The dark web is a world of illegal transactions, crimes, and things we don’t want to know that exists. It is a flourishing channel for trading drugs. The term Bitcoin is probably the most known subject in this hidden world.
Cryptomarkets hosts vendors yo-yo on the internet bouncing up and down as they get shut down and new ones appear. It lists like a shopping centre directory even with customer feedback and ratings. Digital asset cryptocurrency coins such as Bitcoin are traded for recreational and pharmaceutical drugs.
Once a user with anonymising software passes through an array of servers it opens to a world of darkness, pain, and addiction. The common drugs purchased are cannabis, ecstasy, cocaine, and sedatives.
This is an area employers should be wary of, to safeguard their business from employees using the dark web at work and sourcing drugs through the internet. Make sure your workplace drug and alcohol policy is up-to-date, your workers have regular education in the standards, and drug testing is in place.
Interested to find out the latest drug trends on the internet? Read below for some startling statistics provided by DrugTrends.
Trends of drugs sold on the internet
May 2019 – May 2020
- 11 cryptomarkets were monitored
- 5 of these were shut down during the reporting period
- The highest drug listing market share is Empire Market at 35% with 30,423 listings, followed by Dark Bay at 27% market share for May 2020
- Apollon hosted 24,755 drug listings before it was shut down due to an exit scam in January 2020.
- Drug listings increased by 23%, a total of 66,099 in one month (May 2020)
- The top 5 drugs that increased in listings during May 2020:
- Psychostimulants
- Nootropics (prescription)
- Hallucinogenic mushrooms
- Opioids excluding heroin
- Cocaine
- Market share of cannabis declined by 5% to 25%, this was the largest decline in drugs listed throughout the monitoring period. Whereas, cocaine increased by 2.3% over the year.