German police take down 'world's largest darknet marketplace' • Hacker News Board

Re: German police take down 'world's largest darknet marketplace'

#321

Post by xorcist » Fri, Jan 15, 2021, 10:37 AM UTC

saiya-jin wrote: post #231

brazzy wrote: post #200

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's kind of a minimal measure, and already implemented to some degree in many places. Its effects are limited, and it's a cat and mouse game because there are so many subtle ways to advertise.

These are all just speculations - we can take a stance we prefer and expand it ad infinitum. Kind of pointless. Ie I am pro legalization, and I can't imagine if society had proper education and precise dosing people would go and overdose frequently. Do you often see people who decide to drink 2 litres of vodka in one setting? We all know how bad idea it is without the need to walk that path. Also alcohol is one of fe…

> alcohol is one of few (if not the only) drug that actively increases aggressiveness

Why would you write something like this?

Have you seen someone on meth, or any kind of amphetamines?

It's a whole different degree of bad. Not to mention in combinations where someone can be horrendously violent and completely indifferent to it.

Re: German police take down 'world's largest darknet marketplace'

#322

Post by inglor_cz » Fri, Jan 15, 2021, 10:46 AM UTC

wott wrote: post #281

ath92 wrote: post #141

Earlier quoted context omitted.

And yet Scandinavian countries have had great success by raising the price and limiting the availability of store-bought alcohol. I think this is similar to some UX patterns we see in software: most people will go with the default option because it is easier. Raising the amount of effort needed for something means fewer people will end up doing it.

> And yet Scandinavian countries have had great success by raising the price and limiting the availability of store-bought alcohol. Great success? 1. People there still buy a lot, even at expensive prices. 2. I have never seen so much heavy consumption and problems in Southern Europe than what I saw living in Finland. 3. I had never seen people brewing their own wine in their flat in my country (not counting real win…

This corresponds to my tourist experience. Compared to Italy or Spain, Finland has a lot of people with an obvious drink problem.

Maybe it is in the wine vs. vodka difference; vodka, being much more concentrated, will wreak havoc on internal organs sooner. Including brain and liver.

Re: German police take down 'world's largest darknet marketplace'

#323

Post by qwerty456127 » Fri, Jan 15, 2021, 12:55 PM UTC

ChrisRR wrote: post #261

qwerty456127 wrote: post #254

Earlier quoted context omitted.

True but please don't stop on weed, please also liberalize non-narcotic prescription medications availability to let people buy whatever they know they need without having to visit a doctor.

This wouldn't happen. Even from a pharmaceutical company's viewpoint, their regulatory body comes down on them like a ton of bricks if too many people suffer injury from their products. So pharmaceutical companies and other medical product manufacturers manage their risk by only selling to approved suppliers, so that they don't have people randomly putting themselves at risk using their products.

It should be enough to put a clear warning on the box saying you take all the risk yourself if choose to self-prescribe and also list all the known interactions and counter-indications somewhere in the manual. This works just fine in some countries. You can't drink a chemical potentially poisonous to you after being warned and still sue the vendor like if they didn't tell you shouldn't.

Re: German police take down 'world's largest darknet marketplace'

#324

Post by qwerty456127 » Fri, Jan 15, 2021, 1:05 PM UTC

curryst wrote: post #299

qwerty456127 wrote: post #254

Earlier quoted context omitted.

True but please don't stop on weed, please also liberalize non-narcotic prescription medications availability to let people buy whatever they know they need without having to visit a doctor.

I agree with you on many prescriptions, but many have a legitimate need to be regulated. Antibiotics are an obvious one. Antibiotic resistance is a real, and growing, issue. If people start popping them every time they get a sniffle, that's going to get a lot worse. Some medications have very serious side effects, and a doctor really should vet that you're healthy enough to withstand those. Some medications can have…

Ok. Let's not unschedule antibiotics. But there still are many prescription medications which are either harmless (at least not more dangerous than Tylenol is) or so specialized most of the ordinary people (who doesn't actually need them and doesn't know the relevant details) don't even know they exist. In fact Tylenol is extremely dangerous (quite easy to kill yourself with it) yet widely available and nobody seems to consider this a problem.

Re: German police take down 'world's largest darknet marketplace'

#325

Post by qwerty456127 » Fri, Jan 15, 2021, 1:20 PM UTC

ThrustVectoring wrote: post #270

pksebben wrote: post #258

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Ahem. A couple addendums, if I may: LSD has no measurable long term side effects - the myth that it makes people go crazy came out of the fact that our can make you feel crazy. Kratom is not an opioid. to qualify as an opioid, you must be derived from opium. Cocaine is not nearly as dangerous as alcohol. It is, perhaps, easier to indulge in cocaine to excess, but people on it are not nearly as likely to do things tha…

> LSD has no measurable long term side effects IIRC it permanently increases the big-5 personality trait Openness

And too much openness may actually make some of violent people more dangerous - they may just become even more open to violence if they have been thinking in that direction already.

