The Silk Road, Bitcoins, and the Global Prohibition Regime on the International Trade in Illicit Drugs: Can This Storm Be Weathered?

Abstract

The global prohibition regime on the international trade in illicit drugs is a relatively recent phenomenon, which finds its origins in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. It is a part of the bigger system of international norms and regulations arising from the American hegemony. Historically, one could hardly find any effort resembling the modern prohibition regime on the trade in illicit drugs around the historical Silk Road that traversed much of the ancient known world and connected civilisations through trade. Merchants from across the world travelled safely, for the most part, on this road and took part in a globalized trade, which was unprecedented. Centuries later, a new Silk Road was allegedly created by 29-year-old Ross William Ulbricht, the self-styled Dread Pirate Roberts.