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Drugs Unlimited: The Web Revolution That's Changing How the World Gets High
The very first thing ever bought or sold on the Internet was marijuana, when Stanford and MIT students used ARPANET to cut a deal in the early '70s. Today, you can order any conceivable pill or powder with the click of a mouse. In Drugs Unlimited, Mike Power tells the tale of drugs in the Internet Age, in which users have outmaneuvered law enforcement, breached international borders, and created a massive worldwide black market. But the online market in narcotics isn't just changing the way drugs are bought and sold; it's changing the nature of drugs themselves. Enterprising dealers are using the Web to engage highly skilled foreign chemists to tweak the chemical structures of banned drugs―just enough to create a similar effect and just enough to render them legal in most parts of the world. Drugs are marketed as "not for human consumption," but everyone knows exactly how they're going to be used―what they can't know is whether their use might prove fatal. From dancefloors to the offices of apathetic government officials, via social networking sites and underground labs, Power explores this agile, international, virtual subculture that will always be one step ahead of the law.
336 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 2013
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698 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 32 reviews
April 25, 2020
This is an informative book. If you have any interest in drugs--culturally, personally, economically, or pharmacologically--you should read it.
* bath salts - turns out these are not actually bath salts. it's just a fig leaf that generally stands for substituted cathinones. but there's no regulation so sometimes it's other variants of designer drugs
* designer drugs - man. MAN. this book really opened my eyes to how many designer drugs are out there now and why. basically, it was the perfect storm of readily available chemical expertise and cheap manufacturing of custom chemicals (for instance in post soviet eastern bloc countries, or china) , plus the internet, which allow for relatively anonymous commissioning of chemicals, plus govt. bans on particular chemical structures, which more on that in a sec. but basically bath salts are just the tip of the iceberg, there's a million of these.
* analogues - bans on certain classes of drug often come down to bans on particular chemical structures. so naturally this leads chemists to create alternate versions by substituting a benzene ring or adding a group or whatever. bath salts were made by looking at the chemical structure of ecstasy and cocaine and meth (some two of those three, I forget which) and devising something similar. a lot of designer drugs were devised along such lines.
* legal highs - analogues that don't contravene drug laws are favored by a segment of the population who don't want to risk breaking the law, but ironically the legal highs can be much less safe than illegal highs, because they're not that tested and dosage info is hard to get. (this is in part because for legal reasons the designer drugs have to be marketed as 'plant food' or 'bath salts' or whatever, if they put proper dosage info it would make the drugs illegal. it's a perverse effect of our farcical drug laws that it leads to more people in danger cos providing life saving info breaks the law)
* silk road - man. i thought this was a scam but apparently it really worked! you could order heroin, LSD, or whatever else, anything under the sun, and have it fed exed to you. imagine a drug market with 'seller feedback' and trust ratings like amazon. just crazy.
There's just a lot of information in Drugs 2.0, and much of it is stuff that I haven't seen reported anywhere else (certainly not with intelligent commentary and rational analysis.) Highly recommended.
P.S. Donate to the Drug Policy Alliance, please help end the madness that is our "War on Drugs"
* bath salts - turns out these are not actually bath salts. it's just a fig leaf that generally stands for substituted cathinones. but there's no regulation so sometimes it's other variants of designer drugs
* designer drugs - man. MAN. this book really opened my eyes to how many designer drugs are out there now and why. basically, it was the perfect storm of readily available chemical expertise and cheap manufacturing of custom chemicals (for instance in post soviet eastern bloc countries, or china) , plus the internet, which allow for relatively anonymous commissioning of chemicals, plus govt. bans on particular chemical structures, which more on that in a sec. but basically bath salts are just the tip of the iceberg, there's a million of these.
* analogues - bans on certain classes of drug often come down to bans on particular chemical structures. so naturally this leads chemists to create alternate versions by substituting a benzene ring or adding a group or whatever. bath salts were made by looking at the chemical structure of ecstasy and cocaine and meth (some two of those three, I forget which) and devising something similar. a lot of designer drugs were devised along such lines.
* legal highs - analogues that don't contravene drug laws are favored by a segment of the population who don't want to risk breaking the law, but ironically the legal highs can be much less safe than illegal highs, because they're not that tested and dosage info is hard to get. (this is in part because for legal reasons the designer drugs have to be marketed as 'plant food' or 'bath salts' or whatever, if they put proper dosage info it would make the drugs illegal. it's a perverse effect of our farcical drug laws that it leads to more people in danger cos providing life saving info breaks the law)
* silk road - man. i thought this was a scam but apparently it really worked! you could order heroin, LSD, or whatever else, anything under the sun, and have it fed exed to you. imagine a drug market with 'seller feedback' and trust ratings like amazon. just crazy.
