A socio-technical framework for online drug markets

Illicit drug markets are mega global markets with an estimated annual turnover of around half a trillion euros, yet they mostly remain invisible. While governments around the world spend approximately 100 billion euros each year to fight them, these markets are growing faster than the global economy. This research project starts from the assumption that part of the problem lies in how these markets have traditionally been viewed and understood. At the same time, they are undergoing profound transformation: digital technologies, online platforms and increasingly also artificial intelligence (AI) have fundamentally reshaped the drug trade. Buyers and sellers now connect directly through advanced technologies and specialised online platforms, overcoming even great geographical distances. Established assumptions and data are no longer sufficient to understand these digital drug markets or to address them appropriately. The aim of this project is to investigate how exactly digital technologies are reorganising these markets and how this in turn influences social trading relationships. To this end, an innovative research approach is being developed that combines economic, technological and social perspectives. At its core is the concept of socio-technical embeddedness: markets are shaped not only by people but also by the technologies they employ. Using methods such as online ethnographic observation of these ecosystems, interviews with market actors, and visual analyses of online representations, the research will explore how the organisation of digital drug platforms both differs from and resembles regular digital marketplaces. Particular attention is paid to the role of technologies such as encryption, algorithms, and AI. This innovative project will, for the first time, integrate insights from economic sociology and science and technology studies to gain a deeper understanding of how digital technologies shape not only the trade itself but also the social relationships within these markets. The findings will be relevant to academia and research, as well as to policymakers, public health professionals, and law enforcement agencies. Moreover, the project will contribute to finding new answers to the question of how societies can respond to the challenges posed by these growing digital drug markets.