By the way if you’re looking to get Modafinil, a redditor just opened a new site selling it (shipped from India). I can’t personally vouch for it, as I just placed my order a few days ago, but /r/nootropics is having a field day.
Edit: removed the direct link to the site—I’m not an affiliate, just someone who thinks that people in this community would be interested in this information. Read that reddit discussion for more info.
“According to a report released by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), 75% of fake drugs supplied world over have some origins in India, followed by 7% from Egypt and 6% from China.”
Thatreport is a perfect example of why people don’t trust economists. It is about intellectual property, not drugs. As far as I can tell, it defines these transactions to be “counterfeit” because they violate patents, regardless of the content.
As Username says, this is an irrelevant statistic, even if true. The relevant claim from the report is that no third world country has less than 10% counterfeiting (compared to 1% in the US), though India is not specifically identified. Another relevant claim from WHO, that most illegal internet pharmacies that conceal their physical location are fraudulent, though this is a quasi-legal pharmacy that does not conceal its address (nor does nubrain).
I think most people using modafinil on LW are already using Indian brands. I have heard anecdotes of these brands are being counterfeited and I consider these much more relevant and reliable than these reports. Choosing to use Indian brands may be an error. But given that choice, I expect people shipping from India to be less likely to use counterfeit drugs than those shipping Indian brands from inside the US, since the difficult part of illegal drug distribution is usually crossing the border.
So be cautious. But don’t use generalized evidence when you have specifics. I personally trust this specific site because of the testimonials of some long-standing reddit users who have ordered it. You should decide on your own if that’s good enough for you.
Also note that 75% of fake drugs originate in India, not that 75% of drugs from India are fake.
Edit: It came in a while ago and I’ve used it a few times. Works for me.
The redditor contacted me for advice before officially announcing it and in turn sent me 50 or so Modalert; the packaging was right, and it seemed to work for me. She seems legit… for now.
What probability of the drugs being counterfeit would you be willing to accept? Also, the profit maximizing strategy of the seller might be to initially sell 100% genuine drugs and then slowly lower this percentage.
It might. Another profit maximizing strategy might be to gain a large portion of the market by making her business open, reliable, and with a quality product that grows through word-of-mouth advertising.
Based of what I’ve heard from and about the seller (that she responds to emails, offers refunds, sent gwern free samples, and keeps a running blog on the site), I’m going say that rather than a manipulative game theorist, she sounds like a genuine businesswoman who’s found an open niche in the market.
Her price isn’t that great, even with the Reddit discount, so I’d say something like p>0.2 would be enough to push me to buy from the Silk Road or one of the other online pharmacies instead.
By the way if you’re looking to get Modafinil, a redditor just opened a new site selling it (shipped from India). I can’t personally vouch for it, as I just placed my order a few days ago, but /r/nootropics is having a field day.
Edit: removed the direct link to the site—I’m not an affiliate, just someone who thinks that people in this community would be interested in this information. Read that reddit discussion for more info.
Danger, counterfeit drugs:
That report is a perfect example of why people don’t trust economists. It is about intellectual property, not drugs. As far as I can tell, it defines these transactions to be “counterfeit” because they violate patents, regardless of the content.
As Username says, this is an irrelevant statistic, even if true. The relevant claim from the report is that no third world country has less than 10% counterfeiting (compared to 1% in the US), though India is not specifically identified. Another relevant claim from WHO, that most illegal internet pharmacies that conceal their physical location are fraudulent, though this is a quasi-legal pharmacy that does not conceal its address (nor does nubrain).
I think most people using modafinil on LW are already using Indian brands. I have heard anecdotes of these brands are being counterfeited and I consider these much more relevant and reliable than these reports. Choosing to use Indian brands may be an error. But given that choice, I expect people shipping from India to be less likely to use counterfeit drugs than those shipping Indian brands from inside the US, since the difficult part of illegal drug distribution is usually crossing the border.
So be cautious. But don’t use generalized evidence when you have specifics. I personally trust this specific site because of the testimonials of some long-standing reddit users who have ordered it. You should decide on your own if that’s good enough for you.
Also note that 75% of fake drugs originate in India, not that 75% of drugs from India are fake.
Edit: It came in a while ago and I’ve used it a few times. Works for me.
The redditor contacted me for advice before officially announcing it and in turn sent me 50 or so Modalert; the packaging was right, and it seemed to work for me. She seems legit… for now.
What probability of the drugs being counterfeit would you be willing to accept? Also, the profit maximizing strategy of the seller might be to initially sell 100% genuine drugs and then slowly lower this percentage.
It might. Another profit maximizing strategy might be to gain a large portion of the market by making her business open, reliable, and with a quality product that grows through word-of-mouth advertising.
Based of what I’ve heard from and about the seller (that she responds to emails, offers refunds, sent gwern free samples, and keeps a running blog on the site), I’m going say that rather than a manipulative game theorist, she sounds like a genuine businesswoman who’s found an open niche in the market.
What do you mean?
Let p = the probability of the drugs being counterfeit. For what values of p would you be willing to buy the drug?
Her price isn’t that great, even with the Reddit discount, so I’d say something like p>0.2 would be enough to push me to buy from the Silk Road or one of the other online pharmacies instead.
I had never heard of Silk Road. Now I understand the appeal of Bitcoins.