There's just a lot of information in Drugs 2.0, and much of it is stuff that I haven't seen reported anywhere else (certainly not with intelligent commentary and rational analysis.) Highly recommended.
P.S. Donate to the Drug Policy Alliance, please help end the madness that is our "War on Drugs"
November 12, 2020
Moved to gwern.net.
June 4, 2013
This is an excellent read if you have any interest in drug policy and the situation surrounding the current glut of 'legal' highs and their widespread availability through the web. The book presents opinions and information from a range of sources including manufacturers of legal highs, scientist, front line drug workers and health professionals, users and law enforcement officials. It is both objective and rational as well as very well written - Power has pitched the science at exactly the right level to enable the reader to understand the context and means by which these chemicals have come to existence.
August 8, 2016
In 2015, the Government announced plans to update the drugs legislation with, what is now, the Psychoactive Substances Act 2016. As of May of this year, a blanket ban on so called "legal highs" came in to force. This piece of information makes this book dated. However, if you followed the debate regarding passage of this Act, then this an interesting book to read.
Drugs 2.0 is a meticulously researched analysis of the Research Chemical (RC) scene and it's intersections with technology. As I learned that the first piece of e commerce was for an ounce of marijuana, it came as no surprise to me how tech and drugs remain permanently interlinked. After the discovery of LSD, and the west became interested in the "psychedelic experience", policy makers got interested too. Criminalising LSD and other psychedelics (psilocybin mushrooms, DMT and mescaline in particular) that have been used for spiritual purposes for millennia led to an interest from chemists. The drug that would change the world though was MDMA. Created as an "Acid-lite", MDMA offered the increased empathy and none of the visions. Its popularity was unprecedented. As policy makers took aim at this, chemists began to fight back.
Shulgin, the creator of MDMA published thousands of novel psychedelics he had manufactured playing with phenethylamines (a la mescaline) and tryptamines (a la DMT) to play with. Thus RCs were born. The central thrust of the book is to lay bare how prohibition has failed, created novel, potent and dangerous chemicals that no one knows anything about. These drugs are made to mimic existing drugs that are criminalised as dangerous, allowing tweaked drugs of unknown (often more) danger and risk enter the "market". A cursory chapter is devoted to the dark web, and the impact of the Silk Road on how drugs are bought. But ultimately, the anarchic Internet has left drug policy makers terribly exposed. With no unified international approach to them, labs in the global South have too much to gain from feeding the voracious drug habits of the US and UK (in particular).
The book is an interesting cultural history and a good read for anyone with a healthy interest in the debate around the war on drugs.
Drugs 2.0 is a meticulously researched analysis of the Research Chemical (RC) scene and it's intersections with technology. As I learned that the first piece of e commerce was for an ounce of marijuana, it came as no surprise to me how tech and drugs remain permanently interlinked. After the discovery of LSD, and the west became interested in the "psychedelic experience", policy makers got interested too. Criminalising LSD and other psychedelics (psilocybin mushrooms, DMT and mescaline in particular) that have been used for spiritual purposes for millennia led to an interest from chemists. The drug that would change the world though was MDMA. Created as an "Acid-lite", MDMA offered the increased empathy and none of the visions. Its popularity was unprecedented. As policy makers took aim at this, chemists began to fight back.
Shulgin, the creator of MDMA published thousands of novel psychedelics he had manufactured playing with phenethylamines (a la mescaline) and tryptamines (a la DMT) to play with. Thus RCs were born. The central thrust of the book is to lay bare how prohibition has failed, created novel, potent and dangerous chemicals that no one knows anything about. These drugs are made to mimic existing drugs that are criminalised as dangerous, allowing tweaked drugs of unknown (often more) danger and risk enter the "market". A cursory chapter is devoted to the dark web, and the impact of the Silk Road on how drugs are bought. But ultimately, the anarchic Internet has left drug policy makers terribly exposed. With no unified international approach to them, labs in the global South have too much to gain from feeding the voracious drug habits of the US and UK (in particular).
The book is an interesting cultural history and a good read for anyone with a healthy interest in the debate around the war on drugs.
March 6, 2019
How the web has changed the way Research chemicals and natural highs are produced and consumed in this cyber era , including analysis of bitcoin , the Silk Road and the results of this Wild West , unregulated late flowering of the Hippy Ethos. San Francisco is again the beating heart . Why Ross Ulrich must rot in jail for Silk Road even though the underlying motive was indeed noble .
January 9, 2015
http://ensuingchapters.com/2015/01/07...
In 1996, Dan Baum published the definitive account of America’s complicated relationship with psychoactive Drugs Unlimitedsubstances. Smoke and Mirrors: The War on Drugs and the Politics of Failure is an exhaustive, apolitical narrative history of the war’s origin, evolution and cost, and though public opinion has changed (a recent Pew Research study found that Americans now favor treatment over prosecution and are against mandatory minimum sentencing by a two-to-one ratio), the book remains an important document of the human toll of the drug war.
