cannabisnews.com: Dope on the Net: Log On, Skin Up Dope on the Net: Log On, Skin Up Posted by FoM on February 02, 2000 at 22:01:40 PT By Bernadette Carroll Source: This Is London Mark used to start each weekend with a bit of late-night shopping. Every Friday night he'd make a quick phone call, jump into his car and drive from his west London flat to a pub five miles away. The chartered accountant would then order a pint and wait for his goods to be delivered. Often they wouldn't be. The punctuality of drug delivery men is not much better than gasmen and plumbers. And even when his dealer did turn up, Mark could never be sure what quality cannabis he'd end up with. The deal was £90 for a half-ounce bag. Take it or leave it. This Friday night, however, the 34-year-old is sitting comfortably in front of his home computer. After keying in a web address, he is swiftly connected to a "hemp shop" in Switzerland, from which 18 types of the plant are on sale: Durban Poison, Super Skunk, Misty, Crystal ... He makes his selection and double clicks on White Widow. He's asked how much he wants, and opts for 10 grams at 100 Swiss Francs. That's the equivalent of £40 - about 40 per cent cheaper than the man in the pub. Then he merely fills in his name, address and credit card details and waits for the postman to knock ... Mark - not his real name - is one of a new breed of British cannabis users turning their backs on street dealers and getting their soft drugs via the Internet. He believes the chances of getting found out are minimal; and, in buying such small quantities, reckons he'd get nothing more than a slapped wrist if he got caught. Ten days after placing his order, a brown envelope arrives. "What better way to score?" Mark asks. "Get a whiff of this. I couldn't have bought this off my dealer. This is more like the stuff sold in Amsterdam coffee shops - only it's cheaper and I don't have to spend my Friday nights prowling around town trying to get my hands on a watered-down version." But what of giving his credit card details to a company that sells illicit drugs over the Internet? "I would rather do that than stand in a dimly-lit pub or alleyway with a wad of cash. People are handing out their credit card details left, right and centre over the Internet. Why shouldn't I use it to buy cannabis? It's a commodity, just the same as anything else." Latest figures from the Home Office show in 1997, 86,000 people were found guilty, cautioned or fined for cannabis offences - more than four times the number of people caught 10 years earlier. And the fact that dope dealing is moving over to new technology comes as no surprise to the police. "Criminals are using technological advances to their gain and why wouldn't they?" says Commander Andy Hayman, drugs spokesman for the Association of Chief Police Officers and head of the Met's Drugs Directive. "Your traditional dealer has stopped operating from a high-risk street corner at a particular time where everybody knows he is. Why should he put himself at obvious risk when he can use the Internet and a mobile phone to carry out the same job?" Most of the companies which sell cannabis over the Internet are based in the Netherlands, where there is an official "blind eye" policy over possession and small-scale dealing. Other sites are in Switzerland, where although smoking the plant is prohibited, its cultivation is legal. The "shops" are accessible to people living in countries, like the UK, where the drug is unquestionably illegal. Such legal niceties are not of any concern to the sellers, who often try to cover their backs by declaring "Sorry No Export", despite happily shipping their goods abroad. There are other tactics too. One Swiss supplier cheek-ily offers to sell you "our fresh, Swiss perfumed pillows ... made and intended as air fresheners". The pillows are stuffed full of cannabis. The company says: "Persons attempting to use the contents of the pillows for purposes other than those for which they were intended are subject to the consequences of their own actions." This might be more believable if, just below this "warning" and a claim that the company is only authorised to sell its products within Switzerland, it did not give its postage and packing details for overseas orders. Here, the Home Office says it is largely powerless to intervene. "If the company is based in the UK, then yes, we have the power to deal with them. We can charge them with supplying, unlawful production or trafficking, " says a spokesman. "But if they are outside the UK, there is nothing we can do; they are outside our jurisdiction. "The only action we can take is against the person buying the goods in the UK. We can prosecute them for possession." However, proving this is difficult in the case of postal dealing. Police have to have "rea-sonable suspicion" that the individual is in possession before they can search them; and there are steps a buyer can take to ensure anonymity, such as ordering from an Internet cafe, and asking for the goods to be delivered to a Post Office box. "The Royal Mail cannot open packages or letters sent to the UK. It would be illegal for us to do so," says a Royal Mail spokeswoman. "The only way mail can be opened is if a police investigation is going on. We don't know what we're delivering - our job is simply to deliver it - whatever it may be." Commander Hayman concurs: "The only way to intercept the buyer is to open mail. If we wanted to do that we'd have to change legislation - but we have got to be careful not to impinge on human rights and civil liberties. The Internet is an area we are largely unable to police. We know what's going on yet it seems technology is advancing quicker than we are able to deal with it." Published: January 31, 2000© Associated Newspapers Ltd.Cannabis News Marijuana Archives:http://www.cannabisnews.com/news/list/cannabis.shtml Home Comment Email Register Recent Comments Help Comment #8 posted by Advocate on February 11, 2001 at 20:49:32 PT: Cannibis Since I'm in the US, it wouldnt be reasonable would it? What is one of these sights by the way? I'd liek tos ee this for myself.Advocate [ Post Comment ] Comment #7 posted by Jaymaker on October 19, 2000 at 04:46:59 PT: swiss herb where can I order this stuff from, I need to know!!!!!!! [ Post Comment ] Comment #6 posted by Charlie on February 20, 2000 at 07:44:31 PT: Updates?????????????????? I'm woundering how often you update your sitewith new information?? Concerned viewer..... [ Post Comment ] Comment #5 posted by military officer guy on February 03, 2000 at 16:22:58 PT go internet, go UK... "but we have got to be careful not to impinge on human rights and civil liberties"imagine that, someone actually giving a damn about our freedom...too bad our gov't (USA) doesn't feel the same about their people...if you're in the UK, order and smoke some good Swiss dope for me, please... [ Post Comment ] Comment #4 posted by blueberry kid on February 03, 2000 at 12:01:59 PT rip off i was ripped off by this guy (J.PafortL.P Trading Service's )watch out.after a few weeks this guy stopped responding to my e-mails and would not give me a tracking # for my order.J.Pafort L.P Trading Service's Hoofdweg 329 -1 1056 CM Amsterdam Netherlands BTW every month we have a offer this month we have 15 grams of our best White Widow us$ 100.- with delivery costs Now Only us $ 108.- [ Post Comment ] Comment #3 posted by Dr. Ganj on February 03, 2000 at 08:40:30 PT Swiss Miss Ganja Delivery I just love the Internet! This is how we will win. A couple of mouse clicks, and a few days wait, and presto- a seal-a-meal bag with Northern Lights 5 X Blueberry shows up in the mailbox! Where's that bong??Dr. Ganj http://www.acidtrip.com [ Post Comment ] Comment #2 posted by Wabo on February 03, 2000 at 07:37:08 PT Here, here At least the word freedom has some meaning somewhere in the world. [ Post Comment ] Comment #1 posted by J Christen-Mitchell on February 03, 2000 at 04:45:46 PT: Remarkably Civilized What an intelligent, thoughtful group of cops. They are nothing like the nazis we have here in the worlds' greatest police state. Imagine, treating its' citizens with respect. We will probably never be accorded such a right here in the land formerly known as free. My hat is off to the English. Cannabem Liberemus. [ Post Comment ] Post Comment Name: Optional Password: E-Mail: Subject: Comment: [Please refrain from using profanity in your message] Link URL: Link Title: