back to article Silk Road dealer 'SuperTrips' faces 40 years for DVD drug imports

US law enforcement is claiming a victory in its 43-year War on Drugs™ after a Dutch man accused of being one of the largest drug dealers on the now-defunct Silk Road online bazaar agreed to plead guilty to a single drug conspiracy charge. Over an 18-month period, the Feds allege, Cornelis Jan Slomp sent 104 kilograms of MDMA, …

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  1. Stephen 2

    Appropriate

    "Slomp wanted them to handle customer support because they had better English language skills that he."

  2. DavCrav

    I know there's a Send Corrections button, but...

    "Prosecutors claim Slomp wanted them to handle customer support because they had better English language skills that he."

    Just thought it was too good to not be quoted for posterity.

    Edit: Damn! Just not quick enough. Gave Stephen 2 a thumbs up, purely for his posting speed.

  3. Tom 7

    40 years in prison

    effect on drugs market: Nill, Zilch, Nada.

    1. RegMidnight

      Re: 40 years in prison

      And as an American, I get to enjoy paying taxes for the investigation, prosecution, and incarceration. Whereas if we simply allowed people to do what they want, the sales would actually benefit the economy, in addition to the savings from not chasing and locking people up.

      1. Matt Bryant Silver badge
        FAIL

        Re: RegMidnight Re: 40 years in prison

        "....if we simply allowed people to do what they want, the sales would actually benefit the economy, in addition to the savings from not chasing and locking people up." The criminals involved are not the junkies 'doing what they want', they are the people deliberately making a profit illegally from the misery of others. And if you think the hard drugs sold by organized criminals are harmless I suggest you need to do a lot more reading on the social impact of such drugs. After all, it would also be a lot cheaper to simply put all the junkies up against the wall rather than spend public money on rehabilitation programs, needle exchange programs, methadone programs, help groups for junkies trying to get clean, 'awareness' campaigns, and just think of the police and military savings if we just forego the War on Drug dealers and make it a War on Drug users. Simply pass one law - all users and handlers of illegal drugs can be executed by members of the public, no need for a trial - and we can even save extra money on psychopath treatment by making them productive members of society doing 'what they want'! There could even be an economic boost from selling weapons to the psychos to kill junkies with (well, at least until all the junkies are dead). Are you sure arguing on legality on the basis of 'doing what you want' is such a good idea?

        1. BlueGreen

          Re: RegMidnight 40 years in prison @Plump & Bleaty

          Oh god, lambchop, you just don't change. You put up specious arguments and have them blown down again and agian and aggan and agasdfasffff.... And then you come back for another hoofing, spouting more made-up 'facts' and forever distorting what people say.

          Nothing changes in your head, no new connections formed, no new neurons fire, the eternality of when the entire clockwork of the universe has run down to utter stillness and silence and you're frozen forever at that point.

          1. Matt Bryant Silver badge
            FAIL

            Re: Boring Green Re: RegMidnight 40 years in prison @Plump & Bleaty

            "....You put up specious arguments and have them blown down again and agian and aggan and agasdfasffff...." And, yet again, again, you seem unable to actually post any argument, let alone one that could even be considered interesting let alone knock anything down. Please do try a lot harder or just give up, mmmkay?

            1. M Gale

              Re: Boring Green RegMidnight 40 years in prison @Plump & Bleaty

              If we're going on anecdotes, I've seen too many people trashed by the effects of ethanol. But, that's just damned inconvenient for your argument, isn't it?

              Never mind that unless you want to turn the world into North Korea, you will not, ever, in a million years stamp out recreational use of drugs. Hell, I bet even the Norks have a problem in that regard.

              So keep waging that war. We all love a good war. Especially when it has a total positive benefit of around the square root of fuck all and a massive cost economically and socially. Meanwhile, those few countries that have liberalised their laws, that do not punish, torture and/or kill you for what you choose to put in your body, continue to see drops in the usage of hard drugs. In fact, drops in the usage of all recreational drugs.

              But that's just damned inconvenient for the sadistic psychopaths who want a good excuse to fuck someone over, isn't it?

              1. Matt Bryant Silver badge
                Stop

                Re: Blowhard Re: Boring Green RegMidnight 40 years in prison @Plump & Bleaty

                "....I've seen too many people trashed by the effects of ethanol. But, that's just damned inconvenient for your argument, isn't it?...." See? Straight into the 'drink and fags are worse' schpiel. What, is it written on the crack bags nowadays? As I pointed out already, simply stating that alcohol and cigarettes cause health issues does not in any way mitigate the massive harm done by illegal drugs. Major denial.

                "....unless you want to turn the world into North Korea...." What, only a despotic dictatorship could ever want to halt the damage done by illegal drugs? But you just said alcohol and tobacco are so bad that you would want to stop them, so you're just Kim il Jong Mk2? And, as you obviously failed to notice, our democratically elected politicians maintain the laws on illegal drugs because they are supported by the majority of the electorate, so it is you and your drug-addled chums that are in the minority.

                "....those few countries that have liberalised their laws, that do not punish, torture and/or kill you for what you choose to put in your body, continue to see drops in the usage of hard drugs...." Which 'liberalised' countries do you mean? Maybe Holland, where the official policy has four objectives:

                1.To prevent recreational drug use and to treat and rehabilitate recreational drug users.

                2.To reduce harm to users.

                3.To diminish public nuisance by drug users (the disturbance of public order and safety in the neighborhood).

                4.To combat the production and trafficking of recreational drugs.

                Wow, that doesn't sound like the ringing endorsement of the virtues of hard drugs you insist it is! Oh, and 72% of the organised crime in Holland is still drug-related.