I bring up Baum’s work because Drugs Unlimited: The Web Revolution That’s Changing How the World Gets High, by UK journalist Mike Power, is its 21st century bookend. At the time Smoke and Mirrors was penned, the Internet was in its infancy, data transfer rate was measured in kilobytes and computer literacy was limited.
In the decades since, the Web has expanded the chemical landscape, altering which drugs we do, how we acquire them, and in an effort to stay a step ahead of the law, Power writes, producers, suppliers and consumers have shifted into the wildly erratic world of “research chemicals”—legal alternatives to and analogues of illegal compounds sold widely over the Internet.
The consumption of psychoactive plants is nothing new (the earliest known head trip dates back about 13,000 years), but until the 1970s and ’80s, recreational drug users had only a handful of chemicals to choose from. In 1971, the United Nations identified just 234 legal substances; 243 new compounds have been identified in just the past four years.
Accelerated culture, indeed.
These new chemicals are often untested, of shady origin and composition and can be far more lethal than their outlaw counterparts. They’ve also inspired media-invented “epidemics” of bath salts and synthetic marijuana—fueling a digital age reefer madness that keeps drug policy mired in the past.
But Drugs Unlimited is as much about hypertext transfer protocol as politics. The psychonauts who once explored inner-space have journeyed into cyberspace, and the market has moved from the corner to the CPU.
Power’s narrative is thorough and engaging, but at times can be too thorough, particularly when it comes to the chemical names. For example, Power is compelled to include a complete stock list from a chinese distributor, which includes more than 90 compounds with names like 5-MeO-DALT, Methiopropamine (MPA), Fluoromethamphetamine (and its analogues), Desoxypipradrol (2-DPMP) and so on.
Granted, he does this for effect: “Among that unreadable alphabet soup of drug names there are hallucinogens, stimulants, empathogens and cannabinoids. Working out which of them are legal or which have been outlawed in various countries would require thousands of hours of legal time or case law study.”
This certainly helps shed light on the challenges facing consumers and law enforcement, but at times, the emphasis on product names can be overwhelming.
Aside from that, Power crafts an accessible narrative that is one of the most important books of the millennium. What Baum did for the American drug war, Power does for the U.K., from the digital age to the Deep Web.
In 1996, Dan Baum published the definitive account of America’s complicated relationship with psychoactive Drugs Unlimitedsubstances. Smoke and Mirrors: The War on Drugs and the Politics of Failure is an exhaustive, apolitical narrative history of the war’s origin, evolution and cost, and though public opinion has changed (a recent Pew Research study found that Americans now favor treatment over prosecution and are against mandatory minimum sentencing by a two-to-one ratio), the book remains an important document of the human toll of the drug war.
I bring up Baum’s work because Drugs Unlimited: The Web Revolution That’s Changing How the World Gets High, by UK journalist Mike Power, is its 21st century bookend. At the time Smoke and Mirrors was penned, the Internet was in its infancy, data transfer rate was measured in kilobytes and computer literacy was limited.
In the decades since, the Web has expanded the chemical landscape, altering which drugs we do, how we acquire them, and in an effort to stay a step ahead of the law, Power writes, producers, suppliers and consumers have shifted into the wildly erratic world of “research chemicals”—legal alternatives to and analogues of illegal compounds sold widely over the Internet.
The consumption of psychoactive plants is nothing new (the earliest known head trip dates back about 13,000 years), but until the 1970s and ’80s, recreational drug users had only a handful of chemicals to choose from. In 1971, the United Nations identified just 234 legal substances; 243 new compounds have been identified in just the past four years.
Accelerated culture, indeed.
These new chemicals are often untested, of shady origin and composition and can be far more lethal than their outlaw counterparts. They’ve also inspired media-invented “epidemics” of bath salts and synthetic marijuana—fueling a digital age reefer madness that keeps drug policy mired in the past.
But Drugs Unlimited is as much about hypertext transfer protocol as politics. The psychonauts who once explored inner-space have journeyed into cyberspace, and the market has moved from the corner to the CPU.
Power’s narrative is thorough and engaging, but at times can be too thorough, particularly when it comes to the chemical names. For example, Power is compelled to include a complete stock list from a chinese distributor, which includes more than 90 compounds with names like 5-MeO-DALT, Methiopropamine (MPA), Fluoromethamphetamine (and its analogues), Desoxypipradrol (2-DPMP) and so on.
Granted, he does this for effect: “Among that unreadable alphabet soup of drug names there are hallucinogens, stimulants, empathogens and cannabinoids. Working out which of them are legal or which have been outlawed in various countries would require thousands of hours of legal time or case law study.”
This certainly helps shed light on the challenges facing consumers and law enforcement, but at times, the emphasis on product names can be overwhelming.
