This document discusses the rise and fall of novel psychoactive substances and online drug markets in Ireland and globally. It describes how head shops proliferated in Ireland in the 2000s selling legal highs until laws were passed in 2009-2010 to control these substances. Meanwhile, online marketplaces like Silk Road emerged, allowing anonymous and global drug trade via cryptomarkets on the deep web. However, many of these markets have since been shut down by law enforcement. The document examines user experiences on these sites and the ongoing cat-and-mouse game between online drug vendors and authorities.

1. Online Drug Markets and
Novel Psychoactive Drugs
Web Science Institute and the Doctoral Training Centre at the
University of Southampton
25th February 2014

2. Ireland and Novel Psychoactive
substances
2005 - 6 headshops dublin city centre only
Mescaline plants untraditional substance being
sold between €30 - €400
Magic mushrooms
Controlled substances
2006 – BZP ( herbal ecstasy)
Head shops expanded .Young people who were
not using drugs were introduced to these drugs
as they were being sold in the retail outlets
known then as ‘legal highs’ not for human
consumption selling for €5 a pill strength up to
540mg per pill compared to 100mg in an
ecstasy tablet containg MDMA
Late 2006 pre cursor to making MDMA
methylethylketone became unavailable to
groups who were in Holland and Belguim

3. 2007 white powder product range came
onto the market substances being sold as
cocaine type effect
€25 a half gram
31st March 2009 1 BZP became a controlled
substance
Synthetic cannaboids were being introduced
into the shops which were increasing in
popularity
By the end of 2009 102 shops were open
throughout the country
July 2010 7 cathinones controlled all BZP
group were generically controlled
Naphyrone arrives onto the market

4. Mephedrone IV

5. 23rd August 2010 Psychoactive Substances Act became law – The
ultimate aim of this legislation was to shut down the head shop
industry.
There was no offence for personal possession under this act of a
psychoactive substance that was not controlled
4 tonnes of psychoactive substances were handed in overnight

6. “The whole head shop thing was a massive deal for us it broke down
barriers and taboos , we found there were school kids college going
people there is that term experimentation it lifted all the barriers
people don’t get involved with that because people don’t want to
have to deal with the nasty side, don’t want to deal with criminals
Our robberies were going through the roof because people were
becoming addicted heavily on that, people who had never ever come
to the attention of the Gardaí who came from good homes , good
education were all of a sudden were robbing people on the street
and beating them, their motive for doing it was to get more money.”

7. Where Now
“Tablets are very much high on the list I would say in the
last two years, with the closure of the headshops
immediately after that we were found that a lot of stuff
that had gone underground we were still occasionally
making seizures there were still stuff around particularly
BZP tablets somebody had these in storage, there have
been instances of large seizures, in one instance we had
a seizure of ½ million BZP tablets, the person who was
holding onto them was of the firm belief they were
ecstasy tablets .”

8. “People using cocaine or what people think is
ecstasy, then we find out through analysis it is BZP a lot
of those tablets have gone underground and are
emerging on the scene, people don’t really know what
they are using but are willing to at the same time.
Cocaine as well it is being mixed up with headshop stuff”

9.  Some suggest that the public health burden from
emerging drugs may increase after regulation. The
transition from licit to banned substance would move
marketing from legitimate retail outlets to the black
market. As a result, street dealers may increasingly
handle these products before it reaches end users;
dealers are known to use cutting agents, which may
include toxic substances. The increase in impurities and
decrease in the awareness of content is likely to lead to
negative consequences for users (Winstock et al. 2010).
Winstock, A., Mitcheson, L., & Marsden, J. (2010). Mephedrone: Still available and twice the price.
Lancet, 376(9752), 1537.

10. Customs Seizures since 2011
There are 808 seizures of Psychoactive Substances recorded on our systems. These
total approximately 762 tablets (ecstasy type) & 15.968Kg (Amphetamine type &
Spice)
Country of Origin
Seizures
Substance
Afghanisatan
1
Spice
Austria
9
Spice
China
3
Amphetamine Type
Czech Republic
29
Spice
Spain
8
Spice
United Kingdom
15
Spice, Amphetamine type, Ecstasy type
Hungry
614
Spice, Amphetamine type, Ecstasy type
Ireland
37
Spice, Amphetamine type, Ecstasy type
Netherlands
27
Spice, Amphetamine type, Ecstasy type
New Zealand
2
Spice, Ecstasy type
Poland
2
Amphetamine type
Portugal
1
Amphetamine type
USA
36
Spice
Vanuata
1
Spice

