Drop Zone: A Borrowed Solution For a Friends' Problem

I have a very special friend. She's been battling to get out of a nightmare. She sometimes gets into deep trouble with very bad people. I know I can only do so much, but I sometimes try to solve problems that might give her a helping hand, and beyond this such solutions might be extended to help others in similar situations.

One such solution I have implemented came from this paper.

I taught my friend that if she can somehow get a safe line of communication and let me know the general area she is in then I can safely drop her items. Email and Facebook are helpful for her in this regard as well as free wi-fi zones. Once I leave an item for her, I let her know via the communication line where I hid the item, and she can pick it up when it is safe and comfortable for her to do so. This allows me to remain safe, but it also help her because she often is not in control of her own integrity in regard to meeting times.

When we ARE able to spend some time together I point out “drop points” that she might check if we cannot communicate. The goal is always to get her a phone. I re-iterate to her that we need to make sure she always has a phone. Often a cheap flip-phone, then its not a big deal if the screen breaks, it would be difficult to pawn, and no one will bother stealing it.

Battling Addiction is Harder Than We Want to Admit

A decent source for quitting meth: http://www.quittingcrystalmeth.com/stage-1-withdrawal/
A decent source for quitting heroin: http://www.howtoquitheroin.com/

I've been thinking about her problems in regard to the drug wars and society's role in addiction and recovery. The people that sell and hold the drugs hold the power. They use the money to keep law in their back pocket, using expensive lawyers to find legal loopholes. Worse than this they hold our loved ones hostage. We always tell addicts they have to CHOOSE and that they have to WANT to get better. The truth is, NO person wants the lifestyle of my friend; It's not about choice. If she runs and can't handle her addiction, can't find a place to recover, eventually her brain turns on her and she goes back to her lifestyle. She will suffer worse abuse as punishment for leaving and this fear makes it incredibly difficult for her to even try. It's not as simple as people think.

Society doesn't understand this. We don't want to face this unsolvable problem, and so when people try to flee this lifestyle they are often left with nowhere to turn. Families are forced to give up because they spend so much emotional and financial resources to no avail, that they drain their own lives of any happiness or productivity. A mother would NEVER give up trying if it meant she could have her daughter back, but eventually there is the rational admission that destroying one's own life in order to save a family member is an irrational endeavor.

So it occurred to me, thinking about out-of-the-box methods, that if WE held the drugs then we could get the power back over our loved ones. We often say addicts are amazing liars and cannot be trusted. It's not true. Give an addict money and tell them to get drugs with it. They won't lie, and they won't buy anything else but drugs. Give an addict a supply and a safe place (safe in THEIR eyes, as in free to use drugs) and they will stay their. They won't run. In my opinion this is step one at getting our loved ones back, literally to get them home and keep them home.

The Darknet Markets Can Free Our Loved Ones and End the War On Drugs

A Good source for understanding how to order from the Dark Web: http://silkroaddrugs.org/guide-on-how-to-access-the-silk-road-3-0/

I checked out the online dark markets to understand what they are about. It turns out they are very promising. There is quality control and reputation management in regard to the quality of drugs and delivery of them. This is something our loved ones don't have access to. Furthermore the drugs are cheaper (which is related to quality).

Imagine that. Families destroy themselves, especially financially, with all sorts of recovery and treatment options, often costing thousands even tens of thousands of dollars, only to have their loved one run away, to lord knows where, for days and months with no contact. Drug addiction is expensive when one is out of control like this. A full on addict goes through hundreds even thousands of dollars during a “fall”. Furthermore, one of the biggest problems people often have in getting clean is not being able to properly taper the doses. And the people controlling and abusing our loved ones don't want them to taper.

But if they could have a constant supply, of clean drugs, in a safe place, the user would likely taper themselves. They could try. And when they are like this and trying, the cost of providing drugs and care decreases dramatically to a level that is manageable by family and even the user themselves.

Think about this. Then they can have food, sleep, and access to love. No more abuse, no more crime. No more control. No more disconnection.

Moral Arguments Aside Is Ordering Drugs Online Safe In the Legal Sense?