Aside from that, Power crafts an accessible narrative that is one of the most important books of the millennium. What Baum did for the American drug war, Power does for the U.K., from the digital age to the Deep Web.
April 25, 2016
Fascinating overview of the research chemical (RC) market up to around the end of 2012. You'll learn about how easy it is for someone knowledgeable in organic chemistry to create new drugs with similar effects to well known illegal drugs, from existing ones so as to dodge legal requirements and sell those drugs on the open Internet.
Even if you know a bit about drugs and research chemicals, the book has a number of interesting stories that you might not have heard. For example, in late 2008 international police forces burned 33 tonnes of safrole oil in Cambodia. Safrole oil is a precursor to MDMA (ecstasy) and the amount burned could have been turned into around $8 billion worth of MDMA. Consequently this raised prices and lowered the quality of the MDMA available worldwide.
Now, the clever chemists and entrepreneurs will take a drug like MDMA, try change its chemical makeup just a little bit so that the effects are similar but so that under the laws the drug remains legal, and then sell it. One such example is mephedrone. The problem is that because these research chemical are very new and not tested much, their overdose and long-term effects are not well known. Because of this, even teenegers can legally order from the internet compounds much more dangerous than the illegal drugs they can't easily buy. The book has a number of examples of deaths resulting from just this.
In the book you'll learn about how it's possible, with clever marketing, to order a kilo of some research chemical from a chemical lab in China for a couple thousand dollars, and then repackage and resell legally for profits of tens of thousands of dollars. One of the chapters in the book will take you on a tour of such a facility in China that was shipping out hundreds of resell-size packages around the world every day.
You'll also learn about Silk Road, the website accessible via Tor to order any type of illegal drug imaginable, and Bitcoin, the currency that allowed Silk Road to function so well. Although Silk Road has been infiltrated by law enforcement, shut down and the owner arrested, just like predicted, there are tens of other entrepreneurs opening similar shops and capitalizing on what Tor and Bitcoin can provide. As it's sparse on the details of Bitcoin and Silk Road (which is fine as the book is about research chemicals), I recommend 'Digital Gold: Bitcoin and the Inside Story of the Misfits and Millionaires Trying to Reinvent Money' for a more in-depth story of those.
The book is a little bit dated considering how fast everything in this market moves (for example, MXE or methoxetamine, an analogue of ketamine, is now banned) but you will still find here a wealth of information on the RC drug scene, some fascinating stories, and overall good discussions about drug policy.
Even if you know a bit about drugs and research chemicals, the book has a number of interesting stories that you might not have heard. For example, in late 2008 international police forces burned 33 tonnes of safrole oil in Cambodia. Safrole oil is a precursor to MDMA (ecstasy) and the amount burned could have been turned into around $8 billion worth of MDMA. Consequently this raised prices and lowered the quality of the MDMA available worldwide.
Now, the clever chemists and entrepreneurs will take a drug like MDMA, try change its chemical makeup just a little bit so that the effects are similar but so that under the laws the drug remains legal, and then sell it. One such example is mephedrone. The problem is that because these research chemical are very new and not tested much, their overdose and long-term effects are not well known. Because of this, even teenegers can legally order from the internet compounds much more dangerous than the illegal drugs they can't easily buy. The book has a number of examples of deaths resulting from just this.
In the book you'll learn about how it's possible, with clever marketing, to order a kilo of some research chemical from a chemical lab in China for a couple thousand dollars, and then repackage and resell legally for profits of tens of thousands of dollars. One of the chapters in the book will take you on a tour of such a facility in China that was shipping out hundreds of resell-size packages around the world every day.
You'll also learn about Silk Road, the website accessible via Tor to order any type of illegal drug imaginable, and Bitcoin, the currency that allowed Silk Road to function so well. Although Silk Road has been infiltrated by law enforcement, shut down and the owner arrested, just like predicted, there are tens of other entrepreneurs opening similar shops and capitalizing on what Tor and Bitcoin can provide. As it's sparse on the details of Bitcoin and Silk Road (which is fine as the book is about research chemicals), I recommend 'Digital Gold: Bitcoin and the Inside Story of the Misfits and Millionaires Trying to Reinvent Money' for a more in-depth story of those.
The book is a little bit dated considering how fast everything in this market moves (for example, MXE or methoxetamine, an analogue of ketamine, is now banned) but you will still find here a wealth of information on the RC drug scene, some fascinating stories, and overall good discussions about drug policy.
October 28, 2014
What a facinating look into the online world of buying and selling new designer chemicals. This in depth study of the developing market for new and creative ways to get high was an eye opener for me. While as a pharmacist I was aware of the ever increasing use and abuse of prescription drugs and the risks that come with it, I had no idea that there were this many designer chemicals available so easily. With just a simple click of the enter button on the computer a person can order almost any type of drug he wants, unfortunately quality is not guaranteed. The background history is well explained and the various laws regarding these chemicals in the US and UK are thoroughly examined. I gained a lot of great information from this book.
