You Can’t Stop Online Drug Sales: The Supposed Operator of the New Silk Road Speaks

Mike Power, author of the
book
Drugs 2.0, nabs an encrypted online interview
at the site Medium with a person purporting to be
operating the new version of the Silk Road darkweb sales site,
still using the original pseudonym for that role, “Dread Pirate
Roberts.” (The federal government claims that a man named Ross
Ulbricht
who they have arrested was the original Dread Pirate
Roberts.)

Choice excerpt, and wise no matter who the source is:

The recurring theme [at] Silk Road is that we provide
honest, unadulterated products to people who want them, and whether
we [were] here or not, most people would have access to them anyway
from shady street dealers who lie through their teeth.

Let us assume you have a son who is in his teenage years and you
knew they were going to do drugs, what as a parent, would you do?
Would you let them go to their friends’ friends’ dealer … or would
you help them buy from Silk Road from vendors who are reviewed
regularly, and where we will be offering product-testing services,
and [where we have] a resident doctor to ensure nobody harms
themselves?

Ultimately you cannot stop people doing drugs, but you can make
it safer for them, and get people off the streets and away from
violence — which is what we stand for.

He won’t discuss security measures for the site, which as Power
notes has not yet established a record of completed sales with
stated customer satisfaction. And for feds who want to try to slap
down the site again, he has this to say:

You will hunt me — but first ask yourselves is it worth it?
Taking me down will not affect Silk Road — back-ups have already
been distributed and this entire infrastructure can be redeployed
elsewhere in under 15 minutes, and you will gain nothing from our
database.

Reason
on Silk Road.