COVID-19 Lockdown Sparks Boom for Marijuana Dealers on the Darknet
According to a report published earlier this month by the European Monitoring Centre for Drugs and Drug Addiction (EMCDDA), the prolonged lockdowns across European Union countries due to the ongoing coronavirus threat have led to a regional business boom for underground marijuana dealers operating online—specifically, on darknet sites that are not indexed by standard browsers.
The report notes that in the United States and Canada, where there are regional and national systems for distributing legal therapeutic and recreational marijuana, the lockdown period that began earlier this year also saw a significant uptick in underground dealer activity. However, the situation in these countries was less severe than in Europe, as most of the demand was still met by legal businesses that remained open. In Europe, the cannabis boom during quarantine was almost entirely confined to the underground market, since the region still lacks open, retail systems for legal marijuana sales that could effectively meet the increased demand for cannabis and related products during the pandemic.
Darknet Market Activity Surges
To illustrate the growth in activity on virtual darknet cannabis markets, the report cites sales statistics recorded by regional law enforcement on the largest such platforms. The total number of marijuana-related transactions on the three most popular markets—Versus, Cannazon, and Agartha—increased from 11,036 at the end of January to 14,829 at the end of March, representing a 29.5% rise in darknet market activity in just two months.
While some sellers continued to operate and promote their businesses as usual, others held “flash sales,” capitalizing on public fear of the virus and stricter lockdown measures to move larger quantities of product to potential buyers.
Panic Buying and Stockpiling
Theodora Groshkova, a senior analyst at EMCDDA, points out that, as in countries with legal marijuana markets, the surge in darknet cannabis sales can be explained by “panic buying” and people’s desire to stock up in case the public health situation worsened.
“Undoubtedly, the constant stream of news about rising infection rates and new virus symptoms prompted many buyers to purchase larger quantities of marijuana and related products, which they could gradually consume over several weeks or even months,” Groshkova said in an interview with WIRED. “Additionally, strict restrictions on movement and the closure of public spaces eliminated the option of buying from street dealers, which benefited online marketplaces.”
Complex Market Dynamics
At the same time, the report’s authors note that the phenomenon may be more complex than it appears. For example, while February and March saw a steady increase in large cannabis transactions on darknet markets, the average purchase size began to decrease in subsequent months. This could be due to a decline in panic buying, or because initial bulk purchases were made by resellers who then distributed marijuana in smaller portions, either online or by other means.
“By the end of the study period, the size of marijuana lots being sold began to gradually decrease, which could be explained by a shift in focus from wholesale buyers to those purchasing smaller amounts, or by buyers migrating to other, smaller dealer platforms,” Groshkova noted. “It’s hard to say for sure, since we only have data from the beginning of the year and lack information on activity on smaller darknet platforms in the region. Due to technical difficulties, data from another major regional platform, Empire, was not included. Similarly, the study focused only on platforms active in the EU, excluding data from large markets outside the EU, such as Hydra, which operates in Russia and CIS countries.”
Ongoing Monitoring and Future Research
Currently, the organization continues to monitor darknet market activity and hopes to release a new report describing the dynamics of marijuana trade during the spring and summer of 2020. Experts also plan to assess the impact of the pandemic on overall marijuana and other psychoactive substance use in Europe, with a focus on how the pandemic has affected the profits of national illicit drug markets and the activity of rehabilitation and addiction treatment programs.