NPS in Silk Road

1. THE IMPORTANCE OF NEW PSYCHOACTIVE
SUBSTANCES (NPS) IN ONLINE DRUG MARKETS:
DATA FROM SILK ROAD 2.0
DR. FERNANDO CAUDEVILLA
ENERGY CONTROL (ABD)

15. • The original Silk Road Marketplace operated between January 2011 and October 2013
• Original site was shut down by FBI in October 2013
• According to FBI, the site generated revenue sales over 9.5 million BTC (3.000 million EUR) (1)
• Actually, there are 21 active operative on-line drug markets using SR system (2)
• Silk Road re-opened in 21 November 2013 and it is still the most popular market
(1) https://www.cs.columbia.edu/~smb/UlbrichtCriminalComplaint.pdf
(2) Busted but not broken. The state of Silk Road and the Darknet Marketplaces. Digital Citizens Alliance.
https://media.gractions.com/314A5A5A9ABBBBC5E3BD824CF47C46EF4B9D3A76/5f8d4168-c36a-4f78-b048-f5d48b18dc0a.pdf

18. WHAT IS THE IMPORTANCE OF NPS IN SILK ROAD?

19. OBJECTIVE
• To obtain data about NPS in Silk Road Marketplace
• Type of substances offered
• Country of origin (sources of the merchandise)
• Estimated volume of sales and demand
• Comparision with traditional drugs

20. MATERIAL AND METHODS
• Data from all the products offered and sales in Silk Road Marketplace 2.0 were collected from Nov.13 to May 13 (1)
• Kind of product
• Name of the vendor
• Country of delivery
• Number of sales
• Price
• Feedback from user
• Analysis was limited to data from psychoactive, illegal drugs
• Legal drugs (alcohol, tobacco), prescription drugs, and other products (art, jewels…) and services (money laundering,
fake credit cards…) were excluded from analysis
(1) “Silk Road statistics” On-line document. Available in: twam2dcppennla6s.onion (Access 10/5/14)

21. “Classical drugs”
• Cannabis (hashish, marijuana, oils, wax, extractions…)
• Classical psychedelics (LSD, Psilocybes, DMT, 2C-B, mescaline…)
• Classical stimulants ( cocaine, amphetamine, methamphetamine…)
• Opioids (heroin, opium, kratom)
• Ecstasy (MDMA, MDA)
• GHB
• Ketamine
NPS
• Synthetic cannabinoids
• JWH, UR, CP, URB,THJ,AKB families
• NPS dissociatives
• Methoxetamine
• PCP derivatives
• NPS-ecstasy related:
• Bk-MDMA (methylone), bk-MBDB (butylone), bk-MDEA (ethylone)
• 5,6-Methylenedioxy-2-aminoindane (MDAI)
• Methiopropamine (MPA)
• NPS psychedelics:
• 2C- phenethylamine family (except 2C-B)
• Synthetic tryptamines: 4-ACO, 5-MEO families…
• Hallucinogenic amphetamines: DOB, DOI, DOC…
• 25-x-NBOMe family
MATERIAL AND METHODS
• NPS stimulants:
• Synthetic cathinones: Mephedrone (4-MMC), 4-MEC…
• Methylenedioxypyrovalerone (MDPV)
• Fluoro amphetamines: 4-FA, 2-FMA, 4-FMA…
• Benzofurans: 5-APB, 6-APB
• A-PVP (α-Pyrrolidinopentiophenone)
• Synthetic opioids:
• AH-7921
• MT-45

23. RESULTS
• We obtained data from 15.836 products offered in Silk Road from Nov 13 to May 14
• We analyzed data from 6653 illegal psychoactive drugs

24. 5197
(78,11%)
1456
(21,8%)
0
1000
2000
3000
4000
5000
6000
CLASSICAL NPS
Number of products offered
NPS
PSYCHEDELICS;
654; 44,9%
NPS
STIMULANTS;
314; 22%
SYNTHETIC
CANNABINOIDS;
235; 16%
NPS ECSTASY
RELATED; 173;
12%
NPS
DISSOCIATIVES;
60; 4%
SYNTHETIC
OPIOIDS; 20; 1%
NPS offered in Silk Road (n:1456)
RESULTS

25. SYNTHETIC
CANNABINOIDS
n NPS
PSYCHEDELICS
n NPS
STIMULANTS
n NPS
ECSTASY
n NPS
DISSOCIATIVES
n SYNTHETIC OPIOIDS n
JWH family 42 Tryptamine
derivatives
39 Cathinone
derivatives
6 Beta-
ketones
3 PCP derivatives 4 MT family 1
AM family 11 2C- family 17 Amphetamine
derivatives
5 Other 4 Ketamine
derivatives
2 AH family 1
HU family 8 DOx family 5 Pyrovalerones 3 Other 1
CP family 5 NBOMe family 2 Benzofurans 3
URB family 4 Other 11 Other 7
PB family 3
AKB family 6
MT family 2
Other 12
TOTAL 81 TOTAL 74 TOTAL 24 TOTAL 7 TOTAL 7 TOTAL 2
• A total of 195 different NPS compounds (1456 items) are offered

26. 2) How many and what kind of drugs are purchased in Silk Road?

