Australian Drug Users and the Dark Web - ASPAD Insight 2020 Series Associate Professor James Martin - AWS
←
→
Page content transcription
If your browser does not render page correctly, please read the page content below
ASPAD Insight 2020 Series
Associate Professor James Martin
Australian Drug Users
and the Dark Web
CRICOS 00111D
TOID 3069
ASPAD Insight 2020 Series
Associate Professor James Martin
Australian Drug Users
and the Dark Web
CRICOS 00111D
TOID 3069
Presentation outline 1. What are cryptomarkets and how do they work? 2. What can cryptomarket data tell us? 3. What implications does the proliferation of cryptomarkets have for drug users and harm? 3
What is a cryptomarket?
– A cryptomarket or darknet market
(DNM) is “an online forum where
goods and services are exchanged
between parties who use digital
encryption to conceal their identities”
(Martin 2013:6).
– Share the following characteristics:
• third-party hosting and administration
• use of traditional postal systems to deliver
goods
• decentralised exchange networks
• use of aliases to conceal user identity
• reliance on the Tor network
• use of encrypted electronic currency (e.g.
Bitcoin).
4
http://static2.ad.nl/static/photo/2013/10/7/13/20131003154511
/media_l_1883233.jpg
http://www.tomvanantwerp.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/10/ulbricht2.jpghttp://static2.ad.nl/static/photo/2013/10/7/13/20131003154511 /media_l_1883233.jpg
9
7/14/2010 7/14/20
http://static2.ad.nl/static/photo/2013/10/7/13/20131003154511 /media_l_1883233.jpg
15 7/14/20
Cryptomarket data Part II
(Soska & Christin 2015
Size of the Percentage of active vendors by country of origin,
Australian
active products only
Multiple Australia,
online market countries
world/Unkn
7.2%
own, 17.0%
• 152 unique active Other Asia,
UK, 12.1%
vendors in Australia 0.5%
• 2nd highest per capita China, 0.7%
number of vendors India, 0.4% Netherlands
, 6.9%
Other North
• 1136 active products America,
5.4%
• 40.7% of total listings
Germany,
active 7.7%
• World’s highest
proportion of domestic- Multiple EU,
4.8%
only sales (90.5%) USA, 29.7%
Other EU,
7.6%Number of
transactions Number of transactions by drug type,
Australian vendors
The most popularly Prescription,
traded drugs in Australia 1260
are: Cannabis, 1517
1. Cannabis (25%)
2. Prescription drugs
(20%)
3. Ecstasy (16%) Opioids, 486
4. Methamphetamine
(12%)
Ecstasy, 958
5. Psychedelics (11%) Psychedelics,
680
6. Opioids (8%)
Amphetamine,
7. Cocaine (7%) 91
Methamphetamine, 767 Cocaine, 415
8. Amphetamine (1%)Pricing - Cannabis
Overall Cannabis the only
product sold more
Doesn’t ship to
cheaply by Australian
Australia
vendors
Also the only product
where the street
International
price is less than both
Australia
the international and
Australian
Australia street cryptomarket vendor
price
price
0 5 10 15 20 25
USD per gram
(Cunliffe et al 2017)Cocaine powder price distributions
Overall
Doesn’t ship to Australia
International
Australia
Australia street price
0 50 100 150 200 250 300 350 400 450
USD per gram
MDMA tablet (ecstasy pill) price distributions
Overall
Doesn’t ship to
Australia
International
Australia
Australia street price
0 5 10 15 20 25 30 35 40 45
USD per pill
(Cunliffe et al 2017)Heroin price distributions
Overall
Doesn’t ship to Australia
International
Australia
Australia street price
0 100 200 300 400 500 600 700
USD per gram
Methamphetamine price distributions
Overall
Doesn’t ship to Australia
International
Australia
Australia street price
0 50 100 150 200 250 300 350 400 450 500
USD per gram
(Cunliffe et al 2017)Impact of COVID-19
(EMCDDA 2020)Harm reduction
Cryptomarkets may reduce drug harm by facilitating:
Access to higher quality, less adulterated illicit drugs
Access to harm reduction discussion forums
Reduced threats and instances of violence in drug
procurement
Reduction of violence between drug retailers –
market gentrification
(Martin 2017; 2014; Bancroft 2017; Bancroft & Reid 2016; van Buskirk
2016; Barratt et al 2016a)Harm reduction contd. Some research suggests that cryptomarkets may increase drug harms: Approximately half of surveyed users reported using the same range of drugs (GDS 2019) Nearly one third reported using a wider range of drugs (GDS 2019) Barratt et al (2016b) reported that drug users often increase rates of usage following first access of a cryptomarket Usage rates return to normal following this ‘honeymoon’ period
Conclusions Cryptomarkets represents a relatively small but steadily growing proportion of the global illicit drugs market Australia is a major adopter – disproportionately high in international terms Growing evidence of a range of benefits, including harm reduction and reduced systemic violence Potential to reduce drug-related harms for both users and market participants
? http://b-i.forbesimg.com/andygreenberg/files/2013/10/Screen-Shot-2013-08-14-at-11.20.41-AM.png
References
Bancroft, A. (2017). Responsible use to responsible harm: illicit drug use and peer harm
reduction in a darknet cryptomarket. Health, Risk & Society, 19(7-8), 336-350.
Barratt, M. J., Lenton, S., Maddox, A., & Allen, M. (2016). ‘What if you live on top of a bakery and
you like cakes?’—Drug use and harm trajectories before, during and after the emergence of Silk
Road. International Journal of Drug Policy, 35, 50-57.
Barratt, M. J., Ferris, J. A., & Winstock, A. R. (2016). Safer scoring? Cryptomarkets, social supply
and drug market violence. International Journal of Drug Policy, 35, 24-31.
Cunliffe, J., Martin, J., Décary-Hétu, D., & Aldridge, J. (2017). An island apart? Risks and prices in
the Australian cryptomarket drug trade. International Journal of Drug Policy, 50, 64-73.
EMCDDA (2020) COVID-19 and drugs; European Centre for Drugs and Drug Addiction
Martin, J. (2018). Cryptomarkets, systemic violence and the ‘gentrification
hypothesis’. Addiction, 113(5), 797-798.
Martin, J. (2014). Drugs on the dark net: How cryptomarkets are transforming the global trade in illicit
drugs. Springer.
Soska, K., & Christin, N. (2015). Measuring the longitudinal evolution of the online anonymous
marketplace ecosystem. In 24th {USENIX} security symposium ({USENIX} security 15)(pp. 33-48).
UNODC (2020) World Drug Report 2020; United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime, Vienna
Winstock, A, Barratt, MJ, Maier L, Aldridge, A, Zhuparris, A, Davies, E, Hughes, C, Johnson, M,
Kowalski, M, Ferris, J (2019) Global Drug Survey (GDS) 2019 Key Findings ReportYou can also read
