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< h4 name = "9736" id = "9736" data-align = "center" class = "graf--h4" > Welcome to DoctorX’ < / h4 >
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< p name = "8a83" id = "8a83" class = "graf--p" > Standing at a table in a chemistry lab in Barcelona, Cristina Gil Lladanosa
tears open a silver, smell-proof protective envelope. She slides out a
transparent bag full of crystals. Around her, machines whir and hum, and
other researchers mill around in long, white coats.< / p >
< p name = "b675" id = "b675"
class="graf--p">She is holding the lab’
web,” the clandestine corner of the internet that isn’
search engines, and is home to some sites that require special software
to access. Labeled as < a href = "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MDMA" data-href = "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MDMA"
class="markup--anchor markup--p-anchor" rel="nofollow">MDMA< / a > (the street
term is ecstasy), this sample has been shipped from Canada. Lladanosa and
her colleague Iván Fornís Espinosa have also received drugs, anonymously,
from people in China, Australia, Europe and the United States.< / p >
< p name = "3c0b"
id="3c0b" class="graf--p graf--startsWithDoubleQuote">“Here we have speed, MDMA, cocaine, pills,” Lladanosa says, pointing to
vials full of red, green, blue and clear solutions sitting in labeled boxes.< / p >
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< figcaption class = "imageCaption" > Cristina Gil Lladanosa, at the Barcelona testing lab | photo by Joan Bardeletti< / figcaption >
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< p name = "7a54" id = "7a54" class = "graf--p" > Since 2011, with the launch of < a href = "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Silk_Road_%28marketplace%29"
data-href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Silk_Road_%28marketplace%29" class="markup--anchor markup--p-anchor"
rel="nofollow">Silk Road< / a > , anybody has been able to safely buy illegal
drugs from the deep web and have them delivered to their door. Though the
FBI shut down that black market in October 2013, other outlets have emerged
to fill its role. For the last 10 months the lab at which Lladanosa and
Espinosa work has offered a paid testing service of those drugs. By sending
in samples for analysis, users can know exactly what it is they are buying,
and make a more informed decision about whether to ingest the substance.
The group, called < a href = "http://energycontrol.org/" data-href = "http://energycontrol.org/"
class="markup--anchor markup--p-anchor" rel="nofollow">Energy Control< / a > ,
which has being running “harm reduction” programs since 1999, is the first
to run a testing service explicitly geared towards verifying those purchases
from the deep web.< / p >
< p name = "4395" id = "4395" class = "graf--p" > Before joining Energy Control, Lladanosa briefly worked at a pharmacy,
whereas Espinosa spent 14 years doing drug analysis. Working at Energy
Control is “more gratifying,” and “rewarding” than her previous jobs, Lladanosa
told me. They also receive help from a group of volunteers, made up of
a mixture of “squatters,” as Espinosa put it, and medical students, who
prepare the samples for testing.< / p >
< p name = "0c18" id = "0c18" class = "graf--p" > After weighing out the crystals, aggressively mixing it with methanol
until dissolved, and delicately pouring the liquid into a tiny brown bottle,
Lladanosa, a petite woman who is nearly engulfed by her lab coat, is now
ready to test the sample. She loads a series of three trays on top of a
large white appliance sitting on a table, called a gas chromatograph (GC).
A jungle of thick pipes hang from the lab’ < / p >
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< figcaption class = "imageCaption" > Photo by Joan Bardeletti< / figcaption >
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< p name = "1549" id = "1549" class = "graf--p graf--startsWithDoubleQuote" > “Chromatography separates all the substances,” Lladanosa says as she loads
the machine with an array of drugs sent from the deep web and local Spanish
users. It can tell whether a sample is pure or contaminated, and if the
latter, with what.< / p >
< p name = "5d0f" id = "5d0f" class = "graf--p" > Rushes of hot air blow across the desk as the gas chromatograph blasts
the sample at 280 degrees Celsius. Thirty minutes later the machine’
arm automatically moves over to grip another bottle. The machine will continue
cranking through the 150 samples in the trays for most of the work week.< / p >
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< figcaption class = "imageCaption" > Photo by Joan Bardeletti< / figcaption >
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< p name = "15e0" id = "15e0" class = "graf--p" > To get the drugs to Barcelona, a user mails at least 10 milligrams of
a substance to the offices of the Asociación Bienestar y Desarrollo, the
non-government organization that oversees Energy Control. The sample then
gets delivered to the testing service’
Research Park, a futuristic, seven story building sitting metres away from
the beach. Energy Control borrows its lab space from a biomedical research
group for free.< / p >
< p name = "2574" id = "2574" class = "graf--p" > The tests cost 50 Euro per sample. Users pay, not surprisingly, with Bitcoin.
