One year after the market’s well publicized “return,” AlphaBay admin DeSnake took to the Dread forum to discuss the preliminary findings of its Professional Drug Checkers harm reduction program. The program, which began in March 2022, aims to assess the quality of pharmaceuticals on the market. This procedure entails independent ‘checkers’ ordering and testing medications from AlphaBay and reporting the results to the administration, which reimburses the checkers for their efforts. The data is subsequently made available to the market in a separate area of the listing page.
The notification of the publishing of this data was also featured in the market’s news section of AlphaBay. According to DeSnake, the findings will be released in vendor subs on Dread as well. Making the data available in different locations will help to educate as many potential purchasers as possible on what they are getting. The administrator believes that the initiative would not only lessen the potential harm caused by incorrectly labeled products, but will also be “an vital component of any self-respecting platform that really cares about its consumers.”
An example of product test results provided under the Harm Reduction Reviews tab of a vendor
DeSnake offered a list of the first 100 vendors tested in his Dread post on /d/Alphabay, warning that not every seller will be pleased with the results that would be displayed on their AlphaBay website. He also revealed that the market would be taking applications from new testers, as well as a template of the test findings that each tester would deliver.
“The outcomes ranged from unsatisfactory to outstanding. Both ends of the spectrum were represented by both small and large merchants… Their results will be visible under the Harm Reduction tab on their Listing and/or profile… As time passes and more vendors and listings are tested, we will complete the database with a full and detailed list of dangerous (or not) compounds.” – On Dread, DeSnake
According to DeSnake, one of the key reasons for incorporating the harm reduction program was to assist in identifying which vendors were prone to surreptitiously adulterating their products with fentanyl – a chemical known to be a substantial source of overdose-related deaths.
According to market statistics, AlphaBay currently has over 11,000 active vendors and 846,000 registered buyers. It has over 42,000 listings. At the time of its demise in July 2017, the original AlphaBay had over 400,000 active users.