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Drug Cryptomarkets in the 2020s:Policy, Enforcement, Harm, and Resilience

This GDPO Policy Brief is intended to inform policy-makers, practitioners, and other actors of the latest developments – and likely future direction – of Drug Cryptomarkets (DCM). It draws together several complementary active research strands to provide a timely trend ...

Published onJun 06, 2021
Drug Cryptomarkets in the 2020s:Policy, Enforcement, Harm, and Resilience
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Drug Cryptomarkets in the 2020s:Policy, Enforcement, Harm, and Resilience
Description

This GDPO Policy Brief is intended to inform policy-makers, practitioners, and other actors of the latest developments – and likely future direction – of Drug Cryptomarkets (DCM). It draws together several complementary active research strands to provide a timely trend analysis of the current and future state of the DCM landscape, clarifies the impact of a decade of counter-DCM policy and enforcement strategy on market development, and proposes suggestions for future enforcement strategies and wider policy guidance for the coming decade. We begin by detailing the history of counter-DCM operations to illustrate current and historic methods of enforcement. The brief identifies several likely future market innovations and trends for the coming decade. We then analyse the consequences of takedown on efforts to reduce some of the harms associated with DCM use, exemplified by the experiences of a high-profile drug checking service1 located at the nexus of DCMs and harm reduction efforts. Finally, the brief presents a number of suggestions for policymakers and enforcement practitioners. These include improving formal policy guidance to inform an adapted enforcement approach that prioritises targeting only the most injurious of vendors and markets, slowing the rate of innovation attrition, improving enforcement efficacy, and supporting ongoing harm reduction efforts.

 

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