A NASTY WEB OF DRUGS

The recent trial of a former Temple University graduate student
offers a glimpse at the latest, greatest enemy in the war on drugs -
the Internet.

Last month, jurors convicted Akhil Bansal for illegally selling
millions of prescription pharmaceuticals through at least 20 Web
sites. The drugs were obtained in India and shipped to the United
States for redistribution. The scheme, which involved 16 other
coconspirators, attracted more than 4,500 customers, revealing what
U.S. Attorney Patrick Meehan described as "an unregulated universe
from which anyone with access to a computer can purchase just about anything."

Although Bansal mostly peddled Viagra, a wide range of illicit drugs,
from marijuana to methamphetamine, are available for purchase on the
Internet. Most health-care and legal professionals have little
knowledge of these virtual street corners despite evidence that
increasing numbers of Internet-savvy teenagers and young adults are
using the Web to get high.

A study published in April in the Journal of Substance Abuse
Treatment found, for example, that more than 11 percent of recovering
addicts in an inpatient rehabilitation center had used the Internet
to either buy drugs or locate a drug dealer. These data are
consistent with earlier reports indicating that illegal painkillers
and hallucinogens increasingly are being sold from Web sites.

None of this comes as good news to the law-enforcement community,
which must grapple with real-life kingpins who use the Internet to
attract new clientele, execute encrypted credit-card transactions,
and anonymously ship countless packages of drugs to mailboxes across
America. Today's drug-smuggling mules are stamped envelopes, not poor
Latin Americans, and little has been done to stop the majority of
them from reaching their intended recipients.

The medical community also has reason to be worried. The Internet not
only threatens to increase supplies of traditional street drugs, it
also provides fertile ground for the growth of new drugs of abuse and
cohorts of addicts. The herb Salvia divinorum, for example, produces
hallucinations on par with LSD, but it was relatively unknown before
the arrival of the Internet-enabled information age. Now, hordes of
teenagers and young adults extol the "mind-altering" properties of
this federally unregulated plant, which can be legally bought from
thousands of Web sites for recreational use.

Animal studies, however, have linked Salvia use to the development of
severe depression, and a Delaware couple blames the drug for their
son's suicide earlier this year. The U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency has
labeled Salvia as a "chemical of concern," while a handful of state
legislatures have already outlawed its possession and sale.
Unfortunately, Salvia is but one of many unfamiliar substances that
are being promoted on the Internet as "legal highs," attracting
customers who might otherwise never have sufficient motive or
opportunity to abuse drugs.

Though no one knows how to stop the Internet from breeding the next
generation of addicts, it is clear that the antidrug tactics of
yesterday are woefully inadequate. Internet drug lords set up new Web
sites as fast as authorities shut them down, and it only takes a
quick trip to Google to find them. More thorough postal inspections
are possible but are limited by technology, time, cost and concerns
over privacy. Old-fashioned police work might nab a few dealers such
as Bansal, but many more lurk in the shadows of the Web, clicking
their mice and turning profits with little fear of getting caught.

Indeed, the advent of Internet drug dealing may shift priorities away
from contraband control toward more medically minded objectives of
substance-abuse prevention and management, such as needle exchanges,
methadone clinics, and promotion of safe or alternative drug use
practices. So far, these harm-reduction strategies have been
discounted in most drug-policy-setting circles, which have
traditionally shown little tolerance or patience for substance
abusers and addicts. Total abstinence from illicit drug use has long
been the only game in town.

However, now that drug dealers have embedded themselves within the
keystone of modern information technology, we may be unable to stop
them without strictly regulating the content and flow of Internet
traffic, a Herculean task of questionable moral and practical value.
Accordingly, rejecting a Pyrrhic victory in the war on drugs may mean
admitting to ourselves that substance abuse is here to stay.

In a world where the Internet has become the drug dealer's best
friend, diminishing the demand for drugs - rather than the supply -
and helping those who are already addicted pursue meaningful, healthy
lives may be the best, and only, options we have left.