Operation Web Tryp was a United States
Drug Enforcement Administration
The Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) is a Federal law enforcement in the United States, United States federal law enforcement agency under the U.S. Department of Justice tasked with combating illicit Illegal drug trade, drug trafficking a ...
operation that ended on July 21, 2004 with the arrests of 10 persons. Its purpose was to investigate web sites suspected of distribution of unscheduled, unregulated
tryptamines
Substituted tryptamines, or simply tryptamines, also known as serotonin analogues (i.e., 5-hydroxytryptamine analogues), are organic compounds which may be thought of as being derived from tryptamine itself. The molecular structures of all trypt ...
and
phenethylamines of questionable legality. This trade in "
grey market
A grey market or dark market (sometimes confused with the similar term "parallel import, parallel market") is the trade of a commodity through distribution channels that are not authorised by the original manufacturer or trademark proprietor. ...
" drugs, which were not explicitly illegal but potentially prosecutable as drug analogs, became known as the "
research chemical
Research chemicals are chemical substances which scientists use for medical and scientific research purposes. One characteristic of a research chemical is that it is for laboratory research use only; a research chemical is not intended for human ...
" trade; a euphemism to suggest that the chemicals were being sold for industrial or academic research rather than human consumption.
Five websites were involved in Operation Web Tryp. One of these websites, pondman.nu, was allegedly taking in U.S. $20,000 per week and grossed $700,000 before being shut down. Another, racresearch.com, reportedly grossed $500,000 in 14 months.
[David McCandless]
"Bad Trip for Online Drug Peddlers"
''Wired'' magazine, July 6, 2005
In 2005, a court ruled that
AMT sold by pondman.nu caused the April 2002 death of an 18-year-old male in upstate New York and the site's owner was sentenced to 410 years in prison.
The DEA also alleged a product sold by ''americanchemicalsupply.com'' caused the death of a 22-year-old Louisiana man. Fourteen other non-fatal overdose incidents requiring hospitalization were also cited by the DEA.
[
In December 2004, using credit card information provided by the DEA, British police arrested 22 UK residents who had purchased ]2C-I
2C-I, also known as 2,5-dimethoxy-4-iodophenethylamine, is a phenethylamine of the 2C family with psychedelic effects. It was first synthesized by Alexander Shulgin, and is described in Shulgin's book ''PiHKAL'' (1991).
The substance is con ...
through the seized web sites (Operation Ismene).[
]
Legality
Although these chemicals were not yet scheduled, a long shadow was cast on their legality by the 1986 Federal Analog Act. This Act and the ''United States v. Forbes'' Colorado
Colorado is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States. It is one of the Mountain states, sharing the Four Corners region with Arizona, New Mexico, and Utah. It is also bordered by Wyoming to the north, Nebraska to the northeast, Kansas ...
federal district court case stipulated that the burden of proof, in regards for the intention for human consumption, was on the government if any prosecution under the Federal Analog Act was to occur. Additionally, legal ambiguities regarding the legality of certain analogs of scheduled substances had been established in the aforementioned court case (In particular, the similarities of AET and DMT were debated).
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Web Tryp, Operation
2004 in American law
Drug Enforcement Administration operations
Drugs in the United States