The Dark Web is Killing Thousands Every Year

In 2010, around 40,000 people died from drug overdoses in the United States. Quantifying the importance and meaning of individual human life in a single statistic is impossible, but that number might already seem high, especially if you knew one of those people. But it gets worse—so, so much worse.

In 2021, more than 100,000 people died from drug overdose, and that number seems to continue to increase each year. Pinpointing an exact reason behind these rising numbers is complicated, but it all starts with these five words: fentanyl and the dark web. According to a UCLA study, fentanyl—a synthetic opioid that's 50 times stronger than heroin—was responsible for around 10% of drug overdose deaths in 2010.

In 2015, the first spike of deaths as a result of fentanyl overdose happened. It remained localized in the eastern United States for several years until 2019, when it made its way across the country. Suddenly, everyone was exposed, and death rates skyrocketed. As of 2021, a staggering 66% of drug overdoses were a result of fentanyl, and that number keeps rising.

Now, you might say, "What's the problem? If people take drugs, they should be willing to face the consequences." While you may be right, the problem is that most people who are dying from fentanyl overdose aren't even aware they're consuming it, and it's all because of one group of people: the fentanyl kings of the dark web. Criminal gangs have figured out how to manufacture and distribute fentanyl illegally. Because fentanyl is much cheaper to produce than other drugs, they've begun lacing it with those other drugs and selling them to unsuspecting users.

This is the true cause of the fentanyl crisis. Between 2010 and 2021, the amount of drugs used didn't double, nor did the number of users. In fact, drug use hasn't increased very much; it's just become much more lethal. There is a solution, but it's a rather radical one that requires an open mind to even consider.

What if we control the supply itself instead of trying to control the suppliers? If you can't beat them, join them, if you will. It could be that the only way to truly protect people from tainted drugs is to start right at the source—by controlling the supply itself and having it produced and distributed legally. It might sound like a crazy idea, but it's actually being considered by governments worldwide right now.

In December 2023, lawmakers in the Swiss capital, Bern, proposed a pilot project to allow the sale of small amounts of cocaine for recreational use. In January 2024, the mayor of Amsterdam supported a similar idea to create a regulated, healthy, and controlled market for hard drugs. Now, the movement has landed in North America through a public company called Pharma Drug. But for them, it's more than just an idea—they're already developing a biosynthetic pharmaceutical grade version of cocaine that could be a game changer for harm reduction.

Their goal is to promote a safer, traceable, and quality-controlled option that could really improve public health outcomes. It sounds radical, I know. But once you get past the stigma surrounding the idea, it really does start to make sense. And it's not just some unreal dream of the future; it's already picking up traction.

Pharma Drug is listed in Canada on the CSC and in the US on the OTC. They just filed for patents and are teaming up with a licensed lab, planning to roll out a commercial batch of their biosynthetic cocaine within the next year. If all goes well, this timeline will align with new opportunities from new markets for regulated substances and decriminalization trends worldwide. Say what you want about drug use, but it is undeniable that a regulated, controlled supply will save lives.

The approach isn't all that crazy when you think about how the opioid crisis exploded. Gone are the days of drugs being distributed on street corners or from corrupt doctors; many now come from a much more sinister place—the dark web. Drug buyers no longer need a back alley to buy drugs; they can sit at their computer or on their phone and purchase their drug of choice.

Using special browsers and software that conceals your IP addresses, users are hard, if not almost impossible, to trace on the dark web. This makes it the perfect place for secret shops to sell illegal substances. Unsurprisingly, this poses a massive challenge for law enforcement, which is trying to crack down on the illegal drug trade. The dark web leads investigators and police on a never-ending game of whack-a-mole as they try and stamp out anonymous markets only to see new ones pop up.

One software called Tor routes user data through servers worldwide, disguising your IP address. This means that communications between the buyer and seller end up scrambled, for lack of a better term. Then, you add crypto as a means of monetary exchange, and you can see why it's almost impossible to regulate our way out of this mess. All of this has helped fuel the fentanyl crisis; the dark web offers an accessible vehicle to buy drugs and opens up the sellers to a whole market that wasn't there before.

The people who are curious but not about to commit a crime out in the open can now do it from their couch. Yes, the dark web has benefits—whistleblowers, for example, who work in government or other industries can alert journalists to important facts without being identified. People in authoritarian regimes might use the dark web to avoid detection or having their internet tracked. But the same features that make the dark web appealing for people trying to stay safe lower drug traffickers to avoid police surveillance.

By now, the dark web is so global that even municipal police officers have to look globally to track down shipments and transactions of illegal drugs. And if one site gets shut down, another one inevitably will take its place. But before it even makes it onto the dark web, dealers have to decide to use it. Fentanyl doesn't end up in shipments of cocaine by mistake, so why lace it in there if the chance for fatality is so high?

