Use of social media correlates strongly with age and the youngest age groups (those aged 16 to 24) seem to show the strongest inclination towards using social media to purchase drugs, while the use of dark web for drug purchases seems to be more popular among young adults aged 25 to 34, noted the latest United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) World Drug Report 2023.
It adds that the proliferation and ubiquity of social media, coupled with its increasing use for buying and selling drugs, suggest that the availability and accessibility of drugs are also on the increase for people with less access to traditional drug markets.
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“Even though the available data are still not sufficiently robust to arrive at final conclusions, published studies suggest that drug sales via social media have grown markedly and may already be more significant than drug sales via darknet markets on the dark web, notably at the retail level,” said the report.
It notes that sales on the dark web and on social media platforms are, at the same time, strongly interwoven.
“Reports claim that social media platforms are often used in parallel, sometimes in addition to purchases on the dark web. Social media and encrypted messaging apps are often seen as faster, more convenient, and more user-friendly local alternatives for purchasing drugs than the complex and volatile dark-net drug markets,” said the report.
Indian scenario
Speaking about the Indian scenario, Sunny Nehra, founder of Secure Your Hacks, a firm focused on cybersecurity and intel gathering, said: “There are now so many tutorials on the Net teaching youngsters how to access and use darknet malicious marketplaces and forums, especially those dealing in drugs sales, have become rampant. For police agencies, and government bodies concerned, it’s hard to track down, monitor, or shut down such forums which have increased confidence of their users”.
He added that what is worse is the growth of private as well public Facebook groups related to same, and other social media platforms which are far easily accessible to even the young school students. He suggested advanced technical trainings for police agencies and stringent monitoring to curb the problem.
Meanwhile, the report warns that there are a multitude of social media platforms that play a role in the drug-purchasing process — first of all in establishing contacts, then in offering the drugs using photos, while subsequent deals are often concluded on more secure social media apps or closed channels.
