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This paper outlines how, in many ways, the drug market is not what it is commonly assumed to be and that, as such, we need to reconceptualise how we understand both the drug market and the drug dealer. It briefly reviews the research showing that many of the core activities thought to characterise drug markets and drug dealing are unreasonably exaggerated or even essentially fallacious. It then seeks to demonstrate that the drug market doesn't even look the way it is assumed to look, in terms of its shape, structure and personnel. The issue of social