The darknet is often touted as the go-to place for buying and selling drugs. With its additional layers of privacy and anonymity, as well as a global reach, deep web marketplaces have become synonymous with online drugs sales. But the 2016 World Drug Report shows there is very little impact on the international drug trade, despite the darknet becoming increasingly popular. People who buy and sell drugs on the darknet will usually do so in exchange for Bitcoin. As a result, many people see cryptocurrency as a currency only used by criminals. But when looking at the overall statistics, the drug economy continues to be fueled by cash, money transfers, and bank transactions. The Darknet Is A Small Blip On The International Radar Over the past few years, there have been several darknet-related drug arrests all over the world. While it is true online narcotics sales are going up every quarter, they do little to impact the overall drug trade. When both industries are on the rise, one has very little impact on the other in the grand scheme of things. One thing that stands out from the 2016 World Drug Report is how emerging markets seem to have fewer darknet vendors compared to other regions. That is not entirely surprising, despite many people assuming these regions are infested with drug trades, to begin with. There are regions where the drug trade has become a necessity to survive, but that is not always the case. The biggest surprise in the report is how the majority of darknet sales do not impact the international market by any means. To be more precise, nearly all of the darknet drug sales are shipped to domestic users, rather than international customers. When weighing the risk against the reward, that is not an irrational […]
