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Date: April 29, 2024 Mon
Time: 10:02 pm
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4 results foundAuthor: Van Buskirk, J. Title: Drugs and the Internet Summary: To date the availability of illicit drugs in Australia has largely been examined through interviews with people who use drugs (e.g. the Ecstasy and related Drugs Reporting System, EDRS); indicators such as drug seizures and arrests; and analyses of hospital admissions and drug-related deaths. Over the past decade there has been an increasing awareness and interest in online marketplaces as a source for discussion about and purchase of drugs (Walsh, 2011). There are now many internet sites selling substances such as prescription opioids, substances marketed as legal highs (e.g. herbal smoking blends) and substances that have been listed as controlled drugs (e.g. emerging psychoactive substance EPS such as mephedrone and synthetic cannabinoids). EPS is a general term used to refer to substances that have similar subjective effects to existing illicit psychoactive substances, and many of these are now listed as controlled drugs (i.e. they are now illicit) in Australia. The advent of the Silk Road in 2011, as an online marketplace, has broadened out the availability of EPS and other more conventional illicit substances (such as cannabis and MDMA). This bulletin is the first in a new Drug Trends series that provides analysis of trends over time in the availability and type of substances sold via the internet to Australia. The current bulletin reports for the time period September 2012 to February 2013. Key findings The number of retailers on the Silk Road increased (from 282 at time 1 to 374 at the last time point), while the number of retailers on the surface web remained relatively stable (92 at time 1 and 101 at the last time point). The increase on the Silk Road is largely driven by international rather than domestic retailers. On the Silk Road, cannabis and EPS were sold by the largest number of retailers consistently across all time points, followed by MDMA (3,4-methylenedioxy-Nmethylamphetamine) and pharmaceuticals (primarily benzodiazepines and sildenafil). The type of EPS available from surface web retailers differed substantially from the EPS available from those selling on the Silk Road. EPS sold on the Silk Road more closely mirrored those most commonly used by EDRS participants (i.e. people who regularly use psychostimulants) including drugs from the 2C-x and NBOMe categories, followed by DMT (dimethyltryptamine), Mephedrone and Methylone. Average prices of methamphetamine, cocaine and ecstasy being sold on the Silk Road remained stable across the time period. Average domestic prices for common quantities of these substances were comparable to prices paid for these same quantities by 2012 EDRS participants. Average international prices for these substances were substantially lower. Details: Sydney: National Drug and Alcohol Research Centre, 2013. 11p. Source: Internet Resource: Issue 1: Accessed March 21, 2014 at: http://ndarc.med.unsw.edu.au/sites/default/files/ndarc/resources/DrugsTheInternet_Newsletter%20FINAL%20with%20ISSN.pdf Year: 2013 Country: Australia URL: http://ndarc.med.unsw.edu.au/sites/default/files/ndarc/resources/DrugsTheInternet_Newsletter%20FINAL%20with%20ISSN.pdf Shelf Number: 104854 Keywords: Drug Abuse and AddictionIllicit DrugsInternetOnline CommunicationsOnline Transactions |
Author: Environmental Investigation Agency (EIA) Title: Blood e-Commerce: Rakuten's profits from the slaughter of elephants and whales Summary: The Rakuten Group, via its wholly owned Japanese subsidiary Rakuten Ichiba (www.rakuten.co.jp), is the world's largest online trader in elephant ivory and whale products. Rakuten Ichiba sells thousands of elephant ivory products, made from the tusks of African elephants that are currently being slaughtered at the rate of up to 50,000 a year in the worst ever poaching crisis. Hundreds of whale products, including endangered fin whale from Iceland and products from the whale and dolphin drive hunts in Taiji featured in the documentary The Cove, are also being sold on Rakuten Ichiba. It is the biggest known online retailer of elephant ivory and cetacean products in the world. The Rakuten Group, through Rakuten Ichiba, is directly responsible for these sales and is therefore directly profiting from the killing of elephants and whales. In recent years, international condemnation of Japan's whale and dolphin hunts, along with concerns about pollution and food safety, have led Japan's leading supermarket chains - AEON, Ito-Yokado, Seiyu and Uny - to prohibit the sale of whale or dolphin products in thousands of stores. Japan's leading seafood companies Maruha, Kyokuyo and Nippon Suisan have all ended the production of canned whale meat and other frozen whale products. Two