So far this is probably the safest way to purchase drugs, ever. With rating systems, customer comments and lack of face to face transactions, I don't really see a possibility of much going wrong short of loosing your bitcoins on a bad deal. But that's where rating comes in and sellers that trick, defraud or misrepresent their products will suffer by getting rated out of business. (no one is going to buy anything from a 1/5 star seller)

A marketplace where the worst thing that can happen is loosing some cash, is a damn good market place... note that this happens in virtually all other markets. The only danger here is getting caught by law enforcement, or becoming a target of some hit because you know too much. If the government spent even 1/10 of the effort to create a properly managed, government sanctioned silk road style market place where drug users can safely (in the privacy of their own homes) purchase these items without resorting to using underground black markets, and even worse... back alleys, the world would be a safer place. In addition, less tax money would be wasted fighting an un-winnable war, tax money / transaction funds can be collected to improve infrastructure and work on a system that tracks purchases, and verifies transactions so that these drugs never end up in the wrong hands.

I seriously cannot believe there are legal markets for guns, sex trade, pornographic content trade, alcohol trade (to name a few) but there is no legal market for the drug trade. Any one of these markets have the potential of devastating effects on private citizens, yet they are legal and heavily regulated by the government. So, instead of literally spending billions of dollars to try and curb this, why not spend 1/10 of it to get some really smart people in a room, brainstorm the shit out of a good concept in the spirit of the silk road and figure out the best way the government and its citizens can benefit from a properly regulated, government sanctioned drug mark...

So far this is probably the safest way to purchase drugs, ever. With rating systems, customer comments and lack of face to face transactions, I don't really see a possibility of much going wrong short of loosing your bitcoins on a bad deal. But that's where rating comes in and sellers that trick, defraud or misrepresent their products will suffer by getting rated out of business. (no one is going to buy anything from a 1/5 star seller)

A marketplace where the worst thing that can happen is loosing some cash, is a damn good market place... note that this happens in virtually all other markets. The only danger here is getting caught by law enforcement, or becoming a target of some hit because you know too much. If the government spent even 1/10 of the effort to create a properly managed, government sanctioned silk road style market place where drug users can safely (in the privacy of their own homes) purchase these items without resorting to using underground black markets, and even worse... back alleys, the world would be a safer place. In addition, less tax money would be wasted fighting an un-winnable war, tax money / transaction funds can be collected to improve infrastructure and work on a system that tracks purchases, and verifies transactions so that these drugs never end up in the wrong hands.

I seriously cannot believe there are legal markets for guns, sex trade, pornographic content trade, alcohol trade (to name a few) but there is no legal market for the drug trade. Any one of these markets have the potential of devastating effects on private citizens, yet they are legal and heavily regulated by the government. So, instead of literally spending billions of dollars to try and curb this, why not spend 1/10 of it to get some really smart people in a room, brainstorm the shit out of a good concept in the spirit of the silk road and figure out the best way the government and its citizens can benefit from a properly regulated, government sanctioned drug marketplace.

There is no way to stop this, no amount of money thrown at this problem will kill it. One silk road went down, 2 more were born in its place, if there is a market there is a market place... Its that simple. I image there is a possibility of deadly drugs making into this market place, or people that purchase these drugs will be using them for doing very bad things like poisoning others, or date rape or whatever you can image. But this is happening now, unregulated with almost no consequences to those who take part.

I for one see this as a possible mainstream and legal option to those who wish to participate in activity that is inherently risky (think skydiving, going into space, being the first to settle on mars, etc) rather than to see unregulated trade continue to ruin our streets, promote drug related gang violence and other ever more horrible yet less recognized crimes.

Anyone who thinks its a bad idea to consider such an option should think about how much government spending is thrown at this problem, and what positive effects it has on society. I think its about time we tried a different angle, one where we see positives.