March 10, 2014
Fascinating. Another book which makes me wish I'd kept up with my chemistry knowledge.
September 19, 2019
Mike Power is a man with a huge amount of knowledge to share. He's not alone; there are plenty of books about modern drug culture and economics that underline the structural role the business of drugs plays in our society. Here we are certainly in the hands of an expert. Power outlines his intentions with a fierce, structured security. He writes with the certainty of knowledge. Unlike Polan's How to Change Your Mind where the author is journeying into the personal unknown, or Saviano's ZeroZeroZero where the danger involved and the sense of discovery and shock gives the book a drama and a tension, Drugs 2.0 is a calm, informed account of how new forms of old drugs are changing the way people take drugs, the way they buy and sell them and the way it is affecting the underlying structures of our economy. Mike Power has been here for a while, has been part of the ecstasy craze, has written about new developments in the emergence of new designer drugs. Here he shares his knowledge in an articulate and fascinating book.
Despite the focus on designer drugs and new chemical compounds, both legal and illegal, Power also looks back over important developments in the history of human drug taking. Plenty of it is common knowledge but Power strikes a good balance between the telling and the analysing, making it a very interesting tale of human experimentation and exploration. He puts a lot of focus on the history of drug legislation, something missing elsewhere in debates about the legalisation of drugs. It connects well with the modern story of internet buying and selling, of the permanent race of chemists against the law. It's a almost farcical battle in a failing system and a near perfect argument for the futility of illegalisation. He goes even further and outlines how the legislation and the race to create something new is actually poses more and more dangers for drug users as compounds become more and more distant from the original, more traditional drugs.
More difficult to explain and clarify are the stories of the chemicals themselves and the story of the Dark Web. It is not Power's intention to make such difficult, technical areas understandable for the uninitiated; for me the explantions of the Dark Web and the technology around it went very much over my head. What remains is the cultural, social and economic effects of such advancement, seemingly unseen by the person on the street. It becomes apparent, however, that such changes in an underground world are far reaching and affect those who, in their daily life, have no interest or contact in drugs at all. Power doesn't dwell on topics. It makes the book a little overbearing and overreaching at times, central figures only vaguely sketched, tragic events very coldly retold, but the bredth of his research and involvement in the topic is impressive and very interesting. It tells a story of mankind's determination to discover newness and the individuals intense desire to work against the system even when they are locked in it.
In a world library filled with intense, intelligent, well-researched and vital non-fiction, Drugs 2.0 can firmly stand up on the shelf of recommended books to read for those who want to expand their mind and their knowledge of how the world works. 7
Despite the focus on designer drugs and new chemical compounds, both legal and illegal, Power also looks back over important developments in the history of human drug taking. Plenty of it is common knowledge but Power strikes a good balance between the telling and the analysing, making it a very interesting tale of human experimentation and exploration. He puts a lot of focus on the history of drug legislation, something missing elsewhere in debates about the legalisation of drugs. It connects well with the modern story of internet buying and selling, of the permanent race of chemists against the law. It's a almost farcical battle in a failing system and a near perfect argument for the futility of illegalisation. He goes even further and outlines how the legislation and the race to create something new is actually poses more and more dangers for drug users as compounds become more and more distant from the original, more traditional drugs.
More difficult to explain and clarify are the stories of the chemicals themselves and the story of the Dark Web. It is not Power's intention to make such difficult, technical areas understandable for the uninitiated; for me the explantions of the Dark Web and the technology around it went very much over my head. What remains is the cultural, social and economic effects of such advancement, seemingly unseen by the person on the street. It becomes apparent, however, that such changes in an underground world are far reaching and affect those who, in their daily life, have no interest or contact in drugs at all. Power doesn't dwell on topics. It makes the book a little overbearing and overreaching at times, central figures only vaguely sketched, tragic events very coldly retold, but the bredth of his research and involvement in the topic is impressive and very interesting. It tells a story of mankind's determination to discover newness and the individuals intense desire to work against the system even when they are locked in it.
In a world library filled with intense, intelligent, well-researched and vital non-fiction, Drugs 2.0 can firmly stand up on the shelf of recommended books to read for those who want to expand their mind and their knowledge of how the world works. 7
December 30, 2018
Drugs Unlimited is an informative, exhaustively researched journalistic expose on the history of recreational drug use and innovation, from Alexander Shulgin and the early days of drug synthesis, to the emergence of rave culture and MDMA, to the present-day web-based culture of experimentation with designer drugs. Power illustrates how the drug trade grew up with the Internet, and how technology, the war on drugs, and sluggish drug legislation created the conditions for the designer drug movement. His message is clear: the ingenuity of chemists, dealers, and users will forever outstrip the ability of legislation to control innovation in this arena; policies of drug prohibition and criminalization have outright failed to keep usage in check and reduce harm to users, while leading to a massive spike in incarceration and encouraging more dangerous behavior.