major online retailers - Amazon and Google - have followed suit, stopping all sales or advertisements of whale, dolphin and ivory though their Japanese e-commerce sites. Rakuten must do the same. In June 2013, a search for 'whale meat' on www.rakuten.co.jp yielded 773 whale products for sale, while the broader term 'whale' generated over 1,200 food products. Many of these originated from baleen whales, namely fin, sei, minke and Bryde's whale, which are all protected species under the moratorium on commercial whaling established by the International Whaling Commission (IWC) since 1986. These species are also afforded the highest level of protection by the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES), which prohibits international trade. Despite this, a number of companies were selling endangered fin whale imported from Iceland. Many products were from toothed cetacean species (known as 'small cetaceans'), namely Baird's beaked whales and pilot whales. A further 14 products were not listed with a species name, contrary to the requirements of Japan's labelling laws. Some of the whale products sold by Rakuten Ichiba are highly polluted with mercury and pose a significant risk to the health of consumers. Scientists have documented mercury levels more than 1,000 times higher than the Government of Japan's safe advisory level in species caught in Japanese coastal waters. Nine whale products were purchased from Rakuten Ichiba in 2013 and tested for mercury. Eight of these exceeded the Japanese national limit for total mercury concentration of 0.4 parts per million (ppm), with one sample of pilot whale meat having a shocking mercury concentration of 9.5 ppm, more than 20 times higher than the Japanese regulatory limit. The average mercury level of the nine products was 4.2 ppm, more than 10 times higher than the regulatory limit. In February 2014, searches for 'ivory' on www.rakuten.co.jp yielded more than 28,000 ads for elephant ivory products, indicating that a significant demand for elephant ivory persists in Japan. Items found include name seals, jewellery, musical instruments, accessories and chopsticks. Over 95 percent of products available were name seals, or 'hankos', used by individuals and companies to sign documents with their signatures engraved into the ivory. Much of Japan's trade in ivory hankos is supported by illegal African elephant ivory - between 2005-10, illegal ivory accounted for up to 87 per cent of the ivory hankos produced in Japan. Japan also has a specific demand for 'hard ivory' from Central Africa's endangered forest elephants and there are many hard ivory products available for sale on Rakuten Ichiba. In response to devastating poaching levels in the 1980s, the international ban on elephant ivory trade went into effect after the 1989 CITES Appendix I listing of African elephants, leading to a dramatic reduction of elephant poaching across much of Africa as ivory prices plummeted. However, the ban was undermined when CITES later approved two international sales of African ivory, first to Japan in 1999 and then to Japan and China in 2008. Existing legal domestic markets in countries such as Japan continue to fuel the demand for ivory. Japan's domestic ivory controls have failed to comply with the requirements of CITES to effectively control the trade in ivory and prevent poached ivory from entering the domestic market. Large numbers of poached ivory tusks have been laundered into Japan's domestic market as a result. Africa's elephants are being rapidly wiped out by poaching to meet the escalating demand for trinkets made from their tusks. By listing ivory products for sale, Rakuten Ichiba is helping to stimulate the market for ivory products in Japan and perpetuate illegal ivory flows and the poaching of elephants. Prominent internet retailers such as Amazon, Google and eBay have banned the sale of elephant ivory on all their controlled sites, including their Japanese sites. The Rakuten Group should follow suit and become part of the solution rather than contributing to the poaching epidemic. As the Rakuten Group directly profits from Rakuten Ichiba's sale of elephant and whale products, it is responsible not only for facilitating the sale of products from endangered and protected species but also for allowing the sale of food products which are highly contaminated with mercury and a health threat to the people consuming them. The Environmental Investigation Agency (EIA) is calling on the Rakuten Group and its global affiliates and subsidiaries, including Rakuten Ichiba, to immediately enact a permanent ban on the sale of all elephant, whale and dolphin products. Details: London: EIA, 2014. 16p. Source: Internet Resource: Accessed June 4, 2014 at http://www.eia-international.org/wp-content/uploads/Blood-e-Commerce-FINAL.pdf Year: 2014 Country: International URL: http://www.eia-international.org/wp-content/uploads/Blood-e-Commerce-FINAL.pdf Shelf Number: 132409 Keywords: Animal PoachingElephantsIllegal Ivory TradeOnline CrimeOnline TransactionsWhalesWildlife Crimes |
