Potential influences of the darknet on illicit drug diffusion

PURPOSE OF REVIEW: Darknet-hosted drug markets (‘cryptomarkets’) are an established model of illicit drug distribution which makes use of specialised online hosting and payment systems to link buyers and sellers remotely. Cryptomarkets appear to professionalise, gentrify and integrate drug markets. Therefore, they can be hypothesised to have effects on drug availability by allowing purchases by people who use drugs (PWUD) outside of face-to-face networks that have typified drug distribution. They may attract new buyers and may change use patterns by offering a greater range of higher-potency drugs. This paper examines the research on cryptomarkets’ potential impacts on drug availability. RECENT FINDINGS: 1. Cryptomarkets tend to address established PWUD who mainly already have access to existing distribution systems. Their greatest impact may be on what is available and the quantities available, and not the overall ease of access. 2. Cryptomarkets may provide new data sources which can inform our understanding of drug markets. 3. Cryptomarkets may define PWUD as consumers and contribute to reshaping their identities around principles of self-directed, informed consumption. 4. In terms of size, cryptomarkets are currently smaller than other modes of digital drug distribution such as through social media and messaging apps and should be seen as a specialist subset of that genre. 5. Users of cryptomarkets often integrate drug-purchase and consumption repertoires across multiple sites, online and offline, and cryptomarkets can be one element. SUMMARY: The cryptomarkets are of interest partly because they alter the practical calculus around drug diffusion and partly because they contribute to the formation of digitally enabled drug use which emphasises a consumer relationship between buyer and seller

Producing planned hedonism among opiate users in an online drug market

This chapter examines the relationship between drug distribution modes and users’ presentation of self. It argues that the design and operation of illicit drug marketplaces produce specific subjectivities among dealers and buyers. It uses the case of opiate buyers in a darknet cryptomarket to examine the relationship between market processes and drug culture. Taking a material culture perspective, it discusses what aspects of potency are sought after and how the drugs themselves are calibrated to reflect market conditions and users’ experiences and expectations. It examines how the substance’s potency becomes stable, both as a physical substance and as a consistent commodity, and the introduction of harm through the supply chain. It discusses users’ presentation as hyper-modern, risk-reflexive consumers. Increasingly, we are seeing self-efficacy being used as the measure of a substance’s potency, a new development which points towards a novel understanding of the relationship between self and intoxication. Features of the marketplace design plug into this subjectivity, promoting a rational consumer ethic through its feedback features. The chapter ends with some critical thoughts on how the ‘rational market’ design makes some features of the commodity chain transparent while obscuring others

The 'Risk Gradient' in policy on children of drug and alcohol users: Framing young people as risky

Parental drug and alcohol problems can have a profound impact on children. There is a growing policy and practice focus on this topic in the UK. Most is concerned with children of primary school age and younger. Older children tend to be neglected in the debate, and young people of age 16 and over are mostly absent from it. It is argued here that this reflects, and is reflected in, the construction of a ‘risk gradient’ in policy and practice. An analysis of Hidden Harm, the report of the Advisory Council on the Misuse of Drugs’ inquiry into the impact of parental drug misuse, and related documents is used to illustrate this. In the risk gradient, children are constructed as being at risk when younger, and becoming risky to themselves and others when older. The risk gradient stigmatises young people as manifesters of risk, diminishes ongoing difficulties they face, and denies their coping strategies. The definition of risk as manifesting in institutional settings and services underscores this. It encourages a focus on parent-child risk transfer, to the detriment of other difficulties the child or young person may be facing, and renders the young person invisible when they leave service contexts. Finally, the culturally and legally established distinction between illicit drugs and alcohol tends to isolate families with alcohol problems. Most of the response to parental substance use has focused on illicit drugs, rendering the difficulties of young people affected by alcohol problems less visible except as when they are manifesters of risk

The emotional infrastructure of a cybercrime collective:Evidence from Dark0de

Complex cybercrime markets face collective action problems. As they involve disparate networks of individuals, they cannot use in person persuasion or coercion to ensure cooperation. They face a tension between being open to new members and opportunities, and regulating participation. We propose that collective emotional regulation plays a crucial part in managing members’ behaviours within illicit marketspaces. We take one critical case, Dark0de, which was a leading English language cybercrime market. Drawing on a publicly available dataset of internal discussions, we use Qualitative Thematic Content Analysis and Conversational Analysis to investigate how through mutual emotion regulation, this cybercrime collective managed collective action dilemmas deriving from the context of its activity, containing conflict among members and fostering cooperation along with competition. We conclude that emotional micro-dynamics are key to maintaining cybercriminal marketplaces as relatively stable communities, circumscribing individuals’ actions and aligning them with emergent normative orders, enabling those communities to remain operable in adverse environments. Dark0de can be seen as a representative case for a category of digital environments where the community develops its own emotional ethnopsychology which uses displays of semi-ironic abuse and attack along with cooperation on emerging projects