There’s a myth that is still being perpetuated about Silk Road, the drug bazaar making headlines again thanks to the trial of its alleged mastermind Ross Ulbricht: that it helped reduce drug-related crime. A study published last year, from University of Manchester’s Judith Aldridge and the University of Montreal’s David Décary-Hétu, drew plenty of interest for its claim that Silk Road’s “virtual location should reduce violence, intimidation and territorialism”.
The researchers said dealers on the Tor-based site were able to “trade in an environment with many fewer of the risks typically associated with drug markets, including non-payment from customers, theft of product and cash, and violence”. This was largely put down to the fact that dealers wouldn’t need to tussle over turf - they wouldn’t have any inkling as to where other dealers even lived thanks to the high level of anonymity provided by encrypted communications and Bitcoin payments on the site. They also suggested a geekier, predominantly white middle-class brand of drug pusher was likely behind many of the monikers on Silk Road and they were less likely to resort to violence.
The study’s ideas were intriguing. But, as Ulbricht sweats in the courtroom and dealers testify about their own experiences on Silk Road, there remains no data to suggest any of these ideas hold true. In a brief email conversation with Aldridge, she told Forbes there remained no solid data that pointed to a reduction of violence related to the rise of dark web drug markets like Silk Road. She also agreed “most drugs market-related violence is connected to sourcing stock”, much of which happens away from the internet, though Aldridge believes many of those on the site were in fact sourcing stock, hence the “violence-reducing potential”. The potential is certainly there and Aldridge is hoping for funding to get data showing just how much of an impact Silk Road had.
Click here to read about the shutdown of the illegal bazaar and its tale of online secrecy, murders-for-hire, courtroom drama and corruption.
The former drug agony aunt of Silk Road, Dr Fernando Caudevilla, known online as Dr. X, told me he also believes in the positive impact the site and its competitors have had. Caudevilla, a genuine doctor living in Spain who now offers advice on the increasingly popular Evolution market, said such sites provide useful information for drug users and so create a friendly environment, not one caught up in violence and gang warfare.
Doctor X - Dr Fernando Caudevilla
But claims of violence reduction remain unproven hypothesie, possibly dangerous ones, as attested to during the ongoing trial in New York this week, which saw the testimony of a former heroin dealer on Silk Road. Michael Duch’s story makes for grim reading: an IT entrepreneur, who got hooked on heroin after a doctor prescribed opiate painkillers for a sports injury, chose to become a dealer on Silk Road to feed his habit. When asked if he’d ever considered dealing on the street, he said never. This was perhaps the most damning indictment of the Silk Road’s legacy yet: it allowed someone to start selling one of the most harmful addictive substances going when they wouldn't have done so previously.
Where did he get the drugs to start with? From the street. The potential for violence was still extant. And though Duch may not have been involved in a violent incident as a result of his drug dealing, his life consisted of quotidian needs fulfilled by easy drug supply and booming sales. Rather than give him the safety and comfort he craved, the Silk Road seems only to have exacerbated this awful stasis.
There were, undeniably, some benefits to Silk Road, ones that continue to be tested by the likes of Evolution. It gave drug users a chance to talk openly about their habits in a non-judging environment. It spurred on discussion about legalisation of narcotics, which many would support given the abject failure of the War on Drugs. “Only dark web sites are having this impact,” added Caudevilla. Some have also suggested the supply on Silk Road was cleaner than what was handed out on the street (though again this has not been subjected to thorough research).
But the claim drug-related violence has reduced thanks to dark web sites doesn’t stand up to scrutiny. Much of the violence in the world of narcotics is between gangs and along the supply chain, not in the final handover between dealer and user. The worsening troubles in Mexico, where gruesome reports of students murdered by mistake and horrific acts of cannibalism amongst drug gangs, are testament to that. The only way this reporter can foresee a decline in that kind of violence is either through legalisation of the trade entirely or better education on the awful impact drug use can have, not just on users but on those who help feed them too.