27. CLASSICAL DRUGS 13.474.353 EUR
NPS 1.030.920 EUR

29. CLASSICAL DRUGS
N < 200 EUR >200 EUR
STIMULANTS 922 61,4% 38,6%
CANNABIS 1864 79,8% 20,2%
PSYCHEDELICS 836 81,7% 18,3%
ECSTASY 1234 69,5% 30,5%
OPIOIDS 159 85,7% 14,3%
NPS
N <200 EUR >200 EUR
STIMULANTS 313 34,6% 65,4%
CANNABINOIDS 235 14,6% 85,4%
PSYCHEDELICS 654 21,1% 78,9%
ECSTASY RELATED 173 57,1% 42,9%
OPIOIDS 20 5% 95%
Proportion of drugs with cost above and below than 200 EUR

30. NUMBER OF DRUGS CLASSIFIED BY GEOGRAPHICAL ORIGIN (AS REPORTED BY VENDORS)
Etiquetas de fila EUROPE NORTH AMERICA ASIA AUSTRALIA AND NZ AFRICA SOUTH AMERICA UNDECLARED
CLASSICAL
STIMULANTS 488 211 5 122 5 2 88
ECSTASY 823 242 14 91 0 0 63
CANNABIS 978 730 32 44 13 0 66
OPIATES 83 51 2 2 0 0 20
CLASSICAL
PSYCHEDELICS 450 246 10 45 0 0 84
KETAMINE 66 20 17 5 0 0 2
GHB 43 7 0 3 0 0 24
TOTAL CLASSICAL 2931 1507 80 312 18 2 347
SYNTHETIC
CANNABINOIDS 63 20 152 0 0 0 0
NPS DISSOCIATIVES 12 23 22 0 0 0 3
NPS ECSTASY RELATED 39 24 108 0 0 0 2
NPS PSYCHEDELICS 167 155 167 29 0 0 136
NPS STIMULANTS 91 52 147 7 2 0 16
SYNTHETIC OPIOIDS 0 3 17 0 0 0
TOTAL NPS 372 277 613 36 2 0 157

31. • There were 523 vendors registered in Silk Road during the period studied.
• 120 vendors (22,9% ) offered some NPS for sale
• 5 vendors (1%) offered a total of 561 different products (35% of the whole NPS), made a total of 1559
sales (23,41% total NPS sales). 4 of these vendors operated from China

32. TOTAL
PRODUCTS
OFFERED
PRODUCTS
WITH MORE
THAN 50
SALES
%
CLASSICAL 5197 590 11,35%
NPS 1456 28 1,92%
TOTAL
PRODUCTS
OFFERED
PRODUCTS
WITH ZERO
SALES
%
CLASSICAL 5197 647 12,44%
NPS 1456 753 51,17%

