Illegal Online Drug Peddlers Being Rounded Up by New Computer Technology

[DooKey]

Online drug dealers better watch out because there is a new machine learning sheriff on the internet. Researchers at the University of California San Diego have developed a machine learning technology that mined Twitter to identify drug dealers selling opioids online. Between June and November of 2015 they found over 600K tweets that contained a number of keywords of prescription opioids. Of those, 1,778 posts were marketing the sale of the controlled substances and 90 percent included hyperlinks for online purchase. A majority of retailers had web addresses based in Pakistan, the researchers found. As for me, I'm not a war on drugs warrior, but I do understand that unregulated use of hard drugs is a drain on society and something needs to be done to combat the ill effects of drug use. What that is I just don't know. Read the original study here.

“Our study demonstrates the utility of a technology to aid in these efforts that searches social media for behavior that poses a public threat, such as the illegal sale of controlled substances,” Tim K. Mackey, UC San Diego School of Medicine associate professor of anesthesiology, said in a press release.

 

[Deleted member 83233]

So, good... Let's push things back to armed, unstable street dealers. That'll make things better. Not sure what the REAL solution is for any of this of course. Just saying that I think this could lead to a worse problem.

 

[Wolf_Tech]

Doctors hate me up here in canada since I'm immune to the effect of fentanyl, oxycontin, and morphine. Only drug works for pain on me is demirol and even then I can take two 50mg of them and still walk and talk perfectly.

My body somehow consumes the meds so quick it hardly has an effect on me. They gave me 5mg of Fentanyl threw a IV at the hospital once for my kidney stones I had. It took away the pain for about 3 min.

 

[Inacurate]

That's interesting.
Easy workaround is to set a Twitter account private, then screen user requests to add a layer of protection.
Send non-incriminating details to interested individuals, including form to fill out and sign-up for their 'community.'
Then, once all hoops are jumped through, grant access to said community which could be built on a forum-esque platform with order processing features.
Sorry, bored. At work no less, plenty to do and staying busy! The 'click click wait' work flow.

I have previously been on opiods for the better part of seven years, and with this 'war on drugs' push, my quality of life has DRASTICALLY taken a downward spiral.
My system seems to not 'get addicted', I've never noticed any negative effects while taking 4 pills a day after six-eight hours.

Even though my doctor agrees my cause of pain cannot be fixed (nerve damage) and only managed, they had to slow down on handing out scripts for all opiods.
I stopped asking for them, the up and down availability was wrecking me mentally.
...not that now is better.

Like gun control, regulation only gets some of the job done.
The other part of the equation IS the abuse aspect, and why people feel the need to abuse, and trying to resolve that.
I don't have the answers, but I know my and others QoL suffers greatly due to restrictions designed for those who abuse.

Getting these individuals help should be part of the solution, but it seems almost an after-thought in some areas.
Here in NH (reportedly the state with the worst numbers) I see some excellent and some horribly awful attempts at helping those affected.

I find that the outstanding organizations are trying to treat the ENTIRE family and not just the user. Trying to treat the problem at its core, I think this is best but obviously not my area of expertise.
The other less than stellar options, some are like scam doctor offices, just trying to churn you through like cattle for numbers so they can receive grants, tax breaks, etc. etc.

Really messed up system we have.

 

[Jtal]

So, good... Let's push things back to armed, unstable street dealers. That'll make things better. Not sure what the REAL solution is for any of this of course. Just saying that I think this could lead to a worse problem.

These offshore accounts probably might not be in competition with the guy on the corner. Most likely they are for 10,000 pill lots that may or may not have what is inscribed on the tablet. The one pill toothache dose might turn out to be an amount suitable for a 90% 3rd degree burn patient. Ask Prince.

 

[d50man]

These offshore accounts probably might not be in competition with the guy on the corner. Most likely they are for 10,000 pill lots that may or may not have what is inscribed on the tablet. The one pill toothache dose might turn out to be an amount suitable for a 90% 3rd degree burn patient. Ask Prince.

never seen bootleg pills here , the users know what numbers and colors work best for them even the brand named vs generic can affect the pricing.

 

[geok1ng]

a fast check over opioid prescription sales on USA over the last decades quickly shows that the country is experiencing an epidemic.
I blame the medical culture using opioids in situations where they are not the first alternative, creating a large population with opioids tolerance, and a great number of people who simply can not live without opioids.

 

[Riccochet]

Then you have the legal pushers, medical practices. Those with the guise of calling themselves "pain management centers". It's not hard to get legal prescriptions for opioids and have a doctor supplied addiction.

 

[Todd Walter]

Doctors hate me up here in canada since I'm immune to the effect of fentanyl, oxycontin, and morphine. Only drug works for pain on me is demirol and even then I can take two 50mg of them and still walk and talk perfectly.

My body somehow consumes the meds so quick it hardly has an effect on me. They gave me 5mg of Fentanyl threw a IV at the hospital once for my kidney stones I had. It took away the pain for about 3 min.

Ozzy Osbourne is the same; it's why he's still alive despite his lifestyle. They actually did a study on him. https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/ozzy-osbourne-genome/

 

[katanaD]

umm.. i have to wonder why did they have to go hunting for these ads... if i turn off spam blocking i get tons sent to me

hmm.. maybe i should apply for a research grant