More than one in 10 respondents say they bought drugs via conventional sites and ‘darknet’ sites last year despite closure of most famous Silk Road in 2013

More people started buying drugs online in 2014 than ever before, despite the closure of the Silk Road website the previous year, according to new research.



Silk Road, which was closed down by the FBI in October 2013, was the first major online drugs marketplace. Following the conviction of its creator, Ross Ulbricht, who was sentenced to life imprisonment last month for his role in the site, the FBI claimed that more than 100,000 people had used Silk Road and described it as “the most sophisticated and extensive criminal marketplace on the internet”.

But the results of the Global Drug Survey 2015, an online survey that attracted more than 100,000 responses from individuals around the world about their drug use, suggests that the site’s closure has failed to stem an increase in the number of people buying drugs online.

More than 11,750 respondents said they had purchased drugs online, both on conventional websites and on “darknet” sites like Silk Road that require encryption software to access. A quarter of those people said they first did so in 2014, more than any previous year.

Other research has indicated that the darknet drug economy is expanding. Last year, BBC News reported that the number of darknet listings had doubled in the 10 months following the Silk Road’s collapse, and the UN World Drug Report 2014, published around the same time, observed that “the variety [of drugs] available and purchased on the darknet appears to be diverse and growing”.



The 2015 survey results also shed light on what advantages darknet markets are considered to have over other drug sources. Respondents were asked to report problems they had experienced with darknet markets, and then to report problems they had experienced with the alternative sources of drugs they would turn if they could no longer access those sites.

The responses indicate users found the darknet to be cheaper, more reliable and safer than their alternative sources. Three-quarters of respondents reported being overcharged by their alternative source, compared with 38% reporting the same problem with the darknet. Almost three in four (74%) reported being sold a low quality product by their alternative source, while only 27% said they had the same problem on the darknet.

Violence and threats were also more likely outside of darknet marketplaces, with 7% saying they had experienced physical violence buying from their alternative source, compared with 1% on the darknet. Almost one in five (18%) said they had received threats as a result of trying to buy drugs from their alternative source, compared with 3% using the darknet.

But a number of darknet users reported losing money: 28% said they had lost money as a result of theft, seizure of drugs by authorities or exit scams, in which site administrators vanish along with any money being held in escrow on their sites. In March the administrators of Evolution Marketplace disappeared with the equivalent of more than $12m (£8m).

Others reported falling victim to the notorious volatility of the cryptographic currencies such as Bitcoin that many darknet sites use. Just under a third (31%) of those who had used darknet markets within the last 12 months reported doing so.

The survey also makes a number of findings about how people are using new psychoactive substances, or so-called “legal highs”. One of the most striking findings is the marked increase in the number of people who are concerned about their recreational use of nitrous oxide, better known as laughing gas.

Commonly used as a dental anaesthetic and also as a preservative in whipped cream cannisters, nitrous oxide produces a euphoric effect when inhaled. It is currently legal in the UK, though would be banned under a government proposed bill.

Drugscience, a charity founded by Prof David Nutt, a former chair of the Advisory Committee on the Misuse of Drugs, describes nitrous oxide as as “one of the least risky drugs” provided the user “is in good health, understands the risks and avoids dangerous methods”.

A small number of people reported lasting side effects consistent with heavy use, including continued numbness in their hands and feet or around their mouths for up to two weeks after use.

In response to questions on what motivated people to give up drugs, 55% of smokers and 37% of drinkers said they had become concerned about the effects on their health. By contrast only 19% of cocaine and MDMA users, and 16% of cannabis users reported the same motivations.

People who stopped using illicit drugs tended to give responses suggesting they had grown out of using them: 38% of cannabis and cocaine users; and 42% of MDMA users said they made no conscious decision to stop and that “it just happened”. Common responses included “I do not like the effects anymore” and “using it doesn’t fit with my lifestyle anymore”.

Almost no respondents cited police intervention as a motivating factor in stopping. Less than 1% of respondents said they had rethought their behaviour after being caught by the police, and worries about getting caught were cited by only 3% of those who stopped taking cannabis and 2% of those who stopped using cocaine or MDMA.