4 ms·

It's odd that the pills are branded with "IKEA" and "Skype". I wonder why that is desirable by the consumers and producers?

haZard_OS 9y ago
One reason is to give dealers and customers a level of plausible deniability about their activities after the fact. If a text message is asking for Angel Dust or ICE, the defense attorney will have a harder time than if the text message is asking about IKEA or Gorilla Glue.
- tedunangst 9y ago
  Is this really true? Has a drug trial ever hinged on convincing a jury of the meaning of code words?
rlglwx 9y ago
The same reason why brands are desirable in legal markets. Mainly for quality control and the ability for the user to ask for a specific pill that they enjoyed or heard good things about. That they use well known brands is a side effect of it a being a black market. Why develop a brand of your own that could be taken away at any moment? Reuse well known brands so people will remember them.
dopamean 9y ago
I'll answer this as a long time ecstasy user. Pill producers make their pills in a variety of shapes and colors and for them it's mostly about marketing. When I was in high school "rolexes" and "supermans" were some of the most sought after rolls in New York. They were sought after because they had a reputation for being high quality. However if you've been around longer than five minutes you know it's easy for other people to also make pills, possibly of bad quality, in the same shape and color and so producers would change their shapes and colors constantly to try to stay ahead of the fakes. For users the appeal of corporate branded pills is that it's sort of fun/funny to see something so illicit branded with something so commonplace. It's almost a joke. As if IKEA or Microsoft sold ecstasy.
authAudit 9y ago
Neither finds that aspect of the pills incredibly engaging. It's a means of authenticating a batch of pills, while using coded parlance, so that people develop a sense of getting what they paid for, while latching onto a memorable detail, and communicating in slang that flies under the radar. No one cares about those stupid logos, or infringement or whatever. It's more about shared secrets and awareness of undisclosed details while dropping hints and passing around code words on the sly. Now that these code words have been leaked in a bust, they'll google some other logos, print them out, mold them into the pill press, and next week's batch will be "Bob's Discount Furniture" and "Facetime" or whatever.
empath75 9y ago
You just need a logo that’s recognizable in a stamp at a glance. Piggy backing off of established brands is the easiest way to do it.

haZard_OS 9y ago

One reason is to give dealers and customers a level of plausible deniability about their activities after the fact. If a text message is asking for Angel Dust or ICE, the defense attorney will have a harder time than if the text message is asking about IKEA or Gorilla Glue.

tedunangst 9y ago
Is this really true? Has a drug trial ever hinged on convincing a jury of the meaning of code words?

rlglwx 9y ago

The same reason why brands are desirable in legal markets. Mainly for quality control and the ability for the user to ask for a specific pill that they enjoyed or heard good things about. That they use well known brands is a side effect of it a being a black market. Why develop a brand of your own that could be taken away at any moment? Reuse well known brands so people will remember them.

dopamean 9y ago

I'll answer this as a long time ecstasy user. Pill producers make their pills in a variety of shapes and colors and for them it's mostly about marketing. When I was in high school "rolexes" and "supermans" were some of the most sought after rolls in New York. They were sought after because they had a reputation for being high quality. However if you've been around longer than five minutes you know it's easy for other people to also make pills, possibly of bad quality, in the same shape and color and so producers would change their shapes and colors constantly to try to stay ahead of the fakes. For users the appeal of corporate branded pills is that it's sort of fun/funny to see something so illicit branded with something so commonplace. It's almost a joke. As if IKEA or Microsoft sold ecstasy.

authAudit 9y ago

Neither finds that aspect of the pills incredibly engaging. It's a means of authenticating a batch of pills, while using coded parlance, so that people develop a sense of getting what they paid for, while latching onto a memorable detail, and communicating in slang that flies under the radar. No one cares about those stupid logos, or infringement or whatever. It's more about shared secrets and awareness of undisclosed details while dropping hints and passing around code words on the sly. Now that these code words have been leaked in a bust, they'll google some other logos, print them out, mold them into the pill press, and next week's batch will be "Bob's Discount Furniture" and "Facetime" or whatever.

empath75 9y ago

You just need a logo that’s recognizable in a stamp at a glance. Piggy backing off of established brands is the easiest way to do it.