Silk Road participants neither viewed themselves as immune to, nor passively accepting of, the risk of detection and arrest. Rational choice theorists have viewed offending decisions as constrained by limited access to relevant information. Cryptomarkets as 'illicit capital' sharing communities provide expanded and low-cost access to information enabling drug market participants to make more accurate assessments of the risk of apprehension. The abundance of drug market intelligence available to those on both sides of the law may function to speed up innovation in illegal drug markets, as well as necessitate and facilitate the development of law enforcement responses.

No abstract

If drug takers can articulate their ability to control their use and maintain functionality within their lives, then both drug taker and drug use may be legitimated. In order to better understand the conceptualisation of drug use and the acceptable boundaries of behaviour, this research has demonstrated that it is more appropriate to conceptualise drug use on a spectrum that runs from control through to dysfunction, rather than either recreational or problematic.

The paper concludes that the rise in synthetic cannabinoid use in custody and the size of the drug market are posing significant challenges to the management of offenders; including healthcare, appropriate detection techniques, license recall and sanctions for both use and supply. We argue that the primary motivation for consumption in this setting is the avoidance of drug use detection, and that this is likely to supersede other motivations for consumption in the future. We propose a revision of the use of mandatory drug tests (MDTs) both in prisons and in the management of offenders in the community.

A minority of those who consume or supply illegal drugs are detected and subsequently punished for breaching these laws. Thus, only a minority of active 'drug offenders' are ever formally subjected to criminal sanctioning, the criminal label, its stigmatising affects, and the resultant collateral consequences. The current paper analyses data from two studies on drug offenders-a sample of 26 users and a sample of 25 suppliers-who form part of the 'silent majority' of drug offenders whose offending behaviour goes largely unnoticed and unpunished. Both sets of actors are what we consider 'law-abiding' criminals insofar as their regular criminal transgressions are not reflected in the ways broader society, their immediate networks, nor they, view themselves. We argue that the perceived risks posed to their conventional commitments and roles ensure their careful management and subversion of behaviour and information that might otherwise be indicative of their drug offending. Yet, at the same time, we argue that these conventional roles provide sufficient protection that their crimes go unnoticed or, if detected, unpunished. Our conclusions support Taylor (2008; 2011; 2016) that only a minority of 'low hanging fruit' are subject to the law, and the collateral consequences of a criminal and deviant label. We argue more research needs to be conducted with these 'hidden offenders' to help reduce the inequities, stigmas and stereotypes that befall the subsection of drug offenders who are routinely policed, sanctioned and studied.