In the post announcing Energy Control’
promised that “All profits of this service are set aside of maintenance
of this project.”< / p >
< p name = "2644" id = "2644" class = "graf--p" > About a week after testing, those results are sent in a PDF to an email
address provided by the anonymous client.< / p >
< p name = "9f91" id = "9f91" class = "graf--p graf--startsWithDoubleQuote" > “The process is quite boring, because you are in a routine,” Lladanosa
says. But one part of the process is consistently surprising: that moment
when the results pop up on the screen. “Every time it’
For instance, one cocaine sample she had tested also contained phenacetin,
a painkiller added to increase the product’
that numbs the gums, giving the impression that the user is taking higher
quality cocaine; and common caffeine.< / p >
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< p name = "39a6" id = "39a6" class = "graf--p" > The deep web drug lab is the brainchild of Fernando Caudevilla, a Spanish
physician who is better known as “DoctorX” on the deep web, a nickname
given to him by his Energy Control co-workers because of his earlier writing
about the history, risks and recreational culture of MDMA. In the physical
world, Caudevilla has worked for over a decade with Energy Control on various
harm reduction focused projects, most of which have involved giving Spanish
illegal drug users medical guidance, and often writing leaflets about the
harms of certain substances.< / p >
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< figcaption class = "imageCaption" > Fernando Caudevilla, AKA DoctorX. Photo: Joseph Cox< / figcaption >
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< p name = "c099" id = "c099" class = "graf--p" > Caudevilla first ventured into Silk Road forums in April 2013. “I would
like to contribute to this forum offering professional advice in topics
related to drug use and health,” he wrote in an < a href = "http://web.archive.org/web/20131015051405/https://dkn255hz262ypmii.onion.to/index.php?topic=147607.0"
data-href="http://web.archive.org/web/20131015051405/https://dkn255hz262ypmii.onion.to/index.php?topic=147607.0"
class="markup--anchor markup--p-anchor" rel="nofollow">introductory post< / a > ,
using his DoctorX alias. Caudevilla offered to provide answers to questions
that a typical doctor is not prepared, or willing, to respond to, at least
not without a lecture or a judgment. “This advice cannot replace a complete
face-to-face medical evaluation,” he wrote, “but I know how difficult it
can be to talk frankly about these things.”< / p >
< p name = "ff1d" id = "ff1d"
class="graf--p">The requests flooded in. A diabetic asked what effect MDMA has on blood
sugar; another what the risks of frequent psychedelic use were for a young
person. Someone wanted to know whether amphetamine use should be avoided
during lactation. In all, Fernando’
and 300 questions before the FBI shut down Silk Road.< / p >
< p name = "1f35"
id="1f35" class="graf--p graf--startsWithDoubleQuote">“He’
2.0 forum, a site that sprang up after the original. “His knowledge is
invaluable, and never comes with any judgment.” Up until recently, Caudevilla
answered questions on the marketplace “Evolution.” Last week, however,
the administrators of that site < a href = "http://motherboard.vice.com/read/one-of-the-darknets-biggest-markets-may-have-just-stole-all-its-users-bitcoin"
data-href="http://motherboard.vice.com/read/one-of-the-darknets-biggest-markets-may-have-just-stole-all-its-users-bitcoin"
class="markup--anchor markup--p-anchor" rel="nofollow">pulled a scam< / a > ,
shutting the market down and escaping with an estimated $12 million worth
of Bitcoin.< / p >
< p name = "b20f" id = "b20f" class = "graf--p" > Caudevilla’
drug testing service came as a consequence of his experience on the deep
web. He’
to a marketplace without controls. The Energy Control project, as part
of its mandate of educating drug users and preventing harm, had already
been carrying out drug testing for local Spanish users since 2001, at music
festivals, night clubs, or through a drop-in service at a lab in Madrid.< / p >
< p
name="f739" id="f739" class="graf--p graf--startsWithDoubleQuote">“I thought, we are doing this in Spain, why don’
drug testing service?” Caudevilla told me when I visited the other Energy
Control lab, in Madrid. Caudevilla, a stocky character with ear piercings
and short, shaved hair, has eyes that light up whenever he discusses the
world of the deep web. Later, via email, he elaborated that it was not
a hard sell. “It was not too hard to convince them,” he wrote me. Clearly,
Energy Control believed that the reputation he had earned as an unbiased
medical professional on the deep web might carry over to the drug analysis
service, where one needs to establish “credibility, trustworthiness, [and]
transparency,” Caudevilla said. “We could not make mistakes,” he added.< / p >
