I think it's extremely likely it saved people from overdosing or taking the wrong drugs. The review system let people vet their dealers before buying.

And yeah, I was mainly thinking about street level violence. While I've never lived under the influence of a cartel, I have a hard time believing the Silk Road would make anything worse for anyone in that situation. It seems to me giving cartels the ability to directly sell their drug to people over the internet would only decrease violence. Maybe I'm wrong, though.

> I think it's extremely likely it saved people from overdosing or taking the wrong drugs. The review system let people vet their dealers before buying.

Based on what? How many OD victims never lived to give a 3 star rating "overdosed, would not buy again"?

You should watch Cocaine Diaries (http://exclaim.ca/music/article/blurs_alex_james_in_bbc_doc_...) - a documentary about a rock star, after talking about cocaine fueled parties, was invited to Colombia and met with everyone from villagers to a cartel hitman. To think that there's no violence in the _production_ alone, let alone distribution and retail, would be naive. And to think that giving the cartels safer channels to sell and increase their market would make those precursors safer is something I can't really picture.

It saved lives by giving more people access to high quality drugs, as well as having a feedback and review system that made the vendors accountable for the shit they sold.

Harm reduction is a big thing on DNM markets and forums. You have information on how to safely use drugs and places to ask for advice. I bet it saved quite a few lives.