Author: Christin, Nicolas Title: An EU-focused analysis of drug supply on the AlphaBay marketplace Summary: Online anonymous marketplaces are a relatively recent technological development that enables sellers and buyers to transact online with far stronger anonymity guarantees than on traditional electronic commerce platforms. This has led certain individuals to engage in transactions of illicit or illegal goods. The AlphaBay marketplace, which was in operation between December 2014 and July 2017, reportedly became the leading marketplace during that time. In this report, we present an analysis of sales on AlphaBay, with a focus on drug supply coming from the European Union. Keeping in mind the limitations inherent to such data collection, we found that, for the period and the marketplaces considered: - AlphaBay did become a very large marketplace, with daily sales overall exceeding 600,000 euros at its peak in early 2017. By itself, it grossed at least as much revenue over 2014-2017 as all other marketplaces combined between 2011-2015. - EU-based suppliers represent approximately a quarter of all drug sales; this is down from 46% for marketplaces previously studied in the 2011-2015 interval. - EU-originating drugs primarily came from Germany, the Netherlands, and the United Kingdom. - Cannabis, cocaine and other stimulants altogether represented a majority of all EU-based drug sales. - Supply of New Psychoactive Substances (NPS) remained very modest with revenues below EUR 2,500 per day at market peak. - Marketplace vendors primarily catered in the retail space, but there was evidence of larger (bulk-level) sales. Volume-based discounting tended to occur, albeit at relatively modest levels. - Half of the vendors specialized in one type of drug; and half of the drug sellers tended to stick to a given weight echelon. - Save for the decreasing share of European sales, most of the trends observed in this report confirm what we had previously found for other marketplaces in the 2011-2015 interval. In other words, the ecosystem, as a whole, appears relatively stable over time. Details: Lisbon: European Monitoring Centre for Drugs and Drug Addiction (EMCDDA), 2017. 34p. Source: Internet Resource: Accessed April 16, 2018 at: http://www.emcdda.europa.eu/system/files/attachments/6622/AlphaBay-final-paper.pdf Year: 2017 Country: Europe URL: http://www.emcdda.europa.eu/system/files/attachments/6622/AlphaBay-final-paper.pdf Shelf Number: 149803 Keywords: Black Markets Computer Crime CybercrimeDarknetDrug MarketsElectronic Commerce Online Transactions |
Author: Christin, Nicolas Title: An EU-focused analysis of drug supply on the online anonymous marketplace ecosystem Summary: Online anonymous marketplaces are a relatively recent technological development that enables sellers and buyers to transact online with far stronger anonymity guarantees than on traditional electronic commerce platforms. This has led certain individuals to engage in transactions of illicit or illegal goods. This reports presents an analysis of the online anonymous marketplace data collected by Soska and Christin [13] over late 2011-early 2015. In this report, we focus on drug supply coming from the European Union. Keeping in mind the limitations inherent to such data collection, we found that, for the period and the marketplaces considered: EU-based suppliers represented a significant share of all drug revenue-approximately 46% of all drug sales. EU-originating drugs primarily came from Germany, the Netherlands, and the United Kingdom. Cocaine and other stimulants altogether represented a majority of all EU-based drug sales. Supply of New Psychoactive Substances (NPS) was heavily concentrated in the United Kingdom, and remained very modest with revenues in the order of EUR 3,000 per day at market peak. Marketplace vendors primarily catered in the retail space, but there was evidence of larger (bulk-level) sales. Volume-based discounting tended to occur, albeit at relatively modest levels. Half of the vendors specialized in one type of drug; and half of the drug sellers tended to stick to a given weight echelon. Details: Lisbon: European Monitoring Centre for Drugs and Drug Addiction (EMCDDA), 2017. 25p. Source: Internet Resource: Accessed April 16, 2018 at: http://www.emcdda.europa.eu/system/files/attachments/6624/EU-focused-analysis-of-drug-supply-on-the-anomymous-online-marketplace.pdf Year: 2017 Country: Europe URL: http://www.emcdda.europa.eu/system/files/attachments/6624/EU-focused-analysis-of-drug-supply-on-the-anomymous-online-marketplace.pdf Shelf Number: 149804 Keywords: Black Markets Computer Crime Cybercrime Darknet Drug Markets Electronic Commerce Online Transactions |