Changes in Online Psychoactive Substance Trade via Telegram during the COVID-19 Pandemic.
Matthijs Blankers, Daan van der Gouwe, Lavinia Stegemann, Laura Smit-Rigter
European addiction research January 1, 2021 DOI: 10.1159/000516853 via PubMed
Summary
AI-generated from the abstractDuring the COVID-19 pandemic, online trade in psychoactive substances via Telegram in the Netherlands shifted: stimulant-related posts (ecstasy, cocaine, amphetamine) decreased during the spring 2020 lockdown, while posts about psychedelics (ketamine, LSD, 2C-B) and other substances increased and remained higher afterward. Of 70,226 posts in two Telegram groups from December 2019 to June 2020, 5,643 were substance-related, and only 6.3% were requests, indicating a sellers' market.
Study at a glance
| Characteristics | Observational study Peer reviewed |
|---|---|
| Sample size | 70,226 |
| Population | Posts in two Dutch Telegram groups |
| Duration | December 2, 2019, to June 29, 2020 |
| Keywords | Online drug monitoring Telegram Digital drug sales Illicit online commerce Darknet markets |
| Citations | 21 |
| Key finding | During the COVID-19 lockdown in the Netherlands, the proportion of Telegram posts about stimulants decreased while posts about psychedelics increased, suggesting the pandemic affected online drug trade differently by substance class. |
Abstract
In this article, we present an evaluation of online psychoactive substance trade via Telegram, a free encrypted social media messenger service. The evaluation took place during the COVID-19 pandemic, which allowed us to monitor the effects of the spring 2020 lockdown in the Netherlands on substance trade via Telegram. The objective of this study was to evaluate whether changes in psychoactive substance trade on Telegram markets in the Netherlands can be observed during the COVID-19 pandemic. Between December 2, 2019, and June 29, 2020, a total of 70,226 posts appeared in two analyzed Telegram groups. A total of 5,643 posts were psychoactive substance related. Based on the analyzed posts, Telegram is mostly a '"sellers" market as only a minority of the posts (6.3%) could be identified as a request for a substance. The proportion of posts related to specific substances varied between the periods before, during, and after the lockdown. The proportion of posts on the stimulants ecstasy, cocaine, and amphetamine was lower during the lockdown than before and after. For psychedelics - ketamine, lysergic acid diethylamide (LSD), and 2,5-dimethoxy-4-bromophenethylamine (2C-B) - and other substances, there was a relative increase in the number of posts during the lockdown, which was maintained after the lockdown. Telegram analysis shows that in the Netherlands, online psychoactive substance trade may have been affected during the COVID-19 pandemic. The direction of this effect was different for different classes of substances.