February 2, 2019
Koukuttava ja hyvin kirjoitettu teos nykyisistä muuntohuumeista ja huumekaupasta internetin aikakaudella. Kirjassa käydään ansiokkaasti ja lyhyesti lävitse huumeiden kriminalisoinnin historia, sekä kerrotaan kuinka kemiallisen tutkimuksen myötä niitä kehitetään yhä kiihtyvällä tahdilla lisää. Kun valtiot kriminalisoivat yhä uusia huumeita, tulee markkinoille entistäkin vähemmän testattuja ja arvaamattomia kemiallisia yhdisteitä, joita käyttävien kuolleisuus on aivan toista luokkaa kuin pidempään tunnetuilla ja testatuilla valmisteilla. Syntyy noidankehä, jossa suurimmat häviäjät ovat ihan tavalliset ihmiset ja seikkailulliset teinit, jotka pyrkivät saamaan huumaavia aineita laillisesti.
July 8, 2018
I went into this book knowing next-to-nothing about recreational drugs, so almost all of it was news to me. As such, it was an eye-opener and a compelling overview of the recent history and current (well, as of 2013) state of the drug trade. I suspect that those who are familiar with the Internet-fueled explosion of drug "analogues" will find the book less enlightening, though.
I debated whether to give this book 5 stars. The only problems I had with it are that it's UK-focused and somewhat out-of-date.
I debated whether to give this book 5 stars. The only problems I had with it are that it's UK-focused and somewhat out-of-date.
November 15, 2014
NOTE: The opinions within this review are that of myself and have been in no way influenced by the publisher, author, or the Goodreads website from which I obtained my Advanced Reader Copy.
I recently received a proper ARC copy of Mike Power's Drugs Unlimited via Goodreads. This book is an updated and soon to be more widely available version of his book Drugs 2.0; and it is one of the most amazing and disturbing books that I have ever read. It is amazing because of Mr. Power ability to explain the current situation surrounding Drugs in our modern global internet age: the chemistry – which is very understandable for the layman – the politics, and the social history; as well as, his access to information from sources that must, due to the situation surrounding the topic, remain as anonymous as possible. However, it is disturbing for much of the same reasons: understanding the social aspects of modern drug culture, the politics that lead to ever more dangerous acts by the users, and the chemistry that leads to the deaths of people.
Before diving into the book it is important to understand a bit of background. I was, and in some ways still am, a Raver, even though, my chosen profession means that I travel and do not have access to the Modern Western Technological World for months and years at a time. However, I try my hardest, wherever I am living, to support the scene; and, as a result, have many times been exposed to some of the seediest sides of the Drug Culture. I know people who have never tried a drug in their life, to people who, for whatever reason, can’t seem to live without it – be it using or selling. Consequently, I have also been exposed to the changing atmosphere and social norms surrounding the drugs and was excited that I was going to receive this book so as to understand much of the darker and stranger parts of the modern clime; especially since it is always fascinating when listening to the pre-internet user and the post-internet user never quite understanding each other.
Drugs Unlimited, which mostly focuses on Mr. Power's home country of Great Britain, takes us from the first chapter’s brief overview of the history of drug use: the 9000 year old wad of fossilized chewed plant material that contained various psychedelics, the Grandfather of Chinese medicine, and creation of the first Drug Laws; through the birth of the internet, where the very first purchase online using ARPANET was marijuana; into today’s Dark Web online deals that can deliver high quality drugs right to your doorstep. The book explains in excellent and comprehensible language how the 1970’s counter-culture and the birth of chemical psychedelics (LSD, MDMA, etc.) has evolved into today’s drug culture, and how the prohibition from the War on Drugs has led to today’s quagmire of quasi-legal research chemicals of which little to nothing is known outside of the trip reports posted on various web forums. In addition, he paints the disturbing picture of the truth of how the War on Drugs has failed and that these failed and outdated laws both cannot keep up with the ever evolving sphere of drugs, and are at this point doing more harm to society than good. He also shows how the governments of the world’s decisions led to the creation of the Dark Web and websites such as the infamous Silk Road which, in many ways, are a reaction to the increasing Totalitarian Police States of the modern Western World. Plus, an amazingly astute and simple explanation of Bitcoin’s, their use, their creation, and their meaning.
