Silk Road forums
Discussion => Off topic => Topic started by: The Scientist on March 24, 2013, 08:12 pm
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I've suspected ever since ''Silk Road'' emerged that a lot of this product is originating in hostile and semi-hostile territories, or at least states where the authorities have an interest in not cooperating with the United States - the PRC, North Korea, Iran, Syria, Turkey, Russia, etc. This system doesn't really make sense otherwise.
In the early (mid-1990s) days of the internet, government would handle the purchase of anabolic steroids and other banned substances as follows: they'd aggressively prosecute domestic sources but largely ignore overseas providers of contraband; so long as the purchaser was not importing comparatively large amounts of the product in question. The reasoning being, its a waste of man-hours to simply prosecute people for buying Schedule III drugs when there is no way of indicting the source.
That doesn't mean government isn't indicting people who purchase drugs on Silk Road - but it seems like something of a losing proposition if the governments in the states where the contraband originates are unwilling to prosecute in concert with US authorities.
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Holy conspiracy theories batman!
However given that SR does a hell of a lot more trade(both import and export) in the EU than USA, I think it's a bit of a stretch.
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Some of it maybe, but I believe most products sold domestically are manufactured/grown domestically. I would not be surprised if some of the "rogue states" are supporting the hard drugs though, those actually have the potential to undermine the integrity of nation instead of stuff like weed and the psychedelics.
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a lot of pharmaceuticals and research chems are made in india and china, heroin from middle east/afghanistan, cocaine south america, mdma needs sassafras trees which grow in asia then they ship the extract to labs in the netherlands... no idea why you'd accuse north korea, iran and syria etc, what have they done to raise eyebrows with regards to drug production? nuclear program perhaps, sketchy weapons dealing of course but drugs? are you basing these suspicions on anything other than that you're american and they don't like your country? as for russia lol their junkies are falling apart from that krokodil shit because they can't access real drugs.
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The only instances I'm aware of where drug production and exportation have strong ties to the government is Colombia (most Cocaine profits go into the hands of government-run paramilitaries backed by the US) and the US (which forces countries to accept the sale and advertising of cheap tobacco). Not to say these are the only two, but they're the ones that spring to mind.
Both are done for money and have nothing to do with influencing the foreign or domestic policy of the country that the drug is being exported to. I don't know much about the Opium wars, but I think that may be an example of government-backed drug exportation in the hopes of effecting the policy of another state.
The idea that the Iranian government is producing narcotics to export to Europe and/or America is bizarre. What effect would that possibly have on US foreign policy, beyond providing the hostile superpower a much-needed pretext for military action? Maybe if they were flooding us all with cheap acid and hoping to turn the American population away from militarism. That would be a hair-brained idea, but one that I'd most certainly welcome and encourage!
Edit: I hope this doesn't sound too antagonistic! Just don't see the logic of anyone, least of all Iran, doing anything at all like this.