Today Your Child Can Buy Heroin From Within The Walls Of Your Home Find Out How
Written by Craig Rogers, Posted on , in Section Teens & Tweens
Do you remember when you used to hear rumors about neighborhood kids using drugs? It always seemed like it was some mysterious kid who you were unlikely to ever come across, and someone that there’s no possibility that your kids would ever know. Those days are long behind us, sadly. Drug use is frighteningly common, even in the towns we think of as being sleepy and quaint. As a parent, it's common to worry for the unknown future of our children. We all know to try to raise our children with values that eschew drug use, teaching them how and why to say no, but many of us have naively taken solace in the hope that our children wouldn't know where to find drugs even if they wanted to.
Well, the community of drug use and distribution is no longer confined to a couple of bad kids that know where to score some weed. Illegal drugs are now available online from "cyber-dealers." I'm not talking about Canadian websites selling generic Lortabs or cheap Viagra through the mail. I’m talking about the availability of illicit drugs like cocaine, heroin, LSD, methamphetamine, ecstasy, and marijuana for purchase through discrete, totally anonymous channels.
A website called The Silk Road has been in the news lately, mostly due to the fact that the site’s founder was busted for soliciting a hit online. He had attempted to take out two alleged informants who had apparently threatened to reveal the names and personal details of many of the site’s vendors and buyers. The site was started by Ross Ulbricht, a genteel, and, it has to be said, geeky seeming young man. Ulbricht had even fooled his roommates, who thought he was just another San Francisco computer programmer.
When It Comes To Drugs and Teens, It Can Be Difficult to Keep Up With Emerging Trends, That Is Why Communication Between Parents and Kids is Essential
But beneath the thin veneer of amiability there was an online drug kingpin, raking in cash to the alleged tune of $82 million. The site was started as an attempt to create an online marketplace that was unregulated by any governments or authorities, a kind of capitalist libertarian utopia. Ulbricht foolishly felt he had set himself apart from the seedier side of dealing rugs, but it’s clear that he fell victim to the same moral traps that have overrun parts of the country in fits of explosive violence.
After Ulbricht’s arrest, the site was taken down for one month. It’s now back, and site administrators are boasting that it is more secure than ever, with one claim reported that if the site is ever taken down again, it will be back up again within 10 minutes.
The Silk Road is located in the dark web. This means that it can't be found by simply typing the url address in your browser or by a Google search. Access to this partially hidden site requires an anonymizing network browser known as TOR. True, this requires a bit of technical skill to configure, but any techy-teen (or adolescent) with the wrong ambition can get the "know-how" from searching YouTube videos or any number of other easily accessible web resources.
So is this the new normal? Imagine for a moment: your loved one getting online and browsing the options for heroin. After some seller-reviews are read, the choice is made and the check-out process is complete using untraceable internet currency called “bitcoins.” The heroin is then mailed in a disguised package to a P.O. Box, or to a friend’s house. The acquisition of illegal drugs has become that simple.
There are many that are declaring that the "war on drugs" is over, and that drugs won. The hard reality is, trying to eradicate this form of x-commerce would be as futile as trying to stop peer-to-peer music downloads. While this may be an overwhelming and devastating certainty, I’m not ready to wave the white flag yet.
I still maintain that the war on drugs is not over by any means. The battle has simply relocated into our homes and amongst our family unit. Through frank and honest conversations with our teens, we may be able to make some headway against a seemingly impossible foe. It’s incredible what a difference a moment of connection can make. Teens often choose to experiment with drugs because they lack sufficiently developed, internalized values to know with certainty that drugs are to be avoided at all costs.
It’s up to parents to drive that point home, now more than ever.
