they put in their systems. Little Timmy isn't going to figure out how to access these markets. If a darknet dealer is selling bad product he won't be around for long. This is capitalism at it's finest. Big Pharma wishes it could get in on this. They don't want the competition.But if anything, it appears the opposite has happened.
I think you're being a little too naive about what these sites are about. The article tries to pass these places off as legitimate as eBay or Amazon but true is they're far from it. Fair to say difficulty reaching the darknet will keep kids away, but this is the only barrier. Sellers learn as little as possible about buyers and wouldn't care if how old a buy is. And remember as darknet get more popular it becomes easier to find information on how to access them.
Good point. Plus if you can get drugs through customs who knows what else might be slipping through the cracks. The FBI is tackling it with their usual bull in a China shop gusto. Why regulate when we can destroy? Job security.