<story><title>Shedding light on the dark web</title><url>http://www.economist.com/news/international/21702176-drug-trade-moving-street-online-cryptomarkets-forced-compete</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>skylark</author><text>I find it hard to believe that there&amp;#x27;s some sort of conspiracy to keep police, lawyers, and prisons funded via laws against selling drugs.&lt;p&gt;Have you considered that these laws are still in place simply because it&amp;#x27;s the status quo?&lt;p&gt;Politicians voting on laws and drafting new ones must ultimately answer to their constituents. While the vast majority of things fly under the radar, &amp;quot;pro-drug&amp;quot; support is enough of a charged issue that supporting drug legalization is guaranteed to be used against you the next time you&amp;#x27;re running for office.&lt;p&gt;Like it or not, logic be damned, drugs will continue to be illegal because the majority of Americans do not support drug legalization. The tides are starting to turn in some states on weed, but the average American outside of the most liberal states doesn&amp;#x27;t even support that. Good luck convincing them to legalize cocaine, ecstasy, LSD, or any &amp;quot;harder&amp;quot; drug.</text></item><item><author>mistermann</author><text>&amp;gt; It&amp;#x27;s really a shitty experience for everyone involved.&lt;p&gt;However, it creates &lt;i&gt;many&lt;/i&gt; thousands of very well paid jobs for police, lawyers, prison employees, etc. - you know, the people that create the laws.&lt;p&gt;Long ago I might have considered that there might be some justification for these laws (or anywhere there&amp;#x27;s rules really), but nowadays when you wonder why &amp;quot;the way something is&amp;quot; is, it&amp;#x27;s easier to just assume someone (or usually a group of people in collusion) is running a little rent seeking scam, and you&amp;#x27;ll probably be right most of the time.</text></item><item><author>dopamean</author><text>Any time I read anything about the illegal drug trade I am struck by how much the industry would change if all drugs were legalized everywhere. So much effort is expended to keep things hidden from law enforcement and other criminals that it adds an incredible amount of friction to the purchasing process for the purchaser and the seller.&lt;p&gt;From the buyer&amp;#x27;s perspective you now have to go into business with some often unsavory people just to get high. From the seller&amp;#x27;s perspective you have to make sure that the buyer isn&amp;#x27;t law enforcement and also not someone who is going to rob you because you have zero legal recourse. It&amp;#x27;s really a shitty experience for everyone involved. Considering how shitty that experience is it says a lot about people and their desire to take drugs that the market continues to exist and basically never stops serving the customer.&lt;p&gt;It really seems like when confronted with something inevitable, like drug use and sales, the effort to prevent it may be more costly and damaging than just allowing it to happen in a more controlled environment.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>delazeur</author><text>It&amp;#x27;s not a smoky room conspiracy.  A quick google search turned up many articles about private prison companies funding lobbying[1], and I expect you will find similar results if you search for police union donations.&lt;p&gt;[1] &lt;a href=&quot;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.washingtonpost.com&amp;#x2F;posteverything&amp;#x2F;wp&amp;#x2F;2015&amp;#x2F;04&amp;#x2F;28&amp;#x2F;how-for-profit-prisons-have-become-the-biggest-lobby-no-one-is-talking-about&amp;#x2F;&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.washingtonpost.com&amp;#x2F;posteverything&amp;#x2F;wp&amp;#x2F;2015&amp;#x2F;04&amp;#x2F;28&amp;#x2F;...&lt;/a&gt;</text></comment>