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< figcaption class = "imageCaption" > Photo: Joseph Cox< / figcaption >
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< p name = "7b5e" id = "7b5e" class = "graf--p" > While the Energy Control lab in Madrid lab only tests Spanish drugs from
various sources, it is the Barcelona location which vets the substances
bought in the shadowy recesses of of the deep web. Caudevilla no longer
runs it, having handed it over to his colleague Ana Muñoz. She maintains
a presence on the deep web forums, answers questions from potential users,
and sends back reports when they are ready.< / p >
< p name = "0f0e" id = "0f0e"
class="graf--p">The testing program exists in a legal grey area. The people who own the
Barcelona lab are accredited to experiment with and handle drugs, but Energy
Control doesn’ < / p >
< p
name="e002" id="e002" class="graf--p graf--startsWithDoubleQuote">“We have a verbal agreement with the police and other authorities. They
already know what we are doing,” Lladanosa tells me. It is a pact of mutual
benefit. Energy Control provides the police with information on batches
of drugs in Spain, whether they’
They also contribute to the European Monitoring Centre for Drugs and Drug
Addiction’
information about dangerous drugs as quickly as possible.< / p >
< p name = "db1b"
id="db1b" class="graf--p">By the time of my visit in February, Energy Control had received over
150 samples from the deep web and have been receiving more at a rate of
between 4 and 8 a week. Traditional drugs, such as cocaine and MDMA, make
up about 70 percent of the samples tested, but the Barcelona lab has also
received samples of the prescription pill codeine, research chemicals and
synthetic cannabinoids, and even pills of Viagra.< / p >
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< figcaption class = "imageCaption" > Photo by Joan Bardeletti< / figcaption >
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< p name = "e76f" id = "e76f" class = "graf--p" > So it’
on the deep web. The verdict thus far? Overall, drugs on the deep web appear
to be of much higher quality than those found on the street.< / p >
< p name = "5352"
id="5352" class="graf--p graf--startsWithDoubleQuote">“In general, the cocaine is amazing,” says Caudevilla, saying that the
samples they’
some even higher. To get an idea of how unusual this is, take a look at
the < a href = "http://www.unodc.org/documents/wdr2014/Cocaine_2014_web.pdf"
data-href="http://www.unodc.org/documents/wdr2014/Cocaine_2014_web.pdf"
class="markup--anchor markup--p-anchor" rel="nofollow">United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime World Drug Report 2014< / a > ,
which reports that the average quality of street cocaine in Spain is just
over 40 percent, while in the United Kingdom it is closer to 30 percent.“We
have found 100 percent [pure] cocaine,” he adds. “That’
strange. That means that, technically, this cocaine has been purified,
with clandestine methods.”< / p >
< p name = "a71c" id = "a71c" class = "graf--p" > Naturally, identifying vendors who sell this top-of-the-range stuff is
one of the reasons that people have sent samples to Energy Control. Caudevilla
was keen to stress that, officially, Energy Control’
to be a control of drug quality,” meaning a vetting process for identifying
the best sellers, but that is exactly how some people have been using it.< / p >
< p
name="cb5b" id="cb5b" class="graf--p">As one buyer on the Evolution market, elmo666, wrote to me over the site’
messaging system, “My initial motivations were selfish. My primary motivation
was to ensure that I was receiving and continue to receive a high quality
product, essentially to keep the vendor honest as far as my interactions
with them went.”< / p >
< p name = "d80d" id = "d80d" class = "graf--p" > Vendors on deep web markets advertise their product just like any other
outlet does, using flash sales, gimmicky giveaways and promises of drugs
that are superior to those of their competitors. The claims, however, can
turn out to be empty: despite the test results that show that deep web
cocaine vendors typically sell product that is of a better quality than
that found on the street, in plenty of cases, the drugs are nowhere near
as pure as advertised.< / p >
< p name = "36de" id = "36de" class = "graf--p graf--startsWithDoubleQuote" > “You won’
about the cocaine from ‘ ’
95%.”< / p >
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< figcaption class = "imageCaption" > Photo by Joan Bardeletti< / figcaption >
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< p name = "126b" id = "126b" class = "graf--p" > Despite the prevalence of people using the service to gauge the quality
of what goes up their nose, many users send samples to Energy Control in
the spirit of its original mission: keeping themselves alive and healthy.
