An Exploration of Differentiation in Online Illicit Drug Markets with Particular Consideration of Structure, Rationality, Risk, and Trust

Abstract

This dissertation purposively explores differing forms of online illicit drug markets with particular focus on why actors – both buyers and sellers – are increasingly incorporating digital technologies into illicit drug supply. The last decade has seen significant changes in illicit drug markets with buyers and sellers adopting a growing range of online platforms into their drug exchange milieu. Typically, however, efforts to explore online drug markets are limited in scope and often fail to highlight how online markets are a diverse set of platforms that are differentiated in meaningful ways. The work undertaken in this thesis extends on previous academic investigations by examining three unexplored forms of drug trading in digital spaces from the perspectives of those involved in these dynamic online markets. Specifically, an understanding of the evolving nature of online illicit drug markets across numerous platforms (e.g. the dark web, the surface web, and social media/encrypted messaging applications), the motivations and barriers for engaging in online illicit drug markets, how these are differentiated spaces, and how digital platforms are changing the drug exchange process, is of particular importance to the research presented here. To contribute to an understanding of these specific issues, this thesis through publication comprises seven chapters, four of which are manuscripts either published or currently under-review in peer-reviewed journals. After an introduction to the broader landscape of drug markets in Chapter 1, the first published manuscript (Chapter 2) provides a theoretical examination of the nature of illicit drug exchange in digital environments. It does so by critically analysing notions of rationality as they relate to conventional (i.e. offline) forms of drug distribution. This work then highlights how, as online exchanges are performed in an entirely new assemblage of human and non-human forces, the new structural configurations that drug exchanges are produced within enable something much closer to the conditions necessary for approximating a cost-benefit exercise. Following this, Chapter 3 outlined the methods employed for the data collection phases in the proceeding chapters. The first empirical contribution of this thesis, Chapter 4, explores the use of social media and encrypted messaging applications in illicit drug supply via an online international survey (n = 258), ‘rapid interviews’ (n = 20), and in-depth interviews (n = 27). This paper showed how there are a wide range of smartphone applications being used in illicit drug supply and that social media applications (e.g. Instagram, Snapchat) are rapidly being incorporated in drug supply practices due to their convenience and ease-of-use. Following this, the study presented in Chapter 5 investigates the trend of direct dealing in dark web drug cryptomarkets through an analysis of forum posts (n = 965) in dark web forums. This recent shift in cryptomarket activity was a surprising development given the fact that many of the security features appreciated by actors in drug cryptomarkets, such as administrator oversight of an exchange, are not available when choosing to deal over an encrypted messaging application. This paper explored the perceptions behind direct dealing as well as how situational factors (e.g. law enforcement), discounts, and perceptions of trustworthiness were all vital in allowing actors to transition across to perform a direct deal. Finally, Chapter 6 presents a paper exploring the adoption of a surface web platform, LeafedOut, and how it is used for local cannabis exchanges. Results from netnography and interviews with buyers and sellers of this platform (n = 20) reported how, for those studied, the relative normalisation of cannabis use/supply, in conjunction with various strategies for assessing trust and minimising risks of the exchange (e.g. adopting encrypted messaging apps to cover digital traces, sending selfies to authenticate a genuine buyer/seller, relying on feedback systems and ‘gut-feelings’, and selectively choosing exchange locations). Together, the papers contained within this thesis provide unique insights into burgeoning forms of drug exchange on the Internet. These studies also contribute to theoretical and conceptual understandings of drug exchanges in digital settings by explicating on how notions of rationality, risk, and trust are crucial in explorations of illicit drug supply practices online. Collectively, the significance of this work is that it helps explain why online illicit drug markets are coming into fruition, how they expand and diversify, and why a wide range of digital platforms are increasingly being adopted by illicit drug market actors.