Ignoring the moral argument, there is a legal issue of course. Getting drugs is no doubt a serious offense in most countries. Or is it? I'm just going to highlight some philosophy here and let the experts sort my sentiments out. Countries with sane constitutions, cannot have governments that are searching ALL our mail. On the dark markets you can see there is no reputation for people mass losing their shipments or being arrested. In fact its quite the opposite. Discrete packaging is one reason. But the legal framework our nations have seems to be the main factor.

Generally, especially where I live, law enforcement is going after suppliers and sellers, not the individual. So if one is ordering drugs for oneself or a loved one, simply to keep a maintenance supply going, then there is little worry of a major conviction for drug offenses. One can't really expect a major operation against such a set-up and so the worst it seems that could happen is the delivery service or customs finds ONE such shipment. A personal amount of drugs.

“You ordered these illegal drugs”

“No I didn't, I have no idea who ordered those and sent them to my address”

This is part of the power that bitcoin provides by un-linking the buyer with the shipment in regard to the purchase. It would be very difficult for law enforcement to have the resources to implicate someone on such a small order. In my country there would likely be no jail-time served for such an offense. The onus is really on the supplier in this regard and because of the drop-zone solution above, the suppliers aren't worried.

A mailbox where I live costs about $150 dollars for a year. You link your name to it but for reasons stated above it's not a big deal. You could simply set it up with your loved one's name anyways, and/or give them a key. They won't ever lose that key, and if they do, or the box is compromised you can just get a new one, and at a new location. Since you can count on your supplier you can order small amounts (again keeping things relatively “legal”) and so a small normal sized box would be fine.

A New Problem Arises

So now I can outline the problem I thought of. I don't want to sound to paranoid but I like to cover my bases. I like to think big just in case, and create layers of security.

At times when I knew my friend was in trouble but I didn't know how deep, I run possibilities (my game theory experience) through my meditation on the subject, and consider the possibility that “big crime” won't let her leave her situation. Thinking about the “plan” I have laid out above, I realize there is the possibility (this isn't necessarily at all likely) that big crime could have connections with the major suppliers in other nations.

Then a problem arises, and this problem is a major security leak in regard to this solution which could otherwise end the war on drugs (by taking the centralized distribution of drugs from organized crime and spreading it across all individuals). If the major darknet suppliers were to “leak” their order histories, and the addresses of their buyers to organized crime (or governments) it would be quiet easy based on this information to target certain individuals. Especially if such individuals reside in smaller towns or areas, and depending on the specificity of their habits.

My friend wouldn't remain safe if this were to happen.

A Proposal for PGP Encrypted Mail/Delivery Services

Here is my proposed solution...

This might not seem so intuitive as we are used to thinking about apply crypto-graphic solutions to emerging internet technologies rather than existing legacy systems. But I believe that I might be onto something here.

One could provide their address to the seller with layers of crypto-graphic obfuscation, leaving, for example, only the country to be shipped to exposed. Once the package reaches the country, either the national postal system, or the private delivery company would have the private decryption keys for the rest of the address.

This would allow for a separation of the address information which is needed to ensure privacy for the buyer. It's not a perfect solution, but effectively it solves the problem. There could be different layers of this encryption used so that, for example, the national postal service, that provides the package to a private delivery company, also doesn't have access to the final destination. Each layer of the system could provide public addresses for their customer.

I expect this also to be well within the people's constitutional rights in regard to privacy, while also tending to the security concerns of the governments of reasonably free countries. That is to say, there should be no constitutionally sound argument as to why the citizenry might not be allowed to invoke such a system. It creates a layer of privacy for the receiver, it doesn't hide the origin or supplier of the package, and the delivery agent that is last to hold the package can still ultimately be held responsible in regard to providing the government with the final destination of the package.

Nevertheless, the effective division needed between LOCAL organized crime and the information given to suppliers of the pack would be reasonably contained.

A few related articles from the author in regard to helping loved ones with addiction and the war on drugs:

Decoupling Myth and Belief From Fact
The New Cycle of Beating Addiction
Kratom as a Natural Treatment for Heroine Addictions