Drug use is a global pandemic with overdose-related deaths on the rise. Technological advances have made drug markets more commonly located online, indicating that Darknet markets will become the drug markets of the future. While Darknet markets have existed since the year 2010, research on the phenomena is scarce. The Wall Street Market (WSM) was established in 2016 and by 2017 it was the world´s largest international cryptomarket. Flugsvamp 3.0 is the most current Swedish domestic drug market on Darknet. This study examined WSM and Flugsvamp 3.0, regarding available drug types, number of advertisements, prices and countries of origin on WSM. The study also compared prices on these cryptomarkets with the street prices of Stockholm. During the research process, WSM was shut down by law enforcement. Therefore, an additional day of data collecting on Flugsvamp 3.0 was conducted. The study utilized a method of structured simple observation. A descriptive analysis, with uni- and bivariate analyses, was conducted. The most common drug on both markets was Pharmaceuticals, or prescription drugs. The market with the lowest prices was WSM, while street prices in Stockholm were the lowest of all three marketplaces. Germany most commonly shipped drugs to Sweden, via transactions through WSM. After the closure of WSM both number of advertisements and prices increased on Flugsvamp 3.0, in general. There is a pressing need for further research on Darknet drug markets, as the efficiency of law enforcement efforts to combat drug use depends on it.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:UPSALLA1/oai:DiVA.org:mau-24735 |
| Date | January 2019 |
| Creators | Magnúsdóttir, Hulda |
| Publisher | Malmö universitet, Fakulteten för hälsa och samhälle (HS), Malmö universitet/Hälsa och samhälle |
| Source Sets | DiVA Archive at Upsalla University |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Student thesis, info:eu-repo/semantics/bachelorThesis, text |
| Format | application/pdf |
| Rights | info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess |
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