Responsible use to responsible harm: illicit drug use and peer harm reduction in a darknet cryptomarket

Drug transactions and the dark web: Public perceptions of the locational setting of offenders and support for drug policy outcomes

BACKGROUND

Both legal and extra-legal factors influence judicial and non-judicial opinions about persons who use drugs. Yet, how the locational setting of drug transactions influences public perceptions of drug control policies remains understudied. In particular, the public's view of drug exchanges on the dark web could directly and indirectly influence drug policy, legal decision making, and spending decisions. The study's aim is to identify whether the location of a drug exchange, specifically the dark web, influences public preferences for drug policy and police resourcing.

METHODS

A sample (n = 1359) from the United States of America was recruited and participated in a discrete choice experiment. The participants compared and repeatedly chose across five iterations between two drug offender profiles with nine set features, such as the location of drug transactions, all with randomized levels. The resulting sample included a total of 13,590 contest pairs.

RESULTS

Averaging over the non-locational attributes, respondents indicated that, compared to the dark web, several locational settings for drug exchange (such as the street corner, social media, and an unknown location) needed fewer police resources and offenders were less deserving of longer punishments. No statistically significant difference was found for opinions about harm to communities, and offenders involved in drug exchanges on university campuses were considered more deserving of a substance abuse treatment program than offenders on the dark web.

CONCLUSION

There appears to be a preference for more punitive criminal justice policies for drug transactions occurring on the dark web relative to some other common settings. Such preferences may indicate a novelty effect driven by negative sentiment surrounding the dark web or a perceived deficit in the police's ability to deal with drug crimes on the dark web. These findings suggest that the public may prefer supply-side policing efforts over demand-side policies, which emphasizes harm reduction.

Ranking Trust Factors Affecting Risk Perception in Illicit Drug Purchase on the Darknet: A Large-Scale Survey Study in Hungary

The process of illicit drug trafficking on darknet markets is highly affected by various trust factors. Although the factors potentially affecting customers' risk perception can be identified based on previous research, cyber criminology has not produced empirical research ranking the importance of the specific factors. This study was designed to fill this gap by developing a tool that measures the importance of the various trust factors. To test out the measurement tool, a large-scale survey with projective situational questions was conducted among university students in Hungary. The sample (n = 5481) was compiled to include potential darknet market customers, respondents with above-average computer skills needed to access the darknet, and taking into account that university students are a group of society particularly exposed to drug consumption. The end product of this research is a trust matrix ranking the factors affecting illicit drug purchases on darknet markets. Among the factors, the survey's target group ranked reliable and undamaged delivery of goods and the reliability of vendors as the most important. The measurement tool developed in this research will facilitate further criminological research on vendor reputation. Its findings also point to the need for further research on delivery providers and predict that influencing the delivery-related risk perception of potential customers could effectively reduce demand.

Risk perception and risk aversion among people who use New Psychoactive Substances

INTRODUCTION

New Psychoactive Substances (NPS) are often considered to be harmful and less safe alternatives to traditional recreational drugs. Yet we have little knowledge of the ways in which risk aversion affects NPS risk perception and how risk judgements differ across types of NPS. In the analysis that follows, we investigate whether the perceived severity of risk is amplified or attenuated by users' experiences, risk avoidance strategies and modes of knowledge on risk.

MATERIAL AND METHODS

The data were derived from a Polish cross-sectional study on patterns of NPS use and associated risks. A convenience sample of 605 users of NPS (Mean age = 22; range 15-49 years) completed a questionnaire. A principal component analyses and ordinal regression models were used to reveal the latent variables indicating modes of knowledge on NPS risk and risk avoidance strategies, and to determine the associations between risk aversion and perceived personal risk of NPS use.

RESULTS

Several precautionary measures were employed by the majority of participants in the study. The perception of individual risk differed across NPS types. Principal component analysis yielded three components in both risk avoidance strategies ('avoiding mixes', 'precautionary measures', 'planning') and modes of knowledge on risk ('experience', 'technical knowledge', 'harm reduction'). However, ordinal regression models show that perceptions of risk are only partially affected by the modes of knowledge on NPS risk and by risk avoidance strategies.

DISCUSSION

The results indicate that risk perception largely depends on NPS type. The perception of risk is driven by both modes of knowledge and risk avoidance strategies. However, they have different impacts on how individuals judge risk across various types of NPS. The perspective of risk perception should inform policy-makers and prevention experts to focus their efforts on honest and substantive risk communication.

CONCLUSIONS

The present study shows that individuals tend to rely on various strategies of risk avoidance, which indicates the need to improve the substantive communication on NPS risks, with a particular focus on the types of NPS, which could help people using them make informed choices.

