Based on the effects of the latest Global Drug Survey (GDS), more people buy their drugs on the dark Internet than at any time in history.
Researchers found that by 2020, 15% of GDS participants who reported drugs in the past 12 months had received them from darknet markets, either by buying them directly or through someone else. people who reported the same thing in 2014, when the survey began to measure the trend.
In the more than seven years, this number has steadily increased, but never as componently as in 2020: it has increased by 4% of respondents overall since 2019 levels, and the global pandemic is part of the reason.
Monica Barratt, principal investigator at RMIT University in Melbourne and lead co-researcher at GDS, told VICE World News that cultural trends, taboo conversion, market innovators and a developing population of others who spend more of their lives online are likely to contribute to the significant accumulation of drug-related crimes on the dark web.
“If you succeed in most in 2021, let’s say you’re 18 or 19, it’s not that strange to you; 10 years since Silk Road was founded in 2011, it grew with that,” Dr. Barratt said. through the phone. ” Partly, I think, cultural difference and generational difference may be the reason why this happens.
“If you buy everything online, why don’t you also buy your medicines online?”
This is due to the latest explanation as to why, in particular, she suggests, the dark net drug markets may have attracted more new users by 2020 than any past year.
“When you think about it, in the last 12 months, there were many other people who didn’t really need to buy things online, but had to buy them online because they had no choice; the outlets were not open and were blocked and they had to use the post-mail workplace to send them products,” he said. I think once they get over that pothole, other people will have to stop buying clothes and just using the Internet, and they can feel the same way about everything.
There is an anecdotal precedent for this trend of mount buyers. In 2017, Dr. Barratt discussed why Scandinavian countries like Finland consistently reported the highest proportion of drug buyers in the world who used the Dark Internet to buy their supplies. A local source explained that, partly due to the climate and prohibitive weather, Finns are “more isolated” than other peoples in the world and “tend to stay home. “
“He said it made a lot of sense to him, culturally, that they would be one of the largest users of [drug] servers they deliver at home,” Dr. Barratt recalled. “And the question is, “Well, where would you buy?”
This partly explains cultural models. But another valuable thing is how drug dealers and dark network traffickers diversify their offerings and create a more reliable service, even in the face of transnational cybercrime and fraudulent endemic activities.
Dr. Barratt cites a dark Internet market that brought multi-signature authentication a few years ago, as a way to isolate buyers and distributors from so-called “exit scams,” when the site administrator runs away from people’s budget, and gain acceptance. Other operators have gone even harder to exploit social media programs and discussion forums to create new illicit trading channels: like Televend, the fully automated formula that allows users to purchase drugs from robots through the Encrypted Messaging app Telegram.
“What happens is that everyone is innovating: the other people who sell drugs on the dark net and those who produce those new apps are looking to find out what are the disorders that other people are not their specific platform,” Dr. . Barratt. ” It would probably be a little tricky to move on to the darknet, but other people like to use messaging apps. Televend is therefore a bit like a cross between buying apps on social media and the darknet. fascinated to know if the long-term darknet may also be another hybrid thing that is just beginning. “
These trends are likely to continue as online markets become more complicated and more and more people are turning to online outlets to mark their illegal products. But this brave new world of drug trafficking in the dark net is full of traps and slippery slopes.
One result that is not surprising is that it provides consumers with an unprecedented ease of access to illicit and mysterious ingredients. Every year, between a quarter and a third of GDS respondents report using a wider range of drugs since they used the dark web. The product offering, combined with the relatively low barrier to verification, creates gateways to new drug use behaviors, where other people try new ingredients just because they’ve suddenly been made to have them.
But another worrying domino effect is that other people who buy drugs on the dark net, other than through a tap or a friend, can use those drugs alone.
For this reason, Dr. Barratt suggested that users of dark network medicines be diligent and cautious and, anywhere possible, inform others what they will consume, as well as when and where.
“It is possible that the total delight of a person with drug use has begun through the darknet, and possibly would in fact be limited to the darknet,” he explained. “The threat is that they will use it alone. One of the things to consider, therefore, is to make sure that if you are taking something for the first time, even if you are alone, know that you are about to do so, and you are ready. -bas has a “check-in with me in an hour” and has your contact details.
“It’s hard, of course; these things are usually illegal and many other people keep secret what they are doing. But the challenge would be for someone to buy something, maybe take the dose or medication or have a hard time and don’t necessarily have someone with it. “
Join the 2021 Global Drug Survey here
Follow Gavin on Twitter
By subscribing to the VICE newsletter, you agree to obtain electronic communications from VICE that may include advertisements or sponsored content.