Even before the infamous Silk Road website was seized and dismantled by the government, the internet drug trade was an unsafe practice. For Australians it has, and always will be a way of life. The country’s isolation is a curse – goods of any kind are expensive to import and with government crackdowns, drug imports are especially difficult. Still, the rewards outweigh the risks, and sites like Agora are still seeing heavy traffic to push product.
After a seven-day study by News.com.au, a staggering amount of information has been uncovered about Australians current drug use. They discovered that metamphetamines and cocaine were the the most accessible drugs of the 9000+ listings on the site. In just a week, a site like Agora had $2.5 million in product, with an average listing price for almost $1200. Some dealers generated $800,000 monthly, from drugs that also included ecstasy, marijuana, heroin, but the top user earned $3.3 million.
Not only have police have been unable to find the parties involved, as the online marketplace uses Bitcoin and encrypted browsers, but it hasn’t made a substantial threat to scare users from using these sites either. As time goes on, Australia’s stake in online drug trading is growing exponentially, and putting more and more people as risk daily.