Re: German police take down 'world's largest darknet marketplace'

#326

Post by Uberphallus » Fri, Jan 15, 2021, 3:41 PM UTC

KMag wrote: post #282

Uberphallus wrote: post #96

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Which don't exist. All date-rape drugs are used recreationally in smaller amounts.

Well, that's embarrassing. Thanks for educating me. I don't know how it didn't click that out of all the CNS depressants I know, only the one (Rohypnol) isn't found pleasant by people (within some dose range). Turns out I was wrong. I remembered years ago reading, and recognizing as BS, some policeman's story about a bust of GHB dealers, implying there were no recreational uses, and that it must be intended for date-…

Yep.

The only drugs I see not being used recreationally are antipsychotics and antidepressants, and even among those there are some exceptions.

And possibly scopolamine and other deliriants, but those are arguably the worst date-rape drugs ever despite the media hype.

Alcohol is legal, everywhere, and just works better.

Re: German police take down 'world's largest darknet marketplace'

#327

Post by FDSGSG » Fri, Jan 15, 2021, 11:35 PM UTC

comboy wrote: post #314

FDSGSG wrote: post #288

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Or maybe because there are just far more amateurs than actual security pros out there? Dream market remained online for 7 years and shut down gracefully after the administrator got tired of dealing with DDoS attacks, odds are the site earned closer to $100M even if you ignore bitcoin appreciation. >and he will be given long enough time and high enough incentives You only have to last a couple of years to make tens of…

OK, your first point definitely beats mine. I guess then my point could be used against talent getting hired to help with the project? I mean they make some decent money so they could hire great people and pay them anonymously but somebody would need to accept the jail risk.

I think in reality the risk of going to jail is far lower than you might assume.

If you were worried, you could evade capture forever by just moving around with a bunch of prepaid SIM cards and a 4G modem that lets you change your IMEI. Even if the police could somehow track down your Tor connections, they'd never be able to find you in a big city.

The risk of getting caught can be eliminated almost entirely without taking any unrealistic steps, an actual security pro would be able to get away with this with ease. Perhaps this is why we haven't seen any infosec people go to jail for operating darknet markets?

Re: German police take down 'world's largest darknet marketplace'

#328

Post by nerbert » Sat, Jan 16, 2021, 12:42 AM UTC

brazzy wrote: post #170

nerbert wrote: post #158

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Rat park comes to mind. The issues are not the drugs, but our well being in society.

The drugs have a huge negative effect on well being, and that is not just because they're criminalized (though that is part of it).

Drugs had great positive impact on millions of people as well. You can’t just cherry pick the worst cases without including the others.

Re: German police take down 'world's largest darknet marketplace'

#329

Post by malwarebytess » Sun, Jan 17, 2021, 6:43 AM UTC

alasdair_ wrote: post #310

malwarebytess wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

An idea: much of the time the way dark net vendors are taken down involve the IRS. Did you know that you can legally report illicit income, legally, with ostensibly no negative consequence? >Income from illegal activities, such as money from dealing illegal drugs, must be included in your income on Schedule 1 (Form 1040), line 8, or on Schedule C (Form 1040) if from your self-employment activity. https://www.irs.gov/…

Sure, but the IRS has no jurisdiction in either Germany or Australia for non-citizens.

That doesn't mean the vendors or market operator associates don't operate within IRS jurisdiction, and it also doesn't meant that the European and Australian authorities wouldn't work with the IRS to pool intelligence on organized international crime.

Re: German police take down 'world's largest darknet marketplace'

#330

Post by ChrisRR » Mon, Jan 18, 2021, 12:51 AM UTC

qwerty456127 wrote: post #323

ChrisRR wrote: post #261

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This wouldn't happen. Even from a pharmaceutical company's viewpoint, their regulatory body comes down on them like a ton of bricks if too many people suffer injury from their products. So pharmaceutical companies and other medical product manufacturers manage their risk by only selling to approved suppliers, so that they don't have people randomly putting themselves at risk using their products.

It should be enough to put a clear warning on the box saying you take all the risk yourself if choose to self-prescribe and also list all the known interactions and counter-indications somewhere in the manual. This works just fine in some countries. You can't drink a chemical potentially poisonous to you after being warned and still sue the vendor like if they didn't tell you shouldn't.

As someone who works in medical devices I can tell you in the medical field it's not enough to just write on a box "If you use this incorrectly and get injured, it's not our fault"

Medical products have risk assessments a mile long for every scenario the manufacture can think of, and the mitigation for being administered on the wrong patient is often "Don't sell to non ISO-13485 approved clients"

If enough people get injured because of your product, the FDA or MHRA is going to investigate you, no matter how many disclaimers you put on your products.