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daba
Stranger


Registered: 12/30/02
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Craigslist becomes a place for pot peddlers
#5934718 - 08/05/06 01:54 PM (17 years, 5 months ago) |
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http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/localnews/2003171579_craigslist03m.html
Craigslist becomes a place for pot peddlers
By Nathan Hurst
Seattle Times staff reporter
The classified-advertising Web site craigslist has become popular in recent years with young, tech-savvy city dwellers seeking apartments, jobs and for-sale items.
But it's also being used as an Information Age black market for some Seattle-area marijuana dealers.
"I'm not too concerned about getting caught," said Eric, a Bellevue man in his early 30s who peddles pot online through craigslist.
Local and federal law enforcement officials said they're aware dealers like Eric are turning to craigslist and other Web sites to sell pot, but the amounts sold are generally so small they're not very concerned.
Eric, who spoke on the condition that his last name not be used, says he doesn't make much of a profit — if any — but sells enough marijuana so he can smoke for free. He sells small amounts — usually an eighth of an ounce, which brings in $30 to $40. Most clients are friends or friends of friends, Eric said.
But as some customers have moved away or no longer want to light up, he's found replacement demand online.
Craigslist prohibits illegal activity, but the Web site is mostly self-policed, according to a spokeswoman for the site.
Eric scans craigslist for ads placed by people who are seeking pot. More often than not, he'll find someone posting an ad looking for marijuana using code names like "Mary Jane," "MJ," "the sticky icky," "the chronic" and "420."
Recently, however, Eric posted an ad on craigslist indicating he was willing to trade marijuana for sexual favors from women or money from men. Men who offered up a woman for sex would get a discount.
"It's not prostitution," he said, noting he had completed a few transactions in response to the ad. "It's like a date, just weed instead of dinner."
Eric isn't alone in his sex-for-drugs cyber-trade. Recent ads posted on craigslist included an Everett man who wanted to "smoke some 420 and hook up with a cute guy" and a man in Seattle's Queen Anne neighborhood who offered women a place to smoke pot, but warned: "I might try to kiss you or touch you."
Eric doesn't flaunt his pot-dealing and said he doubts his neighbors — or law enforcement — know about what he does.
Local police and federal authorities haven't given him reason to worry.
Jeff Eig, spokesman for the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration's Seattle office, said the amounts of illicit drugs sold via online transactions are generally so small that his agency hasn't specifically gone after craigslist users dealing dope.
Instead, he said, the DEA has chosen to focus on online pharmacies that sell drugs such as Oxycontin, morphine and Ritalin — all legal but restricted prescription drugs — to people without prescriptions at a high profit margin.
"We've done stings with online pharmacies," Eig said. "We have a division called diversion control which regularly investigates how dealers are getting legal drugs into the illicit market."
Lt. William Edwards of the Seattle Police Department's narcotics unit said cracking down on dealers selling drugs on craigslist and other sites such as Myspace, LiveJournal and Friendster is "on the radar screen but not a priority."
Edwards said most of the transactions made over craigslist are very small.
"While we don't have anything ongoing, we do monitor it from time to time," he said. "But right now we're just not seeing that much. In other jurisdictions there seems to be more trafficking. But here, it appears to be mostly coded and in smaller amounts."
Craigslist isn't the only Web site pot smokers are using to find marijuana. One, WeBeHigh.com, hosts user-contributed pages for many world cities, including Seattle, that detail where to find marijuana dealers.
Police in other cities around the country have been increasingly vigilant against online crime via craigslist and other sites. Last year, Boston police arrested five women suspected of running a prostitution ring that advertised on craigslist. Police in Hanover, Mass., southeast of Boston, recently arrested a 44-year-old woman who allegedly sold Ecstasy and other drugs online.
Even though Seattle voters in 2004 approved an initiative that required police to make enforcing marijuana possession for adults the lowest priority, selling is still a felonious offense under state law. Possession of less than 40 grams is a misdemeanor.
Despite the law, Eric and two other dealers contacted by The Seattle Times who sell marijuana online said they simply aren't that concerned.
One dealer who lives in Seattle's Montlake neighborhood said his customers feel more at ease "making a connection" online than on the streets.
Another man from West Seattle, who was recently offering a quarter-ounce of marijuana for $75 — "the good stuff," he said — thinks his clients would rather e-mail a dealer back and forth for a few days to make sure they're legit than risk meeting someone and having the deal go awry.
"You never know what's going to happen," he said. "You could easily get robbed or beat up if you run into the wrong people."
None of the dealers is worried about retribution from craigslist or other sites.
Susan Best, spokeswoman for San Francisco-based craigslist, said the company prohibits drug peddling and similar crimes on its site and cooperates with law enforcement when asked.
Still, the site relies on users to monitor posts. Users can flag posts that potentially violate the site's rules, but many regarding drug use remain active for days, sometimes expiring before site administrators can delete them.
"And, let me be clear," Best wrote. "We don't want illegal activity on our site. It is not welcome."
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ZippoZ
Knomadic