11. The online promotion of ‘drug
shopping’ and user information
networks is of increasing drug policy,
public health and law enforcement
concern.
The shift toward widespread global
availability of all drugs is evident in
the recent online presence of drug
marketplaces such as ‘Silk Road’;
‘Black Market Reloaded’, ‘Atlantis’ ,
‘Sheep.’
The ‘Deep Web’ has secure and
confidential communication lines by
encryption of computer IP addresses
using Tor anonymising software or
web proxy to the Tor network
(http://tor2web.org ).

12. Silk Road Market Place

13. Silk Road Users
Runa A. Sandvik

14. Silk Road’, the virtual drug marketplace: A single case study of user
experiences Van Hout & Bingham (2013)
 Online researching of drug outcomes, particularly for new
psychoactive substances was reported.
 Relationships between vendors and consumers were
described as based on cyber levels of trust and
professionalism, and supported by ‘stealth modes’, user
feedback and resolution modes.
 The reality of his drug use was described as covert and
solitary with psychonautic characteristics, which contrasted
with his membership, participation and feelings of safety
within the ‘Silk Road’ community. (parallel life).

15. Surfing the Silk Road’: A study of users’ experiences.
Van Hout & Bingham (2013)
 Few reported prior experience of online drug sourcing. Reasons for
utilizing ‘Silk Road‟ included curiosity, concerns for street drug quality
and personal safety, variety of products, anonymous
transactioning, and ease of product delivery.
 Vendor selection appeared based on trust, speed of
transaction, stealth modes and quality of product. Forums on the site
provided user advice, trip reports, product and transaction reviews.
Some users reported solitary drug use for psychonautic and
introspective purposes.
 Minority reported customs seizures, and in general a displacement
away from traditional drug sourcing (street and closed markets) was
described. Several reported intentions to commence vending on the
site.

16. Responsible Vendors, Intelligent Consumers: Silk Road, the online
revolution in drug trading Van Hout & Bingham (2013)
 Vendors described themselves as 'intelligent and responsible'
consumers of drugs. Decisions to commence vending operations on
the site centred on simplicity in setting up vendor accounts, and
opportunity to operate within a low risk, high traffic, high markup, secure and anonymous Deep Web infrastructure.
 The embedded online culture of harm reduction ethos appealed to
them in terms of the responsible vending and use of personally tested
high quality products. The professional approach to running their Silk
Road businesses and dedication to providing a quality service was
characterised by professional advertising of quality
products, professional communication and visibility on forum pages,
 speedy dispatch of slightly overweight products, competitive
pricing, good stealth techniques and efforts to avoid customer
disputes.
 Vendors appeared content with a fairly constant buyer demand and
described a relatively competitive market between small and big time
market players.
 Concerns were evident with regard to Bitcoin instability.

17. Market Places now closed
Black Market Reloaded
Atlantis

18. Utopia Market place seized
Users had claimed that the site loaded
much more quickly than Silk Road and
with the added factor that the site didn’t
have the same CAPTCHA login that Silk
Road had .being backed up by the former
BMR admin backopy is suppose to become
the biggest competition for Silk Road 2.0

19. 11/02/14 the site was seized by
the Dutch Police.
After Utopia was seized , a moderator of the Silk Road forums posted a message
saying that
Utopia’s seizure “is a serious blow to the darkweb marketplace community.” The
Moderator called on users of the hidden market places to “regroup, and do it
again.”
“Show them that you, we, are a hydra — cut off one head and ten more spring up,”

20. Market Places
An i2p based marketplace
One of the new markets
A Thriving Russian marketplace
Requires a referral link to register both as
buyer and as vendor
Its Quickly growing

21. The environment is changing
Bitcoin Turmoil After Mt Gox Exchange 'Theft‘
 Reports 6% of Bitcoins in circulation, worth roughly $375m
(£225m), have been stolen.
 Mt Gox exchange has reportedly suffered a cyber attack, with an
apparent internal document suggesting more than 740,000
Bitcoins are missing from the exchange.
Silk Road 2.0
has pledged to pay back more than £1.7 million worth of bitcoins
stolen from its servers during a heist last week.

22. Contact information
 Tim Bingham
 Email info@timbingham.ie
 www.timbingham.ie