That's according to the 2015 Global Drug Survey, which polled 100,000 people and found a growing number are buying illegal drugs online through clandestine marketplaces that trade in bitcoins. Of those polled, 23 percent said they bought drugs online for the first time in 2014. That's up from 13 percent a year ago.
This increase comes despite the October 2013 shutdown of the Silk Road drug marketplace and the very public arrest of founder Ross Ulbricht, who was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole on May 29.
Full story: http://www.ibtimes.com/dark-net-drug-sales-using-bitcoins-are-booming-after-fall-silk-road-marketplace-1960833
IMO the publicity did encourage people to do that (I think allot of them though this is not real until the growing publicity that the site was delivering drugs).