Registered: 06/17/03
Posts: 13,227
Loc: Pongyang, North Korea
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Re: Craigslist becomes a place for pot peddlers [Re: daba]
#5934829 - 08/05/06 02:36 PM (17 years, 5 months ago) |
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What a fucking idiot
-------------------- PEACE
zippoz "in times of widespread chaos and confusion, it has been the duty of more advanced human beings - artists, scientists, clowns, and philosophers - to create order. In such times as ours however, when there is too much order, too much m management, too much programming and control, it becomes the duty of superior men and women and women to fling their favorite monkey wrenches into the machinery. To relieve the repression of the human spirit, they must sow doubt and disruption" "People do it every day, they talk to themselves ... they see themselves as they'd like to be, they don't have the courage you have, to just run with it."
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Lily_Morgan
I'm #1 !!

Registered: 07/05/06
Posts: 437
Loc: Eastern Shore
Last seen: 16 years, 3 months
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Re: Craigslist becomes a place for pot peddlers [Re: ZippoZ]
#5934966 - 08/05/06 03:50 PM (17 years, 5 months ago) |
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I really have a hard time believing that the authorities don't care that much. I believe that statement was made to get people to let down their guards and start selling larger quantities. And yes, I agree: what a fucking idiot.
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Microcosmatrix
Spiral staircasetechnician


Registered: 10/20/05
Posts: 11,293
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Re: Craigslist becomes a place for pot peddlers [Re: Lily_Morgan]
#5935075 - 08/05/06 04:56 PM (17 years, 5 months ago) |
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Yeah, the DEA "don't care" about illegal drug sales. haha good one.
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MustNotBe
HPPDer


Registered: 01/27/06
Posts: 930
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Re: Craigslist becomes a place for pot peddlers [Re: Microcosmatrix]
#5935212 - 08/05/06 06:40 PM (17 years, 5 months ago) |
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When the reporter talked with the dea, I bet the DEA wiped out a notebook, and said "Wait Wait Wait, can you start over.. what web site did u say? We never heard of that site before... wait you just said DRUGS!"
-------------------- Junkies United we stand , Devided we're sick as fuck. - - - "Hallucinations are something heroin users are not at all accustomed to," said Const. Conor King, Victoria police drug expert. "They react like you or I would react if we took Aspirin and all of a sudden the TV got up and started walking across the room." - - - Make drugs legal, or alcohol and tobacco illegal. Either way it's more fair.
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EquilibriuM
dream stalker

Registered: 07/17/05
Posts: 2,323
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Re: Craigslist becomes a place for pot peddlers [Re: MustNotBe]
#5935482 - 08/05/06 09:29 PM (17 years, 5 months ago) |
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DEA is supposed to be for big shit. Local PD are supposed to deal with this kind of crap, but the city in question has, "approved an initiative that required police to make enforcing marijuana possession for adults the lowest priority"
-------------------- HELP!!!!!!!!!
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Microcosmatrix
Spiral staircasetechnician


Registered: 10/20/05
Posts: 11,293
Loc: Ythan's house
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Re: Craigslist becomes a place for pot peddlers [Re: EquilibriuM]
#5936669 - 08/06/06 11:19 AM (17 years, 5 months ago) |
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Quote:
EquilibriuM said: DEA is supposed to be for big shit. Local PD are supposed to deal with this kind of crap.
That must be why the DEA was in California getting cancer patients up out of bed at gunpoint to go to prison. Bastards, the whole lot of them!
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EquilibriuM
dream stalker

Registered: 07/17/05
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Re: Craigslist becomes a place for pot peddlers [Re: Microcosmatrix]
#5937666 - 08/06/06 04:56 PM (17 years, 5 months ago) |
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If I remember correctly, those "busts" were over large crop quantities used to distribute medical marijuana.
-------------------- HELP!!!!!!!!!
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Microcosmatrix
Spiral staircasetechnician


Registered: 10/20/05
Posts: 11,293
Loc: Ythan's house
Last seen: 17 years, 1 month
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Re: Craigslist becomes a place for pot peddlers [Re: EquilibriuM]
#5938141 - 08/06/06 07:42 PM (17 years, 5 months ago) |
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Not sure, I remember reading that some cops in NY ordered some pot from a dude on craigslist and busted him on the spot. Some things just aren't meant for the internet, illegal drug sales is one of them.
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Jalruza
Boot Lover


Registered: 10/09/04
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Re: Craigslist becomes a place for pot peddlers [Re: Microcosmatrix]
#5949812 - 08/10/06 07:00 AM (17 years, 5 months ago) |
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http://www.webehigh.com/
Did anyone catch that?
That guide is shit where i live, i expected that site to have a classifed section but no, they do not.
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