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Recently, a series of events transpired in my life that awakened me to a growing menace online. I have discovered that the drug subculture has found its way onto the Internet. That's right, your AOL or Internet account is a gateway into a thriving black market of marihuana, pills, Ecstasy, and even harder drugs. Although it's still difficult to talk about, I'd like to share the experience with you.
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I recently installed Internet monitoring software on my home computer, as various authorities recommend if your children use the Internet. I felt it my duty to make sure my kids were not spending their time online looking at porn, hate sites, and the other hazards online. I expected I'd catch them taking surreptitious looks at Playboy or other sites, and be able to discipline them as was appropriate. I was unprepared for what I found.
My older son, Lance, who just turned 16, had spent the majority of his time looking at various technology-oriented websites and sites that catered to teenagers. Within the past few weeks, I noticed he was frequenting sites with strange names, often having the words "smoke" or "bud" or "slash" in the web address. When I looked at the sites he visited, I was astonished to find they dealt almost exclusively with drugs and drug paraphernalia. There was an astonishing amount of information and drug advocacy at these sites, and even links to foreign sites where various drugs and paraphernalia could be ordered and (wonder of wonders) shipped to any address in the world! I resolved not to confront my son directly with this information, but to give him the benefit of the doubt and assume he was only displaying the curiosity about drugs many children have at his age. It was a horrible mistake. I discovered a charge on my credit card to some entity named "Paypal." I investigated the charges, and found my son had used my credit card to cash advance $120 to a company in Holland via this Paypal service that had a web storefront for selling drug paraphernalia. This company specialized in equipment for smoking marihuana, and also sold seeds that could be germinated. The seed selection in particular fascinated me; I found myself wondering at the bizarre names the various strains of marihuana had. There was "AK47," "Purple Haze," "White Widow," and even "Bubblegum!" The site described the types of "highs" the various varieties imparted, using terms like "Kind, mellow high" and "One-hit wonder." I was terrified that a player in the illegal black market for drugs was able to set up a storefront on the Web as legitimate-looking as any other, using a sales pitch designed specifically to ensnare children into trying drugs. I took the evidence I had and went to my son's room. I saw him through new eyes, and noticed he exhibited the lethargy and puffy eyes that the habitual marihuana abuser develops. I demanded he tell me how he got the drugs, how long he had been addicted, and how the Internet was involved. At first he tried to deny everything, but confronted with the web usage logs I had printed out and the credit card statement, he realized the game was up and told me how he had been lead down this evil path. It started with a "community-oriented" tech site. The site apparently has a "comments" section where users can make comments about various stories. My son told me he had followed a URL from the site, where he came upon a marihuana-advocacy site that extolled the benefits of marihuana. At school the next day, he showed the site to some of his friends, who said it was "cool." They told him about a "chat room" on AOL where he could chat live with marihuana users and even (they had heard) buy marihuana online. Wanting to bolster his "cool" status with his friend, he went to the site and was "messaged" by a man who offered to sell him "an ounce of skunk" for $50. My son had stolen $40 from my wallet and used $10 of his lunch money to buy the marihuana. The man even gave him a small metal pipe for the purpose of smoking marihuana for no extra charge. My son had smoked this "skunk" with his friends, and gave some away to them. My son gave me their names, and I made a note to speak with their parents, and apologize on behalf of my boy. My son had gone back online to find the man who sold him the marihuana, but couldn't find him. The people in the chat room told him of other services, called MIRC and ICQ, and gave him the aliases that drug dealers used online, the code words to use if you wanted to buy marihuana, and the "chat rooms" accessible via ICQ and MIRC where drug dealers waited to make deals. I had taken copious notes as my son was talking, and I gave him a spanking with my belt and told him I'd investigate this myself. I went into the den and logged on to the computer with my son's account and password. As I logged on, the ICQ software popped up and notified me of new messages. To my horror, the first was some sort of advertisement for a cr�me that would increase penis size. I knew this ICQ was bad news, and read through the messages. The first looked like this:
To: xxxx I was trembling with shock, but I managed to hit the print button to save this evidence for the authorities. The next was even more troubling:
To: xxxx I couldn't believe that in response to a child's request for marihuana, which is terrible enough, this lowlife was offering "x" and "crank" to my son instead! I understood better why marihuana is known to be a "gateway drug," it's because the pushers who peddle marihuana want you to become comfortable with illegal drugs and move on to harder and more expensive substances to abuse. There were several more like that, but it was all I could do not to call the FBI the instant I finished reading the last:
To: xxxx I was enraged that this drug pusher was also a child molester. When I was able to think more calmly, I realized that any degenerate sick enough to push drugs on little kids was probably not too far away from molesting them, and I was glad that I'd been given the opportunity to nip this situation in the bud. I was happy too that I had evidence I could give to the police so they could investigate the sexual predator living on xxxx Avenue, and forbid my children from going near that neighborhood. Something told me that this was not the end of it, nor even the worst of it, and I looked on my computer's desktop to find this "MIRC." It took me some time to find it as it was in a hidden folder, only accessible from the "start" button. When I launched the application, a window popped up with some arcane information about something called "DALNet" and various numbers and codenames. I did see that my son used the online alias "MistaPhatBudz." With some trepidation, I clicked the "connect" button and waited as the application connected to the MIRC service. In a few minutes, two windows opened, one with a channel called "smoke" with a bunch of random numbers after it, and other called "d33lz." Both showed a "topic" which made no particular sense (one was "<@JJZ> I took the red pill! | * hardt0k3z doesn't mind anal sex" the other "<badaZZ> J00 R F4GZ! thx"). I noticed a flurry of activity in the "smoke" window as soon as it opened.
[boxi_baked] PhatBudz!!! I didn't type anything, and a few minutes later a "query" window popped up with a message from "jakk0." I decided I'd talk with the person sending the message and find out if this was another drug pusher.
[jakk0] what's up I was surprised that this drug pusher didn't fall for my clever plot to have him drive up to the police station with a car loaded with marihuana and God only knows what else. "Jakk0" must have alerted his friends that something was amiss, because the "MIRC" application suddenly generated an error message and locked up the computer. However, I had had enough of the criminal black market underbelly of the Internet and shut off my computer disgusted. I spent more time the next day reviewing the marihuana advocacy websites and drug paraphernalia for sale on the Internet. I compiled a complete listing that I intend to turn over to the FBI so they can prosecute these websites in Europe for selling drugs to teenagers, and I gathered all the information I could about the vile human filth that tried to sell their poison to my son via ICQ and America Online. If you have children, please, install Internet monitoring software before it's too late. There is a huge subculture of marihuana pushers, trying to addict your sons and daughters to that terrible and dangerous drug, hoping to lure them into degenerate sex and harder drugs. If you find your son or daughter looking at drug advocacy websites, or spending too much time on ICQ or MIRC, intervene before it's too late, and find out what they're doing. If they're already addicted to marihuana, force them to help you track down the pushers selling them the drugs online so you can notify the police and FBI to bring them to justice. The outside world is already rife with drug pushers and sexual predators, but at least you can help make your children safer from the online world.
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Stories