                Or maybe Switzerland, which tried a crackdown, then gave in to liberal pressure and started treatment including not just methadone but professionally administered heroin. The result has been that heroin abuse has hit a steady population of long-term addicts, whilst other drug abuse has seen a steady increase in Switzerland over the last thirteen years. For all the anti-Yank rants posted on here by you sheeple, it will no doubt come as a major shock to hear that Switzerland makes more arrests (per capita) for simple possession of cannabis than even the United States. Indeed, the public were so alarmed that the Swiss government could not pass a law to decriminalise cannabis in 2004. The recent austerity measures introduced due to the depression have meant many Swiss have strongly objected to continuing the current spending on the liberal drug program.

                "....But that's just damned inconvenient for the sadistic psychopaths who want a good excuse to fuck someone over, isn't it?" But I thought you were arguing FOR the drug dealers?

                1. M Gale

                  Re: Blowhard Boring Green RegMidnight 40 years in prison @Plump & Bleaty

                  See? Straight into the 'drink and fags are worse' schpiel.

                  Because they are.

                  But you just said alcohol and tobacco are so bad that you would want to stop them

                  Where? It would certainly be a sensible idea not to take up tobacco as it's bloody addictive and bloody harmful, but where did I mention "wanting to stop" them? Thanks, but I don't want to expand your war even further. It's just not worth it.

                  And, as you obviously failed to notice, our democratically elected politicians maintain the laws on illegal drugs because they are supported by the majority of the electorate, so it is you and your drug-addled chums that are in the minority.

                  When slavery was abolished, only a minority of people supported it.

                  A majority voted to ban gay marriage in California.

                  In neither case did the baying mob get what they wanted. Sometimes, the minority needs protecting from the tyranny of the majority. Like now. A free country is far more than an X on a ballot paper. Just because it's the best out of a bunch of bad ways of choosing which bastards tell everyone else what to do, doesn't mean that mob rule is suitable for everything.

                  Ultimately, your war is futile and costing more than it saves, in human life and money. There is no logic to it. However, it does give a few authoritarians a nice erection I'm sure.

                  Wow, that doesn't sound like the ringing endorsement of the virtues of hard drugs you insist it is!

                  Where am I endorsing hard drugs?

                  Oh, and 72% of the organised crime in Holland is still drug-related.

                  Because. It. Is. Illegal.

                  Really Matt, learn to stick 2 and 2 together and come up with 4, instead of -1.

                  Or maybe Switzerland, which tried a crackdown, then gave in to liberal pressure and started treatment including not just methadone but professionally administered heroin. The result has been that heroin abuse has hit a steady population of long-term addicts, whilst other drug abuse has seen a steady increase in Switzerland over the last thirteen years.

                  Background Heroin-assisted treatment has been found to be effective for people with severe opioid dependence who are not interested in or do poorly on methadone maintenance.

                  Aims: To study heroin-assisted treatment in people on methadone who continue intravenous heroin and in those who are heroin dependent but currently not in treatment.

                  Method: In an open-label multicentre randomised controlled trial, 1015 people with heroin dependence received a variable dose of injectable heroin (n=515) or oral methadone (n=500) for 12 months. Two response criteria, improvement of physical and/or mental health and decrease in illicit drug use, were evaluated in an intent-to-treat analysis.

                  Results: Retention was higher in the heroin (67.2%) than in the methadone group (40.0%) and the heroin group showed a significantly greater response on both primary outcome measures. More serious adverse events were found in the heroin group, and were mainly associated with intravenous use.

                  Conclusions: Heroin-assisted treatment is more effective for people with opioid dependence who continue intravenous heroin while on methadone maintenance or who are not enrolled in treatment. Despite a higher risk, it should be considered for treatment resistance under medical supervision.

                  --Christian Haasen, MD, Uwe Verthein, PhD, Peter Degkwitz, PhD and others (2007) Heroin-assisted treatment for opioid dependence [online] Available at http://bjp.rcpsych.org/content/191/1/55 [last accessed: April 2014]

                  Indeed, the public were so alarmed that the Swiss government could not pass a law to decriminalise cannabis in 2004.

                  Which just shows you what a bunch of FUD can do. You're also guilty of lumping everything together under the umbrella term "DRUGZ" yet again. Fine, so long as you include ethanol in that.

                  But I thought you were arguing FOR the drug dealers?

                  Where?

                  1. Matt Bryant Silver badge
                    FAIL

                    Re: Blowhard Re: Blowhard Boring Green RegMidnight 40 years in prison @Plump & Bleaty

                    "Because they are....." Again, that's just trying to diminish the impact of drugs. It is as stupid as saying 'murder is a worse crime than rape, therefore we should ignore rape'. The relative harm of one does not excuse the other, it's just you want to baaaah-lieve it to be so.

                    ".....When slavery was abolished, only a minority of people supported it....." The abolition of slavery (at least in the Empire) was passed by majority votes in the democratically elected Houses of Parliament with the passing of the Slave Trade Act of 1807 and the Slavery Abolition Act 1833. In the US it was the Thirteenth Amendment to the Constitution, passed by majority vote in (again) the democratically elected Senate (1864) and House of Reps (1865). Now, if as you claim, those had not been popular with the majority, then why were those politicians not replaced at the next election with politicians willing to repeal those Acts and Amendments? So, sorry, but you're wrong again. The majority supported the abolition of slavery, and the majority support the current laws against hard and 'recreational' drugs.

                    "....Ultimately, your war is futile and costing more than it saves, in human life and money. There is no logic to it. However, it does give a few authoritarians a nice erection I'm sure...." And your statistics and verifiable facts to support that argument are... oh, as usual, you don't have any. All you have is a vague dribbling about erections (something you think about a lot, maybe?).

                    You then posted that bit form "Heroin-assisted treatment for opioid dependence", which did not disprove anything I posted about how the treatment has maintained a hard-core of long-term heroin abusers. Sorry, but what exactly was your point, that hard-core junkies prefer free heroin to free methadone? Hardly a surprise. It also did not deal with the continued rise in drug abuse in Switzerland, a country held up as an icon of liberal progressiveness. Please do try harder.

