Facebook, Instagram crack down on online illegal drug trade #

[poledriver]

Facebook, Instagram crack down on online illegal drug trade #

Drug dealer poses with Lean on Instagram
Posted Fri 8 Nov 2013, 9:45pm AEDT

A drug dealer poses in an Instagram photo with bottles of concentrated prescription cough syrup, which mimics the effects of heroin.

Facebook and Instagram have launched a crackdown on the trade of illegal drugs online, with one US journalist calling the practice an "absurd" by-product of the social media age.

A series of investigations has revealed drug dealers operating in plain sight, by advertising their products using images and hashtags on social media websites.

"It all takes place on the internet, it's right in front of everyone", says Eric Sundermann, a journalist at Noisey.com who was part of a team that uncovered prescription cough syrup cartels plying their wares on the photo-sharing website Instagram.

One investigation prompted Instagram, which is now owned by Facebook, to act - banning several searchable hashtags and keywords in an effort to restrict the free flow of communication between dealers and those looking for drugs in the internet's social spaces.

"It's almost outside the drug itself it speaks to kind of absurdity of our culture at large right now," Mr Sundermann told the ABC.

Drug dealers using hashtags to find potential customers

A highly-publicised investigation by the BBC's new social media unit, #BBCtrending, revealed drug dealers have been posting photos of various drugs including marijuana and MDMA and offering up deals to potential customers.

The dealers, based mostly in the US, tagged photos with hashtags as inconspicuous as #marijuana and #mdma.

Instagram issued a statement to the BBC, stressing "people can't buy things on Instagram, we are simply a place where people share photos and videos".

But the report revealed the two parties finalised the drug deal, on where to meet up and collect the illicit substances, on other smartphone messaging apps like Whats App or Kik.

"We encourage people who come across illegal or inappropriate content to report it to us using the built-in reporting tools next to every photo, video or comment, so we can take action," the statement from Instagram said.

A search of the drug-related terms now delivers no results to users.

Journalist finds prescription cough syrup market on Instagram

Up until a few months ago a search on Instagram for the drug nicknamed Lean, returned thousands of pictures.

"Hashtags like #TeamLean, #DirtySprite and #LeanOnMe threw up heaps of results on Instagram," Mr Sundermann said.

He explains that Lean is concentrated prescription cough syrup mixed with a soft drink and is the drug of choice for the US rap community.

"It's got codeine in it and mimics the effect of heroin," he said.

"Rappers have it topped off with a jolly rancher lolly, giving it a purple or pink colour and they sing songs about Lean and Sizzurp."

The investigation launched by one of Noisey's journalists uncovered several drug dealers using the hashtags and went right back to the suppliers of the prescription cough syrup.

"We found people taking photos of pallets of it in factories ... and then marketing it to people at cheap prices," Mr Sundermann said.

He does not believe banning the search terms will make much difference, citing the shutdown and now reopening of underground online store Silk Road.

Mr Sundermann says authorities have to get used to everyday illegal activities becoming common place on social media websites.

"This is an example of meme culture or just of internet culture in general," he said.

"It continues to leak into the mainstream and leak into daily life and daily activities."

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2013-11-...rackdown-on-online-illegal-drug-trade/5080562

#hash #weed #420 #mdma #lsd #ideal #buy #hastag #

 

[juno nightmare]

Yet another example of how the supply of drugs cannot be controlled. The demand will never go away and therefore the supply will always be found. There will always be someone willing to take the risk. Hell, even in the Asian countries where the penalty for drug dealing is death, people still do the crime. It is easier than ever to get drugs on the internet and as more and more people use the internet to find there next fix it becomes more and more obvious that the war on drugs is a failed operation. It is a huge drain on the resources of our government at every level and all it does is ruin peoples lives. People get long prison sentences for supplying or using drugs and it does nothing to stop demand. The drug war only destroys lives and creates a permanent underclass of drug felons who have little options but to continue in the drug trade once they leave prison. They cannot get a decent job with a felony record so they will go back to the only lucrative business they know, drug dealing.

On the supply side, people will never, ever stop wanting to get high. Whether they just pop a couple pills to relax after work or they need to shoot heroin in their veins to stave off withdraw, people from every segment of the population use drugs. The statistical numbers may seem very low, but a lot of people probably lie on those surveys and they probably dont make it into the hands of the people using drugs. Either way drug use is an ancient fact of life. Ask any anthropologist or archaeologist, every culture on the planet has used drugs in some form. In the past it was mostly plants that caused visions and fostered a connection with the spirit world. In places where marijuana or opium grew people used these plants for medicine and to relieve stress. Humans are the same as they were thousands of years ago, the only thing that has changed is now we understand science and we can create and extract an almost infinite number of chemicals that will alter consciousness. Just look at the explosion of cathinone derivatives in the last few years. There are so many new drugs out there that law enforcement cant keep up. Even very savvy drug users are amazed at the shear number of new stimulants hitting the market. There can literally be thousands of new drugs in the next 10 years.

The more of these new and untested, unstudied drugs get into the hands of people just looking for a good night on the town or a line to get them thru their double shift, the more people will die or face negative consequences that are undeserved. These people are just looking for a way to get high and skirt the laws. But to do so, they take the risk of taking drugs which may have very serious risks and no one is any the wiser. It is criminally unfair that people die from legal highs when there are well known illegal highs that are far less dangerous. The most common drugs of abuse have been studied extensively and we know a great deal about both short and long term effects. Most of these drugs range from safe to very safe as long as they are used responsibly and are in a relatively pure form. The biggest danger of drugs is not the actual drugs themselves but the corners that are cut by criminal suppliers looking to pad their own wallets by cutting their product or misrepresenting chemicals. MDMA is not a very dangerous drug, but mixed with methamphetamine or PMA it can become part of a lethal cocktail of drugs that has killed scores of people. More so the PMA than the meth but still the fact remains that cuts and impurities are a bigger danger than the drugs people are conditioned to be so afraid of.