The introduction to this, arguable seminal piece on Drug Culture and the Internet, poses the idea that perhaps, in the world’s War on Drugs, the Drugs have won. Is this true? Quite possibly, and the book makes an near unassailable argument for this position because, even while the ‘Free World’ becomes ever more Draconian, and the NSA and her counterparts around the world seek to invade the privacy of every user on the internet – and even with programs such as Tor, as Edward Snowden has shown, the spy agencies meta-data programs can track the informational flow – the drug trade is bigger and more open than ever before, if not as safe as the Silk Road era just a few years ago. The book shows how, all too often, the anachronistic ideology surrounding the drug prohibition has led to the true endangerment of society. In fact, it becomes very obvious that the only reason why there have not been major overhauls to the system stems from the entrenched interests of politicians and Big Brother.
However, regardless as to whether you are for continuing Prohibition, Decriminalization, or for full Legalization; or if you are a user, abuser, politician, law enforcement agent, concerned parent, curious as to the drug culture, and most especially, a journalist, this is a must read. Although Mr. Power, quite rightly, takes the neutral stance, and never once passes judgment in any direction, it is hard for an intelligent non-ideologue individual to not realize that something is wrong with the way things are. Finally, I would say that the analysis and arguments presented within Drugs Unlimited paint a picture of both the hopes and despairs of not just the minute segment of free thinkers and ‘psychonauts’, but also of anyone who truly values their private individual freed
August 9, 2018
Got repetitive half way through.
May 4, 2021
brilliant book, very well researched...
December 12, 2021
Very interesting, but quite long and over detailed.
February 24, 2017
Being from the Old School of "psychedelic rangerism," (lysergic "megadoses" and the like) I found this book pretty educational insofar as helping me become aware of recent developments, which I voluntarily broke off from in the early 1990's. For me, the availability of reliably pure and genuine chem-substances was forecluded by what I perceived as a growing lack of quality and unreliable, weakened potency. But then PIHKAL and ,i>TIHKAL (both authored by A. Shulgin) happened, and since, apparently, a whole new generation has grown up with an alphabet soup of tripping pharmacopeia, which both law enforcement, and old heads like me, can only but wonder and shake our heads at. Goes deeply into the law enforcement-legislative angle toward these new discoveries without criticizing the basic urge in us all to see the world through vari-colored lenses.
March 29, 2016
Nerd sniped at the library! I hustled to finish it so I could get back to doing what I'm supposed to be doing.
I am laughably square, but Drugs 2.0 was incredibly interesting even so. The history of drugs and the internet is closely intertwined (one of many interesting facts you'll learn: the first sale over the internet was of marijuana, in 1971), and they illuminate one another very handily.
Power is a shameless Ecstasy partisan; it's probably just as well he doesn't try to hide it. He makes his case pretty well, but it was frustrating that he keeps almost all the talk of addiction and negative consequences to the last chapters. He also could have written more in detail about organized crime (he mostly sticks to the facts of "this, this, and this mafia were manufacturing most X and Y available in A, B, and C"), though he does talk about the racist origins of drug laws against opium and marijuana around the turn of the last century and about the US's Drug War and prison problems.
Other highlights: an online debate over the finer points of MDMA manufacture between two extremely knowledgeable chemists... who are actually the same person! Very Ender's Game. Plus a thought-provoking quote from an entirely different book: "Revolutionary movements in pop culture often have their widest impact after the 'moment' has allegedly passed, when ideas spread from the metropolitan bohemian elites that originally 'own' them and reach the suburbs and the regions."
Drugs 2.0 is very science- and information-heavy, but also very readable.
I am laughably square, but Drugs 2.0 was incredibly interesting even so. The history of drugs and the internet is closely intertwined (one of many interesting facts you'll learn: the first sale over the internet was of marijuana, in 1971), and they illuminate one another very handily.
Power is a shameless Ecstasy partisan; it's probably just as well he doesn't try to hide it. He makes his case pretty well, but it was frustrating that he keeps almost all the talk of addiction and negative consequences to the last chapters. He also could have written more in detail about organized crime (he mostly sticks to the facts of "this, this, and this mafia were manufacturing most X and Y available in A, B, and C"), though he does talk about the racist origins of drug laws against opium and marijuana around the turn of the last century and about the US's Drug War and prison problems.
Other highlights: an online debate over the finer points of MDMA manufacture between two extremely knowledgeable chemists... who are actually the same person! Very Ender's Game. Plus a thought-provoking quote from an entirely different book: "Revolutionary movements in pop culture often have their widest impact after the 'moment' has allegedly passed, when ideas spread from the metropolitan bohemian elites that originally 'own' them and reach the suburbs and the regions."
Drugs 2.0 is very science- and information-heavy, but also very readable.
August 12, 2013
I saw this as a recommended book on Amazon and decided to give it a try.
The book was generally worthwhile, though parts of it were boring (for example the history of online drug discussion forums on usenet, this doesn't really interest me). At the beginning it seemed the author was slightly biased but I can understand that, since its up to you to decide if buying drugs online is good or bad.