The worst case scenario from drugs purchased on the deep web is, well the
worst case. That was the outcome when < a href = "http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/crime/teenager-patrick-mcmullen-who-died-while-on-skype-had-bought-drugs-from-silk-road-8942329.html"
data-href="http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/crime/teenager-patrick-mcmullen-who-died-while-on-skype-had-bought-drugs-from-silk-road-8942329.html"
class="markup--anchor markup--p-anchor" rel="nofollow">Patrick McMullen,< / a > a
17-year-old Scottish student, ingested half a gram of MDMA and three tabs
of LSD, reportedly purchased from the Silk Road. While talking to his friends
on Skype, his words became slurred and he passed out. Paramedics could
not revive him. The coroner for that case, Sherrif Payne, who deemed the
cause of death ecstasy toxicity, told < em class = "markup--em markup--p-em" > The Independent< / em > “You
never know the purity of what you are taking and you can easily come unstuck.”< / p >
< p
name="5e9e" id="5e9e" class="graf--p">ScreamMyName, a deep web user who has been active since the original Silk
Road, wants to alert users to the dangerous chemicals that are often mixed
with drugs, and is using Energy Control as a means to do so.< / p >
< p name = "19a6"
id="19a6" class="graf--p graf--startsWithDoubleQuote">“We’
Some do it unknowingly,” ScreamMyName told me in an encrypted message.
“Cocaine production in South America is often tainted with either levamisole
or phenacetine. Both poison to humans and both with severe side effects.”< / p >
< p
name="9fef" id="9fef" class="graf--p">In the case of Levamisole, those prescribing it are often not doctors
but veterinarians, as Levamisole is commonly used on animals, primarily
for the treatment of worms. If ingested by humans it can lead to cases
of extreme eruptions of the skin, as < a href = "http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/22127712"
data-href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/22127712" class="markup--anchor markup--p-anchor"
rel="nofollow">documented in a study< / a > from researchers at the University
of California, San Francisco. But Lladanosa has found Levamisole in cocaine
samples; dealers use it to increase the product weight, allowing them to
stretch their batch further for greater profit
Levamisole has a strong stimulant effect.< / p >
< p name = "7886" id = "7886" class = "graf--p graf--startsWithDoubleQuote" > “It got me sick as fuck,” Dr. Feel, an Evolution user, wrote on the site’
forums after consuming cocaine that had been cut with 23 percent Levamisole,
and later tested by Energy Control. “I was laid up in bed for several days
because of that shit. The first night I did it, I thought I was going to
die. I nearly drove myself to the ER.”< / p >
< p name = "18d3" id = "18d3" class = "graf--p graf--startsWithDoubleQuote" > “More people die because of tainted drugs than the drugs themselves,”
Dr. Feel added. “It’
and killing them.”< / p >
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< figcaption class = "imageCaption" > Photo by Joan Bardeletti< / figcaption >
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< p name = "839a" id = "839a" class = "graf--p" > The particular case of cocaine cut with Levamisole is one of the reasons
that ScreamMyName has been pushing for more drug testing on the deep web
markets. “I recognize that drug use isn’
the problem?” he told me when I contacted him after his post. “[Energy
Control] provides a way for users to test the drugs they’
these very users to know what it is they’
services are in very short supply.”< / p >
< p name = "18dc" id = "18dc" class = "graf--p" > After sending a number of Energy Control tests himself, ScreamMyName started
a de facto crowd-sourcing campaign to get more drugs sent to the lab, and
then shared the results, after throwing in some cash to get the ball rolling.
