Doctor provides guide to illicit drug website to assist suicide Euthanasia campaigner Dr Philip Nitschke has published a guide to help people buy suicide drugs at shadowy website Silk Road. Pic: Stuart Clarke. Euthanasia advocate 'Dr Death' stirs the pot He set up a brewery that sell drugs used in euthanasia Now pushing followers to encrypted illicit drug site IT'S called Silk Road and it's one of the internet's most secretive destinations. It is an online black market for illicit drugs like ecstasy and cocaine that is the scourge of law enforcement and Customs. Silk Road is a shadowy website with an often shadowy clientele. But Dr Philip Nitschke, a prominent euthanasia advocate who is one of Australia's most controversial doctors and often referred to as "Doctor Death," has found an unusual audience for the service - the elderly. Exit International, the outspoken doctor's assisted-suicide advocacy group, has provided its mostly aged followers with a manual for how to obtain suicide medication through the encrypted black market. Dr Nitschke said his organisation published the guide because a Customs crackdown on euthanasia medication entering the country was causing many supporters to lose their money on seized medication. Customs figures show the number of detections of euthanasia drugs such as Nembutal (which contains the barbiturate pentobarbitone) has tripled in the past three years, from 25 in 2009-10 to 76 in the last financial year. "They might be 80-year-olds, but they don't like losing their $400," Dr Nitschke told news.com.au, adding that his more sophisticated strategies may help patients save their money. The guide is necessary as the Silk Road requires significant technical expertise to access. It can only be reached using special software, not through Google or a web browser. Silk Road, named after the ancient trade route between Europe and Asia which revolutionized the world economy, also only accepts an untraceable virtual currency called Bitcoins, not global currencies like Australian dollars. A spokesman for the Customs and Border Protection Service said buyers and sellers of any illegal products online or on the Silk Road risk prosecution - and run the real risk of being scammed as well. The Silk Road website is better known as an encrypted destination for purchasing illicit drugs like cannabis and ecstasy. The agency said it was working in collaboration with local and international law enforcement partners as part of a global intelligence network to clamp down on buyers and sellers of drugs on anonymous websites such as Silk Road. Intelligence gathered by Customs and Border Protection and commentary made by buyers and sellers in online forums suggests that this disruption activity is having an adverse effect on the degree of the trust between buyers and sellers within Silk Road. Customs and Border Protection has noted an increasing trend on Silk Road, whereby several 'anonymous' dealers have announced on forums that they will no longer sell to Australians or have imposed more stringent transaction rules on Australian buyers. Dr Nitschke's Silk Road manual is just the latest in a string of controversial attempts to assist people with medically-assisted suicide. The medical regulator, the Australian Health Practitioner Regulation Agency (AHPRA), is investigating Dr Nitschke over his use of an apparent beer brewing company to import nitrogen cylinders that can be used for suicide. The doctor runs Max Dog Brewers, which sells nitrogen canisters which tend to be used for food processing and in beer production. The Brewer's website says the nitrogen canisters can be used for food or "the other many hundred uses." The anti-euthanasia group Hope has complained about his promotion and sale of nitrogen, arguing it makes him an unfit person to hold a medical licence. "I think there's a significant public policy around the activities of Exit International," Hope director Paul Russell said. Euthanasia is illegal in Australia. Tasmanian Premier Lara Giddings and Tasmanian Greens leader Nick McKim have introduced a proposal to legalise "voluntary assisted dying" in the island state. It will likely be voted on later this year, although Dr Nitschke is uncertain about its chances. Euthanasia was legal in the Northern Territory between 1995 and 1997, when the legislation was overruled by the Federal Government. Email this reporter Daniel.Piotrowski@news.com.au or join the conversation on Twitter: @drpiotrowski @newscomauHQ