The only thing that can take the power and money away from the criminals is to end prohibition. If governments really wanted to end the drug gangs and cartels and the violence that follows these groups they would legalize all drugs. The only thing that will take the wind from their sails is cutting off there revenue stream. If drugs are legal and produced by legitimate companies and distributed by qualified pharmacists or druggists then there is no room for criminals. There could be a small black market of stolen drugs sold for dirt cheap just like anything else but the massive profits and huge organizations would not be possible. The only reason massive drug cartels can exist is because they can charge huge premiums for their product because no one else wants to be in the drug business, why? Because it's illegal and if you get caught your government will ruin your life and your families life or kill you. So you get hard ass criminals that would sooner kill someone than share profitable turf.

End prohibition and all the problems of drug use and abuse go away. If drugs are not stigmatized people would not have such a hard time getting treatment. No one wants to be labeled an addict when they know they will not only be scorned but also possibly arrested and denied fair treatment. Remove the criminality from drugs and drug users will stop acting like criminals. No one gets shot over a case of beer or a bottle of whiskey. No one gets decapitated over aspirin or antacids. People dont break into houses and steal valuables so they can flip them just to buy potatoes or broccoli.

When you make these things illegal then people who just want to get high start associating with real crime and real criminals. They get introduced to the underworld and once they are there they can get desensitized to the idea of being a criminal and thus become comfortable with breaking the law. This can lead to real crime, violence, theft, murder, rape. When all thing are equal in the eyes of the law, what is the difference if you are killing someone or shooting up, you get the same penalty so whats the difference in the end. Shit you can get a longer sentence for drugs that for man slaughter or rape or theft. Once you are in deep what's to stop you from going all the way down. This may not be the situation for all drug users but in places where poverty is the rule and not the exception and violence and mayhem are all around, really what divides one crime from another? It comes down to how many victims and how many witnesses.

 

[drug_mentor]

LOL At them claiming codeine mimics heroin, if anything heroin mimics codeine since they are both essentially pro drugs for morphine and codeine is 100% natural and heroin is not. Personally I don't think the two substances are overly comparable other than being opiates, admittedly to some people with a low opiate tolerance codeine will give similar effects but given the difference in potency of the two drugs I just think that comment is misleading as fuck. I have not heard of or met many heroin addicts who get more out of codeine than it making them a bit less sick.

I seriously can't believe people would fuck around on instagram and shit trying to find drugs, especially after Snowden came out with all that shit about facebook and other sites handing over info to the NSA and the like.

 

[Madhatter4]

Once again stupid kids and uneducated adults dont know what the fuck an IP address is!!! Police can easily trace these posts back to its original source. If they want to play it safe they should setup everything through someone else's unsecured Wi-Fi network.

 

[Timland]

What is it with people posting evidence of their crimes with JPEGs chock full of metadata like GPS coordinates, make and model of camera, timestamps sometimes down to nanosecond TICKs, etc since a lot of facebook stuff is posted from mobiles which by default include tons of metadata.

Also assuming those bottles were packed like that, he is lucky a couple didnt burst from pressure and leak out the package. Nevermind the fact that they are not disguised at all LOL. But geez put some bubble wrapping around it at least.

 

[4evrLkn]

I thought they were all imitation bottles and only contained water....

 

['medicine cabinet']

Haha! Gotta throw the word heroin in there somewhere to make it seem scary lol.

 

[gh0stmAn]

Can anyone tell me how these people are still getting SPECIFICALLY prescription cough syrup that has ONLY codiene and promethazine in it and NOTHING else?? B/c from all the research and experience one has had for the past 10 + years I have NEVER, NOT ONCE seen cough syrup that has only Codiene + Promethazine in it and nothing else? Are these people (in texas, im assuming) getting this shit from Mexico or something? B/c everytime anyone I know, including yourz truly, has only got cough syrup with Hydrocodone + some horrific ass ingredient/s in it that make it basically so you can only take AT most double 1-2 doses AND NO MORE THEN THAT unless u wanna get sick from the other chemicals inside the syrup... So where the hell are these people getting just plain Codiene + Promethazine sizzurp from? I have a feeling that alot of the "sizzurp" (codiene+promethazzine) that is out now-a-days is just retarded guys in the hood that buy robotussin and pass it off as "sizzurp" (aka codiene+promethazine).... god i am so smart at just reading between the lines and guesstimating that I mid-as-well be a fucking genius. lol anyone???

also I am almost 99.9% sure that there is no such thing as prescription codiene+promethazine cough syrup even marketed or made in the USA anymore (maybe like 10 or more years ago but not no more)..... do you people know nothing on here?? do your f'in RESEARCH PEOPLE and PERSONAL EXPERIENCE

 

['medicine cabinet']

to add, i have seen randomly somer truly idiotic shit pics before. a pic of a cat surrounded by darvocets, empty pill bottles (pretty pos they were av bc of the size and pink color) expensive sunglasses a pack of extasy cigs and a half empty bottle of makers mark. im sure there is a 12 year old girl somewhere that is jus omigawd 2cool4skool lulz yo.

fucking idiots. dont you ralize typing random shit into a msg board is one thing but hosting a pic of YOU doing some illegal shit is completely different? guess that hadnt occured to them.