< a
href="https://blockchain.info/address/1Mi6VjMFqjcD48FPV7cnPB24MAtQQenRy3"
data-href="https://blockchain.info/address/1Mi6VjMFqjcD48FPV7cnPB24MAtQQenRy3"
class="markup--anchor markup--p-anchor" rel="nofollow">He set up a Bitcoin wallet< / a > , with the hope that users might chip in
to fund further tests. At the time of writing, the wallet has received
a total of 1.81 bitcoins; around $430 at today’ < / p >
< p
name="dcbd" id="dcbd" class="graf--p">In posts to the Evolution community, ScreamMyName pitched this project
as something that will benefit users and keep drug dealer honest. “When
the funds build up to a point where we can purchase an [Energy Control]
test fee, we’
decide on what vendor to test,” he continued.< / p >
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< figcaption class = "imageCaption" > Photo by Joan Bardeletti< / figcaption >
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< p name = "bff6" id = "bff6" class = "graf--p" > Other members of the community have been helping out, too. PlutoPete,
a vendor from the original Silk Road who sold cannabis seeds and other
legal items, has provided ScreamMyName with packaging to safely send the
samples to Barcelona. “A box of baggies, and a load of different moisture
barrier bags,” PlutoPete told me over the phone. “That’
use.”< / p >
< p name = "bb78" id = "bb78" class = "graf--p" > It’
gotten enough public funding to purchase five different Energy Control
tests, in addition to the ten or so he’
created is still in its infancy and it is growing and changing as we go
along but I have a lot of faith in what we’ < / p >
< p name = "5638"
id="5638" class="graf--p">But the spirit is contagious: elmo666, the other deep web user testing
cocaine, originally kept the results of the drug tests to himself, but
he, too, saw a benefit to distributing the data. “It is clear that it is
a useful service to other users, keeping vendors honest and drugs (and
their users) safe,” he told me. He started to report his findings to others
on the forums, and then created a thread with summaries of the test results,
as well as comments from the vendors if they provided it. Other users were
soon basing their decisions on what to buy on elmo666‘ < / p >
< p name = "de75"
id="de75" class="graf--p graf--startsWithDoubleQuote">“I’
energy control results and recommendations,” wrote user jayk1984. On top
of this, elmo666 plans to launch an independent site on the deep web that
will collate all of these results, which should act as a resource for users
of all the marketplaces.< / p >
< p name = "6b72" id = "6b72" class = "graf--p" > As word of elmo666's efforts spread, he began getting requests from drug
dealers who wanted him to use their wares for testing. Clearly, they figured
that a positive result from Energy Control would be a fantastic marketing
tool to draw more customers. They even offered elmo666 free samples. (He
passed.)< / p >
< p name = "b008" id = "b008" class = "graf--p" > Meanwhile, some in the purchasing community are arguing that those running
markets on the deep web should be providing quality control themselves.
PlutoPete told me over the phone that he had been in discussions about
this with Dread Pirate Roberts, the pseudonymous owner of the original
Silk Road site. “We [had been] talking about that on a more organized basis
on Silk Road 1, doing lots of anonymous buys to police each category. But
of course they took the thing [Silk Road] down before we got it properly
off the ground,” he lamented.< / p >
< p name = "49c8" id = "49c8" class = "graf--p" > But perhaps it is best that the users, those who are actually consuming
the drugs, remain in charge of shaming dealers and warning each other.
“It’
elmo666 wrote in an Evolution forum post. It seems that in the lawless
space of the deep web, where everything from child porn to weapons are
sold openly, users have cooperated in an organic display of self-regulation
to stamp out those particular batches of drugs that are more likely to
harm users.< / p >
< p name = "386d" id = "386d" class = "graf--p graf--startsWithDoubleQuote" > “That’
ever since Silk Road, a stable of the drug markets has been the review
system, where buyers can leave a rating and feedback for vendors, letting
others know about the reliability of the seller. But DoctorX’
testing the products with scientific instruments, takes it a step further.< / p >
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< figcaption class = "imageCaption" > Photo by Joan Bardeletti< / figcaption >
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< p name = "b109" id = "b109" class = "graf--p graf--startsWithDoubleQuote" > “In the white market, they have quality control. In the dark market, it
should be the same,” Cristina Gil Lladanosa says to me before I leave the
Barcelona lab.< / p >
< p name = "e3a4" id = "e3a4" class = "graf--p" > A week after I visit the lab, the results of the MDMA arrive in my inbox:
it is 85 percent pure, with no indications of other active ingredients.
Whoever ordered that sample from the digital shelves of the deep web, and
had it shipped to their doorstep in Canada, got hold of some seriously
good, and relatively safe drugs. And now they know it.< / p >
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< p name = "9b87" id = "9b87" data-align = "center" class = "graf--p" > < em class = "markup--em markup--p-em" > Top photo by Joan Bardeletti< / em >
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