Lawmakers Move to ‘Crack Down’ on Dark Web-Based Opioid Trafficking – By Brandi Vincent (Nextgov) / April 1, 2022
Three agencies could be required to report on the use of cryptocurrency for drug dealing on the dark web.
Reps. Chris Pappas, D-N.H., and Tony Gonzales, R-Texas, introduced legislation on Wednesday that’s aimed at quashing drug dealers’ efforts to traffic opioids and other illegal substances on the dark web, or what are essentially hidden websites accessible solely via a specialized internet browser.
“We’re seeing the devastating and deadly results of the opioid crisis in both cities and rural areas across the country, fueled in large part by the dark web,” Gonzales said. “These illegal marketplaces are a hub and a safe haven for some of society’s most dangerous criminals, and as these bad actors get more advanced, we need to ensure our law enforcement [has] the proper tools to crack down on their efforts.”
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the number of drug overdose deaths quadrupled between 1991 and 2019—and more than 70% of the 70,630 deaths in 2019 involved an opioid. The U.S. government doesn’t track death rates associated with every drug, but more recent data published by the National Institute on Drug Abuse demonstrates that nearly 92,000 individuals in the U.S. died from a drug-involved overdose in 2020.