                    "....Which just shows you what a bunch of FUD can do...." So, once again, if you do not agree with someone's arguments (in this case the Swiss Governments) it has to be FUD? Very open-minded of you! Tell you what, since you stated it was all FUD, please do go away and research the debate and show that all the arguments presented against the legalisation of cannabis were FUD as you claim. It should be easy for you if it really was just all FUD, right? Before you do, you may want to also consider that the Swiss also held a referendum on legalising cannabis in 2008 where only 36.7% actually voted for legalisation. So it would appear that the 'FUD' was damn good stuff!

                    "....You're also guilty of lumping everything together under the umbrella term "DRUGZ" yet again...." Oh puh-leeeeease, that is just pathetic. 'My drug is not a bad drug, alcohol is so much badder'. Yeah, whatever. It obviously escaped your attention that the UK Government, off the back of a mandate from the majority, set the classifications (A,B and C) for illegal 'recreational' drugs, not me. And in the US it was their Government, also off a majority mandate, which set the classifications and punishments for importing such drugs as SuperTrips allegedly smuggled into the US. If you don't like it then you go waste your vote on some minor party politician willing to legalise your drug of choice, and if you should ever get a majority then you can quit whining. Either way, what SuperTrips is charged with is criminal in the States.

                2. Captain Thyratron

                  Re: Blowhard Boring Green RegMidnight 40 years in prison @Plump & Bleaty

                  For the record, an unashamedly Stalinist totalitarian state is not sufficient to stop, or even very well stem, the production and distribution of illegal drugs. In particular, North Korea has a major meth problem:

                  http://blogs.wsj.com/korearealtime/2013/08/20/north-korea-grapples-with-crystal-meth-epidemic/

                  So exactly what do anti-drug laws accomplish, if even three-generations-of-punishment-land can't keep people from puffing the bingdu?

                  Well. Besides destroying respect for the law and for law enforcement officers and costing lots of money and manpower.

                  Is this really less harmful--in Pyongyang or anywhere else--than encouraging people to know themselves, to know their sources, and to know their drugs, and cultivating a culture of being responsible for one's own actions? Is the strict enforcement of paranoid laws ever a substitute for that?

                  1. Matt Bryant Silver badge
                    Facepalm

                    Re: Captain Re: Blowhard Boring Green RegMidnight 40 years in prison....

                    "....Well. Besides destroying respect for the law and for law enforcement officers and costing lots of money and manpower....." Maybe your view is blocked by the rest of your flock, but the rest of the population don't seem to share your disrespect of the Police for putting drug smugglers and dealers behind bars. And policing any form of crime costs, and in this case much, much less than the cost to the population of drug-related crime. So if, as even Blowhard admits, drug use is reducing, it would seem an effective use of the money as well. There is, of course, no way to calculate the number of lives saved from ruin by the actions of the Police and other parties fighting the WoD, but then that's probably something the pro-drug crowd would rather gloss over.

                    "....than encouraging people to know themselves, to know their sources, and to know their drugs, and cultivating a culture of being responsible for one's own actions?...." Which is all part of the 'soft' side of the WoD. And it looks like SuperTrips will be finding out plenty about having to take responsibility for his actions. He can swap notes on knowing drugs with the other inmates he meets in the prison showers.

                  2. Alan Brown Silver badge

                    Re: Blowhard Boring Green RegMidnight 40 years in prison @Plump & Bleaty

                    "For the record, an unashamedly Stalinist totalitarian state is not sufficient to stop, or even very well stem, the production and distribution of illegal drugs. In particular, North Korea has a major meth problem"

                    Given that NK is the world's single largest producer of the stuff (some estimates are as high as 80% of the world's supply), that's not particularly surprising, especially when being off your face takes your mind off being starving.

                3. Psyx

                  Re: Blowhard Boring Green RegMidnight 40 years in prison @Plump & Bleaty

                  "our democratically elected politicians maintain the laws on illegal drugs because they are supported by the majority of the electorate"

                  And ultimately that's why they are illegal. Not because of the harm caused, health or anything else, but simply because a bunch of old voters would have a paddy and threaten to reverse their life-long dedication to a single party should things change.

                  The sooner they die, the better, really.

                  "so it is you and your drug-addled chums that are in the minority."

                  Dick.

                  Sorry: If you're going to reply to comments with insults and blind assertions, I thought I'd return the favour. Not everyone who supports legalising drugs is either taking them right now or taking them at all. I know it's hard for you to understand, but some people hold political views not entirely based around their own whims, but based on the rights that they wish everyone to have. It's like you with guns. You might not be a homicidal redneck yourself, but you broadly agree with their desire to legally own firearms.

                  "Oh, and 72% of the organised crime in Holland is still drug-related."

                  Well yeah, duh: That's because the drugs aren't legal at the 'business end'. A tolerant policy towards users is not going to decrease organised crime involvement.

                  " then gave in to liberal pressure and started treatment including not just methadone but professionally administered heroin."

                  There's a difference? More people died in Scotland last year with methadone in them than heroin. Our current treatment policy kills more people than the drug itself.

                  Meanwhile, more people died playing football than with MDMA in their system.

                  Crippling addicts will always find something to be addicted to. Blame their psychology rather than the specific vice. Drug users aren't all addicts, though. The vast majority aren't. The vast majority are reasonable people who would generally prefer not to have to give money to criminals to obtain their vice.

                  1. Matt Bryant Silver badge
                    FAIL

                    Re: Psyx Re: Blowhard Boring Green RegMidnight 40 years in prison @Plump & Bleaty

                    "....Not because of the harm caused, health or anything else, but simply because a bunch of old voters would have a paddy and threaten to reverse their life-long dedication to a single party should things change....." Yeah, I see you're having problems understanding that whole 'democracy' thing as well. Does it comfort you to pretend it's just the old fuddyduddies?

                    "....That's because the drugs aren't legal at the 'business end'. A tolerant policy towards users is not going to decrease organised crime involvement....." Really? But isn't the first bleat of the sheeple on this subject is always the insistence that legalization of cannabis will stop drug crime? You really need to get your story straight with the rest of the flock.

                    ".....Meanwhile, more people died playing football than with MDMA in their system....." So you've stopped trying to insist your drug (habit) of choice should be legalized because 'booze'n'fags are worse', now you want to excuse the deaths from drugs by comparing it to football? It's not replacement deaths, moron, it's ADDITIONAL deaths. And how many football matches involved a player mugging a grannie to pay for his football boots?

                    "....The vast majority are reasonable people who would generally prefer not to have to give money to criminals to obtain their vice." You mean the ones you meet. You really need to get out of your tiny circle of the hip'n'trendy and actually learn some facts. Until then you're just another sucker trying to excuse your habit.

        2. Captain Thyratron

          Re: RegMidnight 40 years in prison

          Most of the social impact of drugs is not the social impact of the drugs themselves, per se, but of their illegality and the stigma attached to them. Drug users have a harder time finding jobs--not because they are any less able to work, but because people like you think they deserve to be shot. They suffer social isolation--not because they are less able to interact with people, but because many of their would-be friends are people like you who think they deserve to be shot. And these things, in turn, result in many secondary and tertiary forms of unpleasantness, all with their attendant costs, such as underemployment and its effects on health and crime, and the effect on mental health of knowing that millions of holier-than-thou types want them dead.

          Alcohol and tobacco provably do more physical and mental harm than marijuana, LSD, psilocybin, or MDMA, and lung cancer, cirrhosis, pancreatic cancer, stroke, heart disease, and drunken violence all inflict immense costs on society. However, because they are widely accepted as normal, their users do not suffer from the effects of being ostracized by their peers and by law enforcement, and their negative consequences are simply accepted as facts of life. We tried ostracizing them, back when people thought the Volstead Act was a good idea. Few people today seriously consider the idea of reviving it. Tell me, have you been to a pub recently?

          A good friend of mine died of cardiac arrest on the toilet because he felt like he had something to hide. If he had asked for a sitter--or had some safe, FDA-approved source as opposed to the internet--he would likely be alive today and still be pursuing a chemistry degree.

          1. Matt Bryant Silver badge
            FAIL

            Re: Captain Tantrum Re: RegMidnight 40 years in prison

            "....Drug users have a harder time finding jobs--not because they are any less able to work...." Rubbish, they are usually less able to work because drug addiction makes them less able to work. And you seem to be oblivious to the simple fact drug users CHOOSE to be drug users, so - TBH - tough!

            "....people like you think they deserve to be shot...." Did I say I thought they deserved to be shot? No, I did not. I merely posted a farcial argument of the cost savings and economic benefits of doing so to show how stupid RegMidnight's argument that legalising drugs would only save the taxpayer money. Where does the moron think all those junkies that steal now for illegal drugs are suddenly going to get money for legalised drugs? The simple truth is they will still commit crimes to feed their habits.

            ".....They suffer social isolation--not because they are less able to interact with people..." But because their interaction with other people is all to often to steal from them.

            "....And these things, in turn, result in many secondary and tertiary forms of unpleasantness...." Well boo-fucking-hoo. What, was it simply too hard for you to understand 'Just say no'?

            "....Alcohol and tobacco provably do more physical and mental harm...." And here we go with the usual junkie mantra - 'cigs and drink are worse' - which does not in any way reduce the harm drugs do. Two wrongs do not make a right, so bleating on about tobacco and alcohol in an attempt to justify legalising drugs is just denial.

            "...A good friend of mine died of cardiac arrest on the toilet because he felt like he had something to hide...." So he was an idiot? No, seriously, he was stupid enough to get into drugs, then stupid enough not to seek help, and you want to paint that as some great sob story when the truth is his decisions put him there. You can blame society, you can blame inequality (kinda hard if he was doing a degree), whatever you like, but the truth is your friend made all the decisions that put him on that toilet. And then you think it would be a good idea to encourage more people to kill themselves by legalising drugs???? WTF?

            1. Captain Thyratron

              Re: Captain Tantrum RegMidnight 40 years in prison

              Cool, I have a nickname from Matt. At last I'm a regular!

            2. Psyx

              Re: Captain Tantrum RegMidnight 40 years in prison

              "'....Drug users have a harder time finding jobs--not because they are any less able to work....' Rubbish, they are usually less able to work because drug addiction makes them less able to work. "

              Matt; User != addict. You just deliberately changed the words to comply with your point. A completely spurious line of argument. So: Bollocks.

              "The simple truth is they will still commit crimes to feed their habits."

              No they won't. Addiction does not automatically equate to crime. Not everyone who is an addict turns to crime, just as you probably wouldn't start stealing if you can't afford whatever it is that you like to spend your spare money/time on [aside from telling other people how to live their lives. I imagine you might flip out totally if you were deprived of that].

              "'.....They suffer social isolation--not because they are less able to interact with people...' But because their interaction with other people is all to often to steal from them."

              You're both wrong. Matt is wrong because of the afore-mentioned addict != thief. And the whole social isolation thing is wrong because users surround themselves with peers, at worse. More realistically, MDMA users are out on a Saturday night, having a whale of a time speaking to total strangers (what with it being a pro-empathic drug and all that) and probably more than averagely socially active and outgoing.

              I appreciate that you learned most of what you did by watching 80s adverts about heroin, but today's users are not sad junkies sat in grotty squats. Instead they are very much your typical extroverted young-to-middle-age man/woman on the street, with a job and social life.

              "which does not in any way reduce the harm drugs do....Two wrongs do not make a right, so bleating on about tobacco and alcohol in an attempt to justify legalising drugs is just denial."

