I imagine it would be like working at a store and accepting cash from a drug dealer to buy some milk. Just because the cash was ill gotten doesn't mean you are doing anything wrong. I guess, hope the law enforcement is sane enough to realize that.

They will be.  Count on it.

In fact, I'd venture a guess that use of Bitcoin by criminals will be a major tipping point for its success.

Well, yeah.  There's porn.  In fact one (at least) of the forum members runs three or four sites that take Bitcoin.

But the success of this currency is not going to depend on websites that take 1 or 2 or 5 Bitcoin at a time.  It will depend on reliable transactions *beginning* at five figures, and going into six or seven.

And *that* is where a new Bitcoin client will have to focus:  on 'splitting' Bitcoins into their intended - but never implemented - eight decimal places.

With only 21 million of them, I suspect we'll need the added functionality pretty soon now.

I see on the charts they're over a US Dollar...

Maybe the thing to worry about is that the cops won't have a freaking clue about coins and will just see you ship a grand to whomever they are watching and assume you are buying whatever illicit thing the criminal is in to.

That kind of incompetence is an argument against police not bitcoin.

If a bitcoin is worth $100 a few bitcoiners will be able to afford high class lawyers.

I imagine a bounty would also be raised for a class action lawsuit.