33. 1 WEED SHROOMS COCAINE KETAMINE MDMA OPIUM
2 WEED LSD COCAINE METHOXETHAMINE MDMA HEROIN
3 HASH DMT SPEED KETAMINE MDMA OPIUM
4 WEED DMT COCAINE KETAMINE MDMA HEROIN
5 WEED NBOME SPEED KETAMINE MDMA HEROIN
6 WEED LSD COCAINE KETAMINE MDMA OPIUM
7 WEED NBOME COCAINE KETAMINE MDMA HEROIN
8 WEED LSD SPEED KETAMINE MDMA HEROIN
9 WEED LSD COCAINE METHOXETHAMINE MDMA HEROIN
10 CONCENTRATE LSD SPEED KETAMINE MDMA HEROIN
11 HASH LSD COCAINE KETAMINE MDMA HEROIN
12 WEED LSD SPEED KETAMINE MDMA HEROIN
13 WEED NBOME SPEED METHOXETHAMINE MDMA HEROIN
14 WEED LSD SPEED KETAMINE MDMA HEROIN
15 HASH Mescaline SPEED KETAMINE MDMA HEROIN
16 WEED LSD METH KETAMINE MDMA OPIUM
17 HASH LSD COCAINE METHOXETHAMINE MDMA HEROIN
18 SEEDS LSD SPEED KETAMINE MDMA HEROIN
19 OIL LSD SPEED KETAMINE MDMA HEROIN
20 CONCENTRATE LSD SPEED KETAMINE MDMA OPIUM
21 WEED NBOME METH METHOXETHAMINE MDMA HEROIN
22 WEED 2C-B COCAINE METHOXETHAMINE MDMA HEROIN
23 WEED LSD SPEED KETAMINE MDMA HEROIN
24 WEED LSD COCAINE KETAMINE MDMA OPIUM
25 WEED LSD METH KETAMINE MDMA HEROIN
26 WEED LSD COCAINE KETAMINE MDMA HEROIN
27 HASH LSD COCAINE KETAMINE MDMA HEROIN
28 HASH LSD COCAINE KETAMINE MDMA HEROIN
29 WEED 2C-B MEPHEDRONE KETAMINE MDMA HEROIN
30 WEED 2C-I METH KETAMINE MDMA HEROIN
31 WEED DMT SPEED METHOXETHAMINE MDMA HEROIN
32 CONCENTRATE LSD MEPHEDRONE KETAMINE MDMA HEROIN
33 EDIBLE LSD COCAINE KETAMINE MDMA HEROIN
34 CONCENTRATE LSD SPEED KETAMINE MDMA HEROIN
35 WEED 2C-B COCAINE KETAMINE MDMA OPIUM
36 WEED SHROOMS SPEED KETAMINE MDMA HEROIN
37 WEED 2C.B COCAINE KETAMINE MDMA HEROIN
38 WEED LSD METH METHOXETHAMINE MDMA HEROIN
39 EDIBLE DMT COCAINE KETAMINE MDMA HEROIN
40 EDIBLE LSD COCAINE KETAMINE MDMA HEROIN
41 HASH SHROOMS COCAINE KETAMINE MDMA HEROIN
42 HASH DMT SPEED KETAMINE MDMA HEROIN
43 WEED LSD METH KETAMINE MDMA HEROIN
44 HASH LSD SPEED METHOXETHAMINE MDMA OPIUM
45 HASH LSD METH KETAMINE MDMA HEROIN
46 WEED DMT COCAINE KETAMINE MDMA HEROIN
47 EDIBLE NBOME COCAINE KETAMINE MDMA HEROIN
48 CONCENTRATE LSD COCAINE KETAMINE MDMA HEROIN
49 HASH LSD COCAINE METHOXETHAMINE MDMA HEROIN
50 HASH SHROOMS COCAINE KETAMINE MDMA OPIUM
CANNABIS PSYCHEDELICS STIMULANTS DISSOCIATIVES MDMA OPIOIDS

34. 1 SHROOMS 1
2 LSD 1
3 DMT 2
4 DMT 1
5 NBOME 10
6 LSD 5
7 NBOME 100
8 LSD 10
9 LSD 5
10 LSD 1
11 LSD 2
12 LSD 5
13 NBOME 50
14 LSD 1
15 Mescaline 5
16 LSD 1
17 LSD 10
18 LSD 1
19 LSD 1
20 LSD 1
21 NBOME 10
22 2C-B 10
23 LSD 5
24 LSD 10
25 LSD 1
26 LSD 1
27 LSD 1
28 LSD 3
29 2C-B 2
30 2C-I 5
31 DMT 2
32 LSD 5
33 LSD 3
34 LSD 5
35 2C-B 5
36 SHROOMS 3
37 2C.B 10
38 LSD 5
39 DMT 1
40 LSD 25
41 SHROOMS 5
42 DMT 1
43 LSD 10
44 LSD 5
45 LSD 1
46 DMT 10
47 NBOME 100
48 LSD 1
49 LSD 5
50 SHROOMS 5
PSYCHEDELICS DOSAGES

35. DISCUSSION
• On-line drug markets are an emergent tendency that must be followed and monitored
• Internet and on-line markets can provide valuable information about NPS
• It is possible to detect very limited phenomena
• In “free market conditions” drug users choose preferently “classic drugs” than NPS
• Limitations:
• Are data reliable?
• Are data extrapolable to other on-line markets?
• Do NPS users buy drugs in on-line markets?
• Can NPS be used as adulterants to classical drugs?

36. CONCLUSIONS
• NPS are present in Silk Road
• There is a wide offer of NPS available to users, but, in general, they prefer classical drugs.
• Methoxetamine and 25-x-NBOMe seem the most popular substances in their cathegories. Importance
of synthetic cannabinoids seem limited.
• Some NPS are being sold in great amounts, possibly indicating drug traffic instead of personal use
• It is important to pay attention to online drug markets, as emergent tendencies.