Dark Web and the Street Drug Market

"Highly anonymized, elusive, and unregulated, the Dark Web is an ideal landscape for vendors selling illicit substances. The substances, in addition to the markets themselves, that are available on the Dark Web at any given time are difficult to predict. To offer insight into and characterize Dark Web markets, we conducted a study of the substances available on the Dark Web, both historically—between 2012 and 2019—and at present, between 2022 and 2023. Therefore, the present study offers, to our knowledge, a first snapshot in time of the categorical and chronological distribution and availability of various illicit psychoactive substances on Dark Web cryptomarkets.

"These data are pertinent in the face of various overdose epidemics around the world and concurrent, ongoing changes in street drug markets, which pose challenges to the clinical system of care (Krausz et al., 2021). In North America, for example, market shifts have resulted in the increased availability of highly potent opioids like fentanyl, increasing the risk of overdose and death (Krausz et al., 2021). Unanticipated changes such as this can burden the healthcare system and lead to poor outcomes such as increased morbidity and mortality related to drug use by hindering the development of appropriate intervention and treatment (Krausz et al., 2021). In the absence of geographical limitations, fluctuations in Dark Web markets compared to street markets can pose an even greater and global threat to the healthcare systems designed to address substance-related issues.

"Given their globalized nature, cryptomarkets may offer predictive value with regard to changes in street markets for illicit substances. It is possible that the substances available on the Dark Web reflect their supply and demand across street markets. For instance, researchers have found that cryptomarkets are frequently used for wholesale purposes, whereby drug vendors across street markets may purchase substances online and then sell to individual customers at the offline, street level (Aldridge and Décary-Hétu, 2016). Understanding Dark Web markets would offer insight into the supply chain of illicit substances and potentially inform predictions surrounding which substances are likely to dominate street markets (Broadhurst et al., 2021)."