The information in the book was mostly correct and objective, at sometimes slightly dramatizing the situation which is understandable since its the main topic of the book.
There were slight errors - for example mixing up 2 chemical formulas, or mistaking the active dose with the desired dose (the active dose of mxe is 10mg, but the dose to get the desired effects may be 30mg; the author concludes you can get 100 doses from 1 gram where in reality, ~30 doses is more realistic), but most of the information was accurate.
If you are uninformed this book may scare you, but for people that think critically about drugs this book is a good source of information on the way the world "gets high" nowadays.
The book was generally worthwhile, though parts of it were boring (for example the history of online drug discussion forums on usenet, this doesn't really interest me). At the beginning it seemed the author was slightly biased but I can understand that, since its up to you to decide if buying drugs online is good or bad.
The information in the book was mostly correct and objective, at sometimes slightly dramatizing the situation which is understandable since its the main topic of the book.
There were slight errors - for example mixing up 2 chemical formulas, or mistaking the active dose with the desired dose (the active dose of mxe is 10mg, but the dose to get the desired effects may be 30mg; the author concludes you can get 100 doses from 1 gram where in reality, ~30 doses is more realistic), but most of the information was accurate.
If you are uninformed this book may scare you, but for people that think critically about drugs this book is a good source of information on the way the world "gets high" nowadays.
November 1, 2014
Note: I received this ARC free courtesy of goodreads, first reads.
I really enjoyed this one, and I would recommend it to anyone interested in drug culture and/or the intersection between chemistry, technology, and drugs. It's got a lot of solid information (though I cannot attest to the accuracy of some of the organic chemistry discussed) and provides several quotes from people involved in all sides of the online drug trade. The chapter about the silk road was the most interesting for me because I remember following the story while it was unfolding.
My main complaint was typos. I noticed several of them, but I presume they will be taken care of in the final edition.
I really enjoyed this one, and I would recommend it to anyone interested in drug culture and/or the intersection between chemistry, technology, and drugs. It's got a lot of solid information (though I cannot attest to the accuracy of some of the organic chemistry discussed) and provides several quotes from people involved in all sides of the online drug trade. The chapter about the silk road was the most interesting for me because I remember following the story while it was unfolding.
My main complaint was typos. I noticed several of them, but I presume they will be taken care of in the final edition.
October 24, 2014
Very interesting book that recounts the birth and development of "synthetic drugs" and how through the DarkNet selling has become not only rich in terms of profits, even extremely easy and almost risk-free. Really worrying.
Libro molto interessante che racconta la nascita e lo sviluppo delle "droghe sintetiche" e di come attraverso la DarkNet il loro smercio sia diventato, oltre che ricco in termini di profitti, anche estremamente facile e quasi privo di rischi. Veramente preoccupante.
THANKS TO NETGALLEY AND ST.MARTIN'S PRESS FOR THE PREVIEW!
Libro molto interessante che racconta la nascita e lo sviluppo delle "droghe sintetiche" e di come attraverso la DarkNet il loro smercio sia diventato, oltre che ricco in termini di profitti, anche estremamente facile e quasi privo di rischi. Veramente preoccupante.
THANKS TO NETGALLEY AND ST.MARTIN'S PRESS FOR THE PREVIEW!
July 14, 2015
Your computer is the medicine chest for us all. Power does very readable explanation of the bliss or horror that is just a few clicks away. Its amazing that people will consume a potentially lethal powder or pill without any proof of ingredients or dosage information. If you have ever smoked pot or popped a pill this the book of true information without spin. First rate!
February 8, 2016
This book covers the fascinating topic of legal highs on the internet, and how it has interacted with the drug enforcement landscape in the last decade. The author appears to be a relative insider and quotes from interviews with many gray-market vendors.
Unfortunately, the writing is sloppy. It veers between detached observation and editorializing, and it rambles.
Unfortunately, the writing is sloppy. It veers between detached observation and editorializing, and it rambles.
April 18, 2015
It's technical and perhaps at times chellenging due to the nature of the subject matter, but you'll not read a better book about the dark web and the world of synthetic drugs. Fascinating and hats off to Power for addressing such a complex topic.
June 17, 2013
Chemists will be interested in this book I guess!
July 26, 2013
Really good introduction to the research chemical scene and the role of the Internet in relation to drugs. I fully agree with Leanne's review below.
August 29, 2013
interessant, goed onderzocht. de eerste keer dat ik al deze info verzameld zie in een boek ipv op obscure websites online. geschreven op niveau van de geïnteresseerde leek
December 11, 2014
You have to have a little knowledge of chemistry for this book, but it is mind blowing. Frightening, but full of knowledge and great source material.
January 24, 2015
Interesting take on the online legal drug scene. The author was a little preachy at times but brings up some strong arguments in regards to current drug laws and the need for reform.
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