              It's not a justification: It's raising the point that our society believes that it is perfectly acceptable to take harmful, mind-altering drugs that are institutionalised (such as caffeine, booze, prescription anti-depressants), but not less harmful ones which are newcomers. Ultimately, the only thing that is really ours in life is our mind and body, and a sizeable number of us believe that other people should generally be allowed to do what they like with them, without the likes of you telling them that they can't because it somehow it offends you.

          2. Anonymous Coward
            Anonymous Coward

            Re: RegMidnight 40 years in prison

            Loads of real harm is done elsewhere in the world due to Cocaine and Heroin where it is made.

            (Strange how America is treating the drug company who got loads of people addicted to Oxycodone. Compared to the amount of resources expended on stuff like this).

            Most heroin users in a heartbeat would get a job if the conditions of doing so allowed them cheap clean legal heroin (Or morphine).

            Psychedelics are a loose cannon. (Stuff like psychosis can happen with them - very unpredictable and quite unpleasant).

            MDMA I dunno whether abusing it too much can seriously affect peoples ability to ever be naturally happy again.

            Dexedrine is fine (Good enough for fighter pilots good enough for anybody - less issues than methamphetamine or amphetamine).

            GHB is also about as safe as they come (Unless mixed with Alcohol). It was legal for ages. Any problems from it are the same as someone sleeping with somebody else when drunk and then regretting it later. If you have too much you just go straight into a deep sleep (Which looks much worse than it is if it happens out and about). Bodybuilders used to use it for that reason you need to sleep less and more of it is productive. It is used medically still but under another name due to the stigma attached to it.

            Anything safer on a balance of probabilities than Alcohol should be legal. (Or Alcohol made illegal again and replaced with a safer alternatives like GHB).

            The most obvious thing is if the government decided to start just providing drugs to whoever wanted them. The deficit could be gone overnight. Clean cheap / readily available. Reduce crime. (Without the money then the organised crime would cease to exist and its very rare crime is committed to fund alcohol or tobacco).

            1. Captain Thyratron

              Re: RegMidnight 40 years in prison

              Some recent research on the effect of psychedelic use on mental health:

              https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3747247/

              21,967 respondents (13.4% weighted) reported lifetime psychedelic use. There were no significant associations between lifetime use of any psychedelics, lifetime use of specific psychedelics (LSD, psilocybin, mescaline, peyote), or past year use of LSD and increased rate of any of the mental health outcomes. Rather, in several cases psychedelic use was associated with lower rate of mental health problems.

              Not exactly loose cannons, from the sound of it.

              1. Anonymous Coward
                Anonymous Coward

                Re: RegMidnight 40 years in prison

                "> The pharmaceutical amphetamines are obviously safe

                This is so stupid I can't believe it."

                Is it? I take pharmaceutical methylphenidate hydrochloride every single day with no side effects worth mentioning. In fact they do me a lot of good since I have ADHD-Combined.

                1. BlueGreen

                  Re: RegMidnight 40 years in prison

                  > Is it? I take ...

                  There is no such thing as a safe drug. However, if prescribed and taken correctly one can assume that the pros outweigh the cons on average.

                  However again, we're not talking about prescribed legal drugs but recreational use, or at least that's how I read the original post.

                  (I remember seeing a film of a US airman, taken in the sixties when the government was experimenting with (presumably pharma grade) speed to keep them up for long missions. He was trying idly to catch nonexistent butterflies in the air. 'safe' is not a function of how it's produced but how it's taken, in what quantity etc.)

        3. ecofeco Silver badge

          Re: RegMidnight 40 years in prison

          "...if you think the hard drugs sold by organized criminals are harmless I suggest you need to do a lot more reading on the social impact of such drugs."

          Well you got an upvote from me, Matt.

          I've been there, see that. Up close and personal. Seen the deaths. Seen the crippling. Seen people lose million dollar businesses. Seen families broken up. Seen people go to prison. Seen ambulance and cops more than I ever wanted to.

          Hard drugs DESTROY people, their friends and family, not to mention they are ticking time bombs as your coworker or employer or client.

          To think other wise shows a profound lack of knowledge and real life experience. In others words, it makes you look like an ignorant git.

          And amphetamine users are the worst. Useless waste of spaces at best, dangerous, deadly psychopaths on average.

          1. Anonymous Coward
            Anonymous Coward

            Re: RegMidnight 40 years in prison

            I had an amphetamine user in my team in one job and it was absolutely brilliant. (Nobody knew other than me). It was not at all obvious but it meant the whole team got lots of pay rises due to him just sometimes deciding to do something overnight for no other reason than something to do. Some people cannot handle them. Other people can and go on to do things that go down in history (Such as Adolf Hitler). No way he can be considered to be useless he did lots of things.

            Whilst the family orientated members of the team did nothing the second they left the building.

            He never made mistakes and cared about doing the job perfectly (Like I did).

            The pharmaceutical amphetamines are obviously safe (Which is why they are used by the Airforce or on the ISS) especially with the safest sleeping pill in combination.

            1. BlueGreen

              Re: RegMidnight 40 years in prison

              > I had an amphetamine user in my team in one job [and how great he was]

              I'm also aware of Erdos, however... my landlord of a while back used speed a lot in the 70's and I can tell you it fucked him up.

              And I lived with a druggie, who liked his speed (and his mary-jane and his booze and his E's and his glue - he liked his glue, I think it was a lot of effect very cheaply - and whatever else he could reach) and overdid it one evening, leaving me to spend the night in hospital with him. Nasty bit of work he was. No use to anyone. Just a couple of counterpoints.

              > Whilst the family orientated members of the team did nothing the second they left the building.

              err, good? Because they shouldn't?

              > The pharmaceutical amphetamines are obviously safe

              This is so stupid I can't believe it.

              In fact your post is so dumb I can only feel it's a bit of an agent provocateur invite for the anti-drug brigade.

              1. Psyx

                Re: RegMidnight 40 years in prison

                "> The pharmaceutical amphetamines are obviously safe

                This is so stupid I can't believe it.

