The sometimes controversial website, craigslist has become the center of another scandal. This time the website is coming under fire because a lot of its users have started using the site as a prescription drug black market. Brazen drug dealers post for sale ads offering everything from roxycodone, vicodin, percocet, oxycontin, xanax and many other types of prescription drugs. This past weekend in New York City, police officers decided to respond to many of these ads and ended up arresting over twenty individuals who were trying to sell drugs from their homes. On the ads, many of the potential drug dealers posted ads that mentioned “No LE please” meaning no law enforcement. Not surprisingly, the police didn’t listen to those requests.Wide Variety of People Dealing Drugs
The interesting thing about the more than twenty people that police arrested over the weekend is that they came from all different walks of life. Some of the dealers were known, small time dealers that had been previously booked for selling cocaine and heroin. However, others were very surprising people, such as a NYU grad student, a financial advisor and a sixty year old woman. It seems like some of these people just had extra prescription pills laying around and knew they could make some quick cash from selling them. Officers responded to these craigslist ads and bought a few hundred dollars worth of pills from these individuals in public places before eventually charging them with dealing drugs.
The Ongoing Battle Against Prescription Drugs
Authorities and legislators have been battling to keep prescription drugs from being trafficked for the last several years, but have had a lot of difficulties policing the drugs. Since these drugs are legally prescribed to some people for legitimate medical reasons it can be extremely difficult to control them. Despite all of the arrests made over the weekend, the ads on craigslist continued to be posted. One on Thursday read: “Hello ladies and gentlemen. If your in pain and need assistance look no further. I’ve got 30 (mg) ways to help!! … Not affiliated with any sort of law enforcement? If ALL of these pertain to you, email me with what your looking for (quantity) and we will work it out.”
As police around the country continue to fight against prescription drug trafficking, they may have to focus on a new black market that has emerged. Craigslist allows people to post brazen ads offering drugs like roxycodone, xanax, percocet, and many other prescription drugs and then meet up and sell them. These pills can be sold by anyone and it seems like more and more people are starting to deal their extra prescriptions that have just been lying around their homes. These pills can sell for well over twenty dollars apiece and many people are happy to make some quick cash by selling the pills they no longer need for their own ailments. Craigslist can be a great tool to help facilitate local buying and selling of goods and services between two parties, but it is often used for illegal activity as well.
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Over the past weekend, an eighteen year old woman from the United Kingdom was rushed to the hospital after becoming violently ill from drinking a cocktail containing liquid nitrogen. The woman was Gabby Scanlan and she initially complained about shortness of breath and severe stomach pain, before eventually collapsing and being rushed to the hospital. She had to have her stomach removed by surgeons who stated that she could have easily died from the incident. She is still in aftercare at the hospital and suffering from the trauma the liquid nitrogen placed on her body. She may need to go to a