An evidence synthesis of strategies, enablers and barriers for keeping secrets online regarding the procurement and supply of illicit drugs

This systematic review attempts to understand how people keep secrets online, and in particular how people use the internet when engaging in covert behaviours and activities regarding the procurement and supply of illicit drugs. With the Internet and social media being part of everyday life for most people in western and non-western countries, there are ever-growing opportunities for individuals to engage in covert behaviours and activities online that may be considered illegal or unethical. A search strategy using Medical Subject Headings terms and relevant key words was developed. A comprehensive literature search of published and unpublished studies in electronic databases was conducted. Additional studies were identified from reference lists of previous studies and (systematic) reviews that had similar objectives as this search, and were included if they fulfilled our inclusion criteria. Two researchers independently screened abstracts and full-texts for study eligibility and evaluated the quality of included studies. Disagreements were resolved by a consensus procedure. The systematic review includes 33 qualitative studies and one cross-sectional study, published between 2006 and 2018. Five covert behaviours were identified: the use of communication channels; anonymity; visibility reduction; limited posts in public; following forum rules and recommendations. The same technologies that provide individuals with easy access to information, such as social networking sites and forums, digital devices, digital tools and services, also increase the prevalence of inaccurate information, loss of privacy, identity theft and disinhibited communication. This review takes a rigorous interdisciplinary approach to synthesising knowledge on the strategies adopted by people in keeping secrets online. Whilst the focus is on the procurement and supply of illicit drugs, this knowledge is transferrable to a range of contexts where people keep secrets online. It has particular significance for those who design online/social media applications, and for law enforcement and security agencies.

Technology to support relational care for people who use drugs at home: Literature review and key informant content

Canada's opioid crisis is a public health emergency that disproportionately affects people who use drugs alone at home, requiring the mobilization of health systems to implement timely, effective, and innovative programs. The purpose of this review is to provide a synthesis of recent literature relating to technology-enabled harm reduction strategies. The results of the literature review are corroborated with key informants, including family members of people who use drugs and policy-makers in the area of opioid use. Based on this, it is recommended that technology-enabled support programs for people who use drugs at home must deliver support at whatever point the person is along their drug use continuum, must transfer frontline relational skills, must be co-developed with community members and service providers, and must deliver predictable and reliable services that are safe from stigma.

Community-consumerism: negotiating risk in online drug communities

This study explores the social organisation of risk within online drug-related communities. Drawing on in-depth interviews with participants from two Norwegian Internet drug forums, the paper illustrates how participation in such forums influenced notions of risk, and how it supported notions of participants as being informed, responsible and empowered. First, the forums facilitated an easy exchange of user-generated drug information, which helped members present themselves as informed and competent. Second, members used the communal resources on the forums to negotiate their drug-using identities, in which they resisted stigma and argued for a responsible drug-using identity. Third, the social inclusion and sense of community within the forums formed the basis for collective support, which helped empower those involved. Conceptualised as community-consumerism, these findings highlight the social mechanisms involved in the information self-sufficiency and decentralisation of authority on the Internet, in which members created an alternative frame of reference for drug use and associated health. The concept of community-consumerism offers a perspective on the social organisation of risk within online communities and ought to be of relevance for future studies on online health-related discourses, not only those related to drugs.

Should we smoke it for you as well? An ethnographic analysis of a drug cryptomarket environment

INTRODUCTION

Why aren't cryptomarkets more widely used? Researchers from a wide array of fields have attempted to answer this question by studying the size of drug cryptomarkets, the substances trafficked, and their structure. In this paper we address the potential acceptance of drug cryptomarkets by studying their perceived ease of use.

METHODS

This paper draws on observational data collected over 350 h of unstructured observation during an ethnographic study conducted in April-September 2016 of the two most prominent drug cryptomarkets at the time, in addition to seven face-to-face semi-structured qualitative interviews.

ANALYSIS

Use of cryptomarkets relies on specialised knowledge. The administrators of the cryptomarkets do not play a publicly visible role in facilitating or easing cryptomarket use while simultaneously expecting cryptomarket users to exhibit self-reliance. We argue that the current levels of complexity and obfuscation constructed in the cryptomarket environment act as a barrier to the widespread acceptance of this technology.

DISCUSSION

Through studying cryptomarkets' potential for widespread use we have shed light on current barriers to their growth requirement of specialised knowledge in order to use cryptomarkets and no public efforts to bridge the knowledge gap on behalf of cryptomarket administrators. As cryptomarkets continue to develop the ease of use of these platforms are bound to change, and with them the likelihood that cryptomarket usage may increase.

This place is like the jungle: discussions about psychoactive substances on a cryptomarket

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to analyse dynamics amongst members to better understand in what terms and to what extent marketplace forums can be seen as new forms of harm reduction.

Design/methodology/approach

This is a qualitative analysis focused on conversations about psychoactive substances on the forum community of AlphaBay Market. A sample consists of 100 online threads. The data, collected in July 2016, were analysed by applying the grounded theory approach with the support of Atlas.ti.

Findings

Conversations in the marketplace forum focus mostly on the purchase. Concerns and disputes are voiced in a significant proportion of them, and interactions are affected by a climate of distrust where stigmatisation processes can emerge between users of different drug categories. This casts a certain amount of doubt on the thesis that marketplace forums – like online forums – are new forms of harm reduction and peer-led communities.

Research limitations/implications

The study focuses on only one marketplace forum. Other such forums should be analysed to corroborate its findings.

Practical implications

Harm reduction interventions in the online environment should take different form according to the forum type, and take the differences and boundaries that separate users of different substances into account.

Originality/value

Thanks to its infrequently used qualitative approach, the study provides a more thorough understanding of the relationships on marketplace forums.