                In fact your post is so dumb I can only feel it's a bit of an agent provocateur invite for the anti-drug brigade."

                Why is it stupid? Amphetamine [incidentally, the plural of amphetamine is amphetamine] is dished out like candy in certain professions and to people with certain issues. Don't judge drugs based on pre-conceptions which cause an instant 'drugs are bad' response.

                Most 'drugs' have been used in clinical trials and the effects are fairly well know and accepted. A huge number of them are used for treating various ailments. Hell, even K is being trialled against depression on a wider scale after some initial success.

          2. Psyx

            Re: RegMidnight 40 years in prison

            "Hard drugs DESTROY people"

            Yo, the article was primarily about a guy selling MDMA, not 'hard drugs'.

            "And amphetamine users are the worst."

            You appear to have mixed up the word 'user' and 'addict'. The two are not the same thing.

        4. Anonymous Coward
          Anonymous Coward

          Re: RegMidnight 40 years in prison

          "from the misery of others"

          Speak for yourself. You must have never been invited to any good parties...

          1. Matt Bryant Silver badge
            FAIL

            Re: AC Re: RegMidnight 40 years in prison

            ".... you must have never been invited to any good parties..." Seriously? I have been to many excellent parties, some without even any alcohol. But then I suspect that's because I was partying with people that didn't need drugs to have a good time. Or - more likely in your case - you need your targets to be stoned in order for you to stand a chance of getting laid.

        5. Psyx

          Re: RegMidnight 40 years in prison

          "The criminals involved are not the junkies 'doing what they want', they are the people deliberately making a profit illegally from the misery of others."

          And they would be out of a job if the drugs were legalised, and we wouldn't have to pay to catch them, either.

          "And if you think the hard drugs sold by organized criminals are harmless I suggest you need to do a lot more reading on the social impact of such drugs."

          Sorry... MDMA and cannabis are hard drugs, are they?

          As for the social impact: Our streets would be a lot safer if MDMA and cannabis were the drug of choice on a Saturday night, instead of alcohol. MDMA had a history of being used for marriage counselling before being used as a party drug and then being banned by the DEA on the basis of...err...nothing. More people die by falling off horses.

          "After all, it would also be a lot cheaper to simply put all the junkies up against"

          Yes, because anyone who uses recreation drugs is a junkie, right? Anyone who drinks is an alcoholic, by the same measure? Anyone who puts a quid on the National has a gambling problem?

        6. Alan Brown Silver badge

          Re: RegMidnight 40 years in prison

          Most of the reason people are selling illegal drugs is because it's immensely profitable to do so, despite the obvious risks. In order to make more profit, they seek out new customers. This is what eventually leads to schoolkiddies being sold Crack.

          What makes illegal drugs dangerous is lack of oversight, in the same way that illegal horsemeat in the food chain is dangerous - you don't know what that shit's been cut with (anything from talc, to rat poison, to sodium hydroixide)

          Crystal meth labs and crack wouldn't exist if other drugs were more easily available and the long-term effect in areas where drug possession and use has been decriminalised is a marked _decrease_ in both addiction problems and crimes committed to support them.

          The war on drugs has been won - by the people selling the drugs. Everytrhing else is just rearguard action in the afghan and iraqi hills so you can pretend you didn't lose.

          1. Matt Bryant Silver badge
            FAIL

            Re: Alan Brown Re: RegMidnight 40 years in prison

            ".....Crystal meth labs and crack wouldn't exist if other drugs were more easily available...." Major fail. Both drugs are still being sold by gangs in Holland, where cannabis is widely and legally available. The fact that the cannabis lovers still try and push that completely discredited myth is simply too stupid for words. I presume you were too stoned to follow any form of news on the matter?

            1. BlueGreen

              Re: Alan Brown RegMidnight 40 years in prison @Plump & Bleaty

              > Both drugs are still being sold by gangs in Holland, where cannabis is widely and legally available

              ref please my wobbly little cotton bud. With quantities and comparative stats to indicate that sales are on par with those countries where cannabis is illegal.

              1. This post has been deleted by its author

                1. Matt Bryant Silver badge
                  Facepalm

                  Re: Boring Green Re: Alan Brown RegMidnight 40 years in prison @Plump & Bleaty

                  ".... reference please?....." Wow, being in the flock really does make you a lazy little sheeple, doesn't it? Research really is beyond you, I assume you were waiting for some minor celeb to tell you what to bleat? You could start here (https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/drug-misuse-findings-from-the-2012-to-2013-csew/drug-misuse-findings-from-the-2012-to-2013-crime-survey-for-england-and-wales) for the UK figures, which not only show a continued downward trend but also show that you junkies make up a tiny minority, less than 10% of the population, completely destroying the myth you like to peddle about being the voice of the majority.

                  You can then go look up the European figures here (http://www.emcdda.europa.eu/stats13), which has a whole section on the Netherlands and the UK. Included in that is the fact that, despite the claims of the cannabis lobby that legal weed would mean no hard drugs, Holland has a hard-core of long term cocaine addicts and a big problem with hard drugs in their schools. This is despite the Dutch government having a long history of not co-operating with EU statisticians on the subject, there being no Dutch figures for many years because they would not submit them for scrutiny. One of the big exposers of the Dutch lie is the fact UK school use of cocaine is only 2%, whereas in Holland, despite the easy availability of cannabis, it is 5%. Cannabis use is also higher in Dutch schools, despite there supposedly being controls on people under 18 and access to cannabis.

                  The Eurostat database also records general crime figures and shows that Holland is not the 'street crime-free paradise' that legalization of cannabis was supposed to make it. There is also another myth busted, that Holland has a lower murder rate than the UK - it does, but not in Dutch cities. Indeed, as the Eurostats show, you were twice as likely to be murdered in Amsterdaam as in London, Edinburgh or Cardiff in the years 2007-2009. And in 2009, whilst robbery (which is theft by threat or use of violence, including muggings) and burglary declined in England, both increased in Holland. Holland also had a higher incidence per capita of drug trafficking (not just international smuggling but illegal possession, cultivation, supply or production), which is an indicator of the involvement of organized crime in drug-related crime. In fact, Holland's per capita incidence (0.0012%) was about 50% higher than the UK's (0.00086%).