<story><title>Shedding light on the dark web</title><url>http://www.economist.com/news/international/21702176-drug-trade-moving-street-online-cryptomarkets-forced-compete</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>skylark</author><text>I find it hard to believe that there&amp;#x27;s some sort of conspiracy to keep police, lawyers, and prisons funded via laws against selling drugs.&lt;p&gt;Have you considered that these laws are still in place simply because it&amp;#x27;s the status quo?&lt;p&gt;Politicians voting on laws and drafting new ones must ultimately answer to their constituents. While the vast majority of things fly under the radar, &amp;quot;pro-drug&amp;quot; support is enough of a charged issue that supporting drug legalization is guaranteed to be used against you the next time you&amp;#x27;re running for office.&lt;p&gt;Like it or not, logic be damned, drugs will continue to be illegal because the majority of Americans do not support drug legalization. The tides are starting to turn in some states on weed, but the average American outside of the most liberal states doesn&amp;#x27;t even support that. Good luck convincing them to legalize cocaine, ecstasy, LSD, or any &amp;quot;harder&amp;quot; drug.</text></item><item><author>mistermann</author><text>&amp;gt; It&amp;#x27;s really a shitty experience for everyone involved.&lt;p&gt;However, it creates &lt;i&gt;many&lt;/i&gt; thousands of very well paid jobs for police, lawyers, prison employees, etc. - you know, the people that create the laws.&lt;p&gt;Long ago I might have considered that there might be some justification for these laws (or anywhere there&amp;#x27;s rules really), but nowadays when you wonder why &amp;quot;the way something is&amp;quot; is, it&amp;#x27;s easier to just assume someone (or usually a group of people in collusion) is running a little rent seeking scam, and you&amp;#x27;ll probably be right most of the time.</text></item><item><author>dopamean</author><text>Any time I read anything about the illegal drug trade I am struck by how much the industry would change if all drugs were legalized everywhere. So much effort is expended to keep things hidden from law enforcement and other criminals that it adds an incredible amount of friction to the purchasing process for the purchaser and the seller.&lt;p&gt;From the buyer&amp;#x27;s perspective you now have to go into business with some often unsavory people just to get high. From the seller&amp;#x27;s perspective you have to make sure that the buyer isn&amp;#x27;t law enforcement and also not someone who is going to rob you because you have zero legal recourse. It&amp;#x27;s really a shitty experience for everyone involved. Considering how shitty that experience is it says a lot about people and their desire to take drugs that the market continues to exist and basically never stops serving the customer.&lt;p&gt;It really seems like when confronted with something inevitable, like drug use and sales, the effort to prevent it may be more costly and damaging than just allowing it to happen in a more controlled environment.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>kelvin0</author><text>Never underestimate greed. In plain sight:&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.washingtonpost.com&amp;#x2F;sf&amp;#x2F;investigative&amp;#x2F;2014&amp;#x2F;10&amp;#x2F;11&amp;#x2F;asset-seizures-fuel-police-spending&amp;#x2F;&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;http:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.washingtonpost.com&amp;#x2F;sf&amp;#x2F;investigative&amp;#x2F;2014&amp;#x2F;10&amp;#x2F;11&amp;#x2F;as...&lt;/a&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.washingtonpost.com&amp;#x2F;sf&amp;#x2F;investigative&amp;#x2F;2014&amp;#x2F;09&amp;#x2F;06&amp;#x2F;stop-and-seize&amp;#x2F;&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;http:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.washingtonpost.com&amp;#x2F;sf&amp;#x2F;investigative&amp;#x2F;2014&amp;#x2F;09&amp;#x2F;06&amp;#x2F;st...&lt;/a&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.forbes.com&amp;#x2F;sites&amp;#x2F;instituteforjustice&amp;#x2F;2014&amp;#x2F;03&amp;#x2F;12&amp;#x2F;cops-use-traffic-stops-to-seize-millions-from-drivers-never-charged-with-a-crime&amp;#x2F;#6dbe213046ae&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;http:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.forbes.com&amp;#x2F;sites&amp;#x2F;instituteforjustice&amp;#x2F;2014&amp;#x2F;03&amp;#x2F;12&amp;#x2F;c...&lt;/a&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.newyorker.com&amp;#x2F;magazine&amp;#x2F;2013&amp;#x2F;08&amp;#x2F;12&amp;#x2F;taken&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;http:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.newyorker.com&amp;#x2F;magazine&amp;#x2F;2013&amp;#x2F;08&amp;#x2F;12&amp;#x2F;taken&lt;/a&gt;</text></comment>