The Presence of New Psychoactive Substances in a Tor Network Marketplace Environment

Dolliver, Diana S.; Kuhns, Joseph B.

doi:10.1080/02791072.2016.1229877

Cited by 16 publications

(16 citation statements)

References 12 publications

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“…Most common are recreational and ‘party’ drugs such as cannabis and ecstasy‐type substances, alongside a wide range of psychedelic drugs, prescription medications and constantly emerging ‘new psychoactive substances’ (NPS). Less common are substances associated typically with problem drug use, such as heroin and methamphetamine . Some cryptomarket buyers cite ‘greater range’ as key in their decisions to source drugs in this way .…”

Section: Will Cryptomarkets Increase Drug Use?mentioning

confidence: 99%

Will growth in cryptomarket drug buying increase the harms of illicit drugs?

2017

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Background and aimCryptomarkets—on‐line, anonymous market‐places for illicit goods and services that specialize mainly in drugs—account for a small but rapidly growing share of the illicit drug market in many countries. Policy responses so far are based generally on the assumption that their rise will only increase drug harms. In this contribution for debate, we question this assumption.MethodsWe provide a narrative review of the emerging literature connected to drug cryptomarkets. We use MacCoun & Reuter's formula to understand the effect of population‐level increases in use on total harm as depending on the level of harm associated with each unit of use. We then consider the potential for cryptomarkets to increase or decrease the harms and benefits related to each unit of drug use, with specific attention to the quality of drugs sold and the non‐drug‐related harms and benefits for customers.ResultsIt is likely that cryptomarkets will increase both the amount and the range of substances that are sold. However, we argue that the effects on harms will depend upon whether cryptomarkets also increase the quality and safety of products that are sold, provide harm‐reducing information to consumers and reduce transactional conflict involved in drug purchasing.ConclusionsThere is an emerging and rapidly growing evidence base connected to the macro and micro harms and benefits of cryptomarkets for drug users. Future researchers should use appropriately matched comparative designs to establish more firmly the differential harms and benefits of sourcing drugs both on‐ and off‐line. While it is unlikely that the on‐line drug trade can be eradicated completely, cryptomarkets will respond to regulation and enforcement in ways that have complex, and sometimes unanticipated, effects on both harms and benefits.

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Section: Will Cryptomarkets Increase Drug Use?mentioning

confidence: 99%

Will growth in cryptomarket drug buying increase the harms of illicit drugs?

2017

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“…This so-called digital trace approach (see is the established methodology for data collection from cryptomarkets and has been applied in several studies (e.g. Soska & Christin, 2015, Aldridge & Décary-Hétu, 2014, Broséus et al, 2016b, Dolliver & Kuhns, 2016, Christin 2013. The large and longitudinal dataset for our study was collected through repeated marketplace crawls.…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Country groupings were based on a) natural or geopolitical constructs (i.e. "regions" and "continents"), b) our knowledge international drug trafficking, and c) how cryptomarket use is distributed among countries as discussed in the existing literature ( Van Buskirk et al, 2016;Dolliver, Ericson & Love, 2016;Dolliver & Kuhns, 2016).…”

Section: [Table 2 About Here]mentioning

confidence: 99%

Going Local on a Global Platform

Demant

Aldridge

Décary‐Hétu

et al. 2018

International Criminal Justice Review

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Abstract:There is broad agreement in the literature on the transformative potential of drug cryptomarkets, which allow sourcing on a global market and consequently the circumvention of existing supply chains between producer and end-user. We examine whether the transformative potential of drug cryptomarkets has been realized in two ways: Are cryptomarket drug sellers found in production and transit countries? And do we see the increased use of shipping across international borders over time?Methods: Using data collected by the DATACRYPTO software tool between 2013 and 2016, we characterize cryptomarket buyer behavior through the product reviews (i.e. sales transactions) posted on 15 cryptomarkets.Findings: Cryptomarket drug sellers are predominantly based in countries of Europe, North America and Oceania. For both cannabis resin and cocaine sold on cryptomarkets, we find that known production and transit countries are not the primary sources of supplied drugs, but rather key countries of consumption. In the case of MDMA, we observe that the Netherlands, a known production country, is the largest supplier. We further observe tendencies over time towards increased localization of cryptomarkets with regards to product destinations. Discussion: Though cryptomarkets offer a potentially global platform for drug distribution, they do not tend to be used as such. We explain our results with reference to buyers' preferences regarding safety, risk and convenience, alongside structural limitations for cryptomarket use such as bitcoin availability.

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“…In the past 5 years alone, hundreds of new substances have appeared on the market (EMCDDA, 2015b(EMCDDA, , 2016a(EMCDDA, , 2016b. Sold as "legal highs," "bath salts," and "research chemicals" on the Internet, and from marketplaces on the hidden Web (Dolliver & Kuhns, 2016), global transportation networks offer prompt delivery of NPS worldwide. The emergence of some new substances has a strong link with their misuse as medicines (Brandt, King, & Evans-Brown, 2014).…”

Section: Nps In Europementioning

confidence: 99%