                  So, put that in your bong and smoke it.

                  1. BlueGreen

                    Re: Boring Green Alan Brown RegMidnight 40 years in prison @Plump & Bleaty

                    > https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/drug-misuse-findings-from-the-2012-to-2013-csew/drug-misuse-findings-from-the-2012-to-2013-crime-survey-for-england-and-wales) for the UK figures

                    Holland, plumpness, the country *you* raised, not the UK.... oh dear me.

                    > the fact that, despite the claims of the cannabis lobby that legal weed would mean no hard drugs, Holland has a hard-core of long term cocaine addicts

                    Meth and crack, plump, like you originally said here: "Crystal meth labs and crack wouldn't exist if other drugs were more easily available...." Major fail. Both drugs are still being sold by gangs in Holland, where cannabis is widely and legally available"

                    Cocaine <> crack, meth <> crack. Nice try though.

                    > This is despite the Dutch government having a long history of not co-operating with EU statisticians on the subject,

                    ref please plumpy

                    > Holland is not the 'street crime-free paradise' that legalization of cannabis was supposed to make it.

                    Never said it was. Only asked that you justify your original claim.

                    > Indeed, as the Eurostats show, you were twice as likely to be murdered in Amsterdaam as in London, Edinburgh or Cardiff

                    luvverly diversion, plumps. Irrelevant but cute nonetheless.

                    1. Matt Bryant Silver badge
                      FAIL

                      Re: Boring Green Alan Brown RegMidnight 40 years in prison @Plump & Bleaty

                      LOL, I see you're still desperately splitting hairs and avoiding the issues raised.

                      ".....Holland, plumpness, the country *you* raised, not the UK...." LOL, you were so desperate to bleat you didn't bother reading the rest of the post and the Dutch figures before tryping (sic). So, we can add prematureness to your list of failings? You may want to note for future reference that it is considered a more honest approach to provide as much of both sets of figures in a comparison as possible. Not that one would accuse the sheeple of wanting to post half-truths or hiding facts or being anything other than completely honest...... Never! Hmmmm, maybe I should put in sarc tags for the sheeple.

                      ".....Cocaine <> crack, meth <> crack. Nice try though....." Unfortunately for you that was not a nice try at actually reading the data supplied, otherwise you would have read that the EU authority lumps crack in with cocaine in general. They also do have figures with Meph lumped in with amphetamines. Did you actually read any of it before rushing to bleat your denial? Oh, I see the problem - expecting you to read and comprehend and then form your own conclusions when you so obviously prefer your spoonfed ones. Silly me! I also see that, again, you attempt to split hairs in denial rather than admit that cannabis legalization did not reduce the use of 'hard' drugs in the Netherlands, despite one of the key mantras pushed by the pro-drug crowd being that legalization of cannabis will lower drug crime.

                      What is the point in you demanding references if you haven't got either the ability or intention of reading them?

                2. This post has been deleted by its author

                3. This post has been deleted by its author

        7. laughing at you

          Re: RegMidnight 40 years in prison

          Hahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha!

      2. John Tserkezis

        Re: 40 years in prison

        "Whereas if we simply allowed people to do what they want"

        Sure, but you lose the right to complain when your bus driver ploughs the bus into the back of a big rig at full speed because he was too busy watching unicorns fart rainbows.

        1. M Gale

          Re: 40 years in prison

          Sure, but you lose the right to complain when your bus driver ploughs the bus into the back of a big rig at full speed because he was too busy watching unicorns fart rainbows.

          Because tripping out in the comfort of your own home is exactly the same as shooting up in the driver's seat of a multiple-ton death machine.

          Seriously, why do we have drink-driving laws?

        2. Psyx

          Re: 40 years in prison

          "Sure, but you lose the right to complain when your bus driver ploughs the bus into the back of a big rig at full speed because he was too busy watching unicorns fart rainbows."

          No you don't.

          There's a big difference between letting people do what they want with their bodies in their own time and letting people drive under the influence, or even be in the workplace while under the influence.

  4. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Haha

    100kg of md and half a million pills? Dear me, that's a lot of happy ravers :D

    Keep fighting that war on drugs, guys. I'm sure you're turning the tide!

  5. Crazy Operations Guy

    American Manufacturing

    What a pitiful state of affairs: we don't even make our own drugs anymore...

    1. Crisp
      Boffin

      Re: American Manufacturing

      Hey! What about your booming Crystal Meth industry?

    2. Psyx

      Re: American Manufacturing

      Hey: You've got crack and crystal meth, and PCP and oxy!

      Come to think of it... Europe does seem to do better drugs.

  6. emmanuel goldstein

    bullshit article

    bad journalism. you are, at best, just repeating what the cops have told you.

    you say he shipped 104kg mdma to USA in 18 months.

    but then you say he sent 500g mdma per week.

    doesn't add up.

    do some fucking investigating rather than echoing the feds

    1. Richard_L

      Re: bullshit article

      "do some fucking investigating rather than echoing the feds"

      You're both a bit wrong here...

      The Reg article says he supplied 500g/week of MDMA to "Individual J" in America. From the court docs that are linked to in the article, this appears correct.

      Regarding the 104 kg figure, from reading the court docs you can see that this is a headline figure for SuperTrips' total WORLDWIDE MDMA sales through SilkRoad from March 2012 to August 2013. Not just the amount of his total supply to "Individual J".

      So The Reg was right to say he sold 104 kg of MDMA, but was wrong to suggest it all went to Individual J.

