When your goal is maximum privacy, everything starts with clean and trusted computer. In real world, there are not many operating system which you could trust 100%. There were many cases of exploited Windows computers through malware or viruses. For connecting to dark net or cannabis forums smart way would be using another computer than you are using for regular work. In this case creating “temporary” computer is viable strategy. How to do it? Its pretty easy do use USB flash drive to create your own, free and secure system, boot it up, visit and post forums and then destroy this computer by shutting it off and removing USB.
There is linux distribution created with this goal in mind - TAILS. Its live operating system that you can start on practically any computer using USB or CD.
Tails stands for “the amnesic incognito live system”.
Amnesic means that once you shut this system off, all data that you haven’t knowingly saved to hard drive are erased. System lives only in RAM memory and leaves no eletronic traces on your computer. Incognito means that Tails uses Tor as default option to connect to the internet. It forces all connections to go through the Tor network. Tails is system built with privacy and anonymity in mind. This makes it favorite operating system in countries which apply censorship on the internet. Great thing is that this operating system is actively developed and maintained.
Through this howto, you will create “virtual” computer using your USB flash drive. This computer can boot up TAILS from USB and use CPU and memory of your computer, leaving your HDD untouched.
Once booted, it is even possible to mount your internal harddrive (in case you wish to attach your photos from harddrive to forum posts) or insert another USB flash drive with photo images.