Some dealers think they can mitigate the risk by measuring fentanyl carefully. If done correctly, fentanyl can help create a stream of returned customers because it's so addictive. This explains why it's so often found in cocaine or in counterfeit Xanax and Adderall; it's more addictive than those drugs themselves, so it keeps people coming back for more.

Also, there's the capitalist argument: it's cheaper than the other opioids. A small fraction of fentanyl can mimic the high of larger doses of other opioids like heroin or painkillers. Dealers will use simple binding agents and a small amount of fentanyl when they make counterfeit opioid pills because it helps their bottom line. The potency of fentanyl also makes it a really easy drug to traffic.

A formerly incarcerated dealer claimed that he could make over 10 times the amount of counterfeit pills when he used fentanyl instead of other drugs. On their own, even though fentanyl is heavily regulated in hospitals or other medical settings, it's not regulated at all on the internet, much less the dark web. So, small mistakes by uneducated, malicious, or ignorant dealers can be fatal.

The big question is: can we stop it? Of course, to do that, we need to know who the people behind these dark websites are. The operations are just like the infamous drug lords—like Pablo Escobar or El Chapo. There are kingpins running the dark web trade as well. It all started with a site called Silk Road, the first large-scale dark web drug market, which began in 2011.

It received a lot of media attention, and eventually, law enforcement was able to step in and shut it down in 2013. But more sites took its place. Alpha Bay popped up and was shut down in 2017, but has recently been clawing its way back to the top. Dream Market was also a popular market until it was shut down in 2019. Its inner workings can tell us a lot about how these sites function.

Dream Market had around 100,000 listings and, at the time, was the biggest dark web shopping center for drugs. More than half its listings were for illicit substances, although it also sold things like designer clothes, counterfeit money, and stolen online banking information. The shopping experience is similar to what most of us experience when we need a new yoga mat or that random piece that broke off your fridge.

Buyers can go to any of these sites, search the inventory, and pay in crypto, and the drugs will arrive on their doorstep. Like the typical online shopping experience, buyers can leave reviews for vendors and products. Let's say you're buying a new TV; you might go online and read some reviews, look for the best deal, or see which retailers are the most reputable for what you're looking for.

The worst-case scenario is you might buy a shoddy TV. But on the dark web drug markets, the worst-case scenario is you buy drugs that are laced with something like fentanyl that could kill you. The reviews might read like an old product on Amazon, but they are as consequential as it gets. One review on Dream Market of 100 mg of the drug carfentanil said, “It took forever to find a new carfent supplier; finally found a good vendor; it's great.”

It reads innocent enough, but carfentanil is a synthetic opioid used to sedate large animals that is even more potent than fentanyl. 100 mg is enough to kill dozens of people. With all the difficulty around taking down sites and kingpins that operate them, there have been some high-profile success stories in curbing the dark web drug market.

A 40-year-old Indian British man named Bon Me Singh ran an international drug ring from his home in the UK. He was charged with conspiracy to commit money laundering and to distribute and possess with intent to distribute controlled substances. In April 2024, he admitted that from 2012 to 2017, he was active on the dark web drug market, distributing heroin, cocaine, fentanyl, ecstasy, LSD, ketamine, Xanax, and plenty of other drugs.

He had to surrender more than 4,000 Bitcoin, which was valued at more than $245 million and was given the same priority level of threat as El Chapo. Then there was Operation Spectre, an enforcement operation from the U.S. Department of Justice that ended in May 2023. It was meant to target opioid and fentanyl trafficking on the dark web.

The operation resulted in 288 arrests, the most ever for this type of operation, in the seizure of seven firearms and 850 kg of drugs, which also included 64 kg of fentanyl lace narcotics. On top of all that, they also seized $53 million in cash and crypto. This international effort spanned three continents to disrupt fentanyl and opioid trafficking and was accompanied by a public awareness campaign to promote resources for those struggling with substance abuse.

The operation's message to criminals on the dark web is: you can try and hide in the furthest reaches of the internet, but the Justice Department will find you and hold you accountable for your crimes. This only furthered the drug enforcement agency's commitment to shutting down the fentanyl and opioid supply chain from beginning to end.

They may be committed now, but the dark web keeps growing and growing, and inevitably another kingpin will pop up, and no matter how successful they've been in the past, authorities will just need to start over again. So, is it more effective to try and shut it all down or just control the supply instead? Is a safe legal option, like the one Pharma Drug offers, the new idea that could mean an end to this vicious cycle?

In the 1920s, the U.S. banned alcohol, but people didn't stop drinking. They went underground, and illegal traffickers operated similarly to how those on the dark web operate now. Illegal activity increased; there was no regulation, and alcohol that was much stronger and more dangerous than what had previously been for sale became widely available. Are we in this era with the drug trade? And if so, is it time to rethink our approach?

The goal is, by whatever means necessary, to save lives.