  7. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    I bet

    Dollars to donuts - though I'd rather have donuts anyway - the CIA et al are still pushing smack.

    1. Don Jefe

      Re: I bet

      Of course the CIA is still pushing drugs. That's been the only 'war is profitable' thing to come out of our adventures in Afghanistan. We considered invading Australia for their for their opiates industry but they already sell it to Glaxo so cheap it didn't make any sense not to maintain that. Plus everybody likes koalas, even if they are STD carrying little whores.

  8. Christoph

    He's been in custody since August but only now confessed? How many times did they have to waterboard him?

  9. chuckufarley Silver badge

    First we had...

    First we had Napster, then iTunes. Then we had SilkRoad so iDrugs must be next.

  10. Florida1920
    FAIL

    Supertrips must have been sampling his product to be buzzed enough to set foot in the U.S.

    1. Matt Bryant Silver badge
      Happy

      Re: Florida1920

      "Supertrips must have been sampling his product to be buzzed enough to set foot in the U.S." It does seem a bizarre mistake to make, but then I suspect greed clouded his judgement. Had he actually stopped to think how he was going to get his loot out of the States and back to Holland? He does not seem to have been the sharpest knife in the drawer.

  11. Don Jefe

    Innovation

    That's the rub with smuggling you know, you're in deep shit if you get caught. The upshot is that his potential sentence isn't nearly as harsh as it could be. If he had been shipping actual DVD's he probably would have just been executed at the airport.

  12. malcolmkyle

    An appeal to all Prohibitionists:

    Most of us know that individuals who use illegal drugs are going to get high—no matter what, so why do you not prefer they acquire them in stores that check IDs and pay taxes? Gifting the market in narcotics to ruthless criminals, foreign terrorists, and corrupt law enforcement officials is seriously compromising our future.

    Why do you wish to continue with a policy that has proven itself to be a poison in the veins of our once so "proud & free" nation? Even if you cannot bear the thought of people using drugs, there is absolutely nothing you, I, or any government can do to stop them. We have spent 40 years and trillions of dollars on this dangerous farce; Prohibition will not suddenly and miraculously start showing different results. Do you actually believe you may personally have something to lose If we were to begin basing our drug policy on science & logic instead of ignorance, hate and lies?

    Maybe you're a police officer, a prison guard, or a local/national politician. Possibly you're scared of losing employment, overtime pay, the many kickbacks, and those regular fat bribes. But what good will any of that do you once our society has followed Mexico over the dystopian abyss of dismembered bodies, vats of acid, and marauding thugs carrying gold-plated AK-47s with leopard-skinned gunstocks?

    Kindly allow us to forgo the next level of your sycophantic prohibition engendered mayhem!

    Prohibition prevents regulation: legalize, regulate, and tax!

  13. ChAoSeChO
    Meh

    Drugs for Bitcoins?

    Jesus, I am so in the wrong business the guy had over $3 million in bitcoins..

  14. FunkyEric

    You know, I think some of the people round here need to to take a serious chill pill and relax......

  15. Sir Runcible Spoon
    WTF?

    Sir

    Can someone point out the link between him being caught and the Feds claiming that 'you aren't as anonymous as you think you are' on TOR?

    From what I read (maybe I misread it) it looks like this was all picked up because his parcels started getting intercepted, not from being traced online.

    1. chuckufarley Silver badge

      Re: Sir

      Maybe they were talking about this: http://www.theregister.co.uk/2013/08/05/sod_squad_found_feeding_nsa_surveillance_info_to_drug_enforcement/?_ga=1.176940141.958177518.1390944892

  16. Sir Runcible Spoon
    Holmes

    Whilst I don't disagree that that is possible I was referring to the statements made in the article..

    "Those who mistakenly believe the anonymity of the Internet ― even on the Deep Web ― shields them from scrutiny are finding out they can't evade detection in cyberspace."

    This implies that the miscreant was 'detected in cyberspace' somehow.

    Whereas back in reality..

    "Slomp began getting the attention of US Customs after they found a DVD case with MDMA stuffed inside, one of over 100 they eventually recovered."

    So, detected over TOR (which is what they would just love you to believe) or detected because suspicious packages in the postal system were intercepted.

    I would bet a large sum of money that they only found out his online dealings after raiding his crib and getting their hands on his computer - which they discovered the whereabouts of using old-fashioned police work. No cyber involved.

    1. Don Jefe

      If you're shipping stuff into or out of any country in any quantity at least a few of your parcels will be randomly opened and inspected. Most customs agencies have some sort of metric for how many parcels they inspect per day, so it's kind of their job. But I think a lot of it comes down to customs agents getting bored.

      If you've ever been inside a large customs facility you know why they're bored. In 2004 the plane we were carrying new equipment in experienced difficulties that required us to land in Anchorage and wait for another plane instead of just refueling. Myself and an engineer were allowed to sit with the in the warehouse with the crates for the ~30 hours it took to find another appropriately equipped plane. Those customs guys did nothing but open random boxes, take a peek and stick one of those 'Your package has been inspected by US Customs. If you believe the contents of your parcel were damaged during this inspection, or if something is missing please call 1-800-Fuck-You'.

      They brought dogs around to some of the packages they had opened and took others to an x-ray machine that must have been enormous because it was fully 300ft away and on the other side of a block wall. That could be where the CIA puts the drugs for export in the boxes for all I know. I do know it was a shitload of boxes and crates they opened though.

      The only ones that seemed to really attract then were those with tamper indicators, over fancy locks or the ones with those plastic pyramids on every face except the bottom. Otherwise it was just random. No rhyme or reason, just what ever tickled their fancy. I suspect this guy just ended up on the wrong end of the odds, not through technology.

  17. fearnothing

    The most beneficial educational use of this thread...

    ...is not for its points on drug use by our blue in the face boors above, but in the comprehensive examples of fallacious arguments that any law or philosophy professor would be proud of. I take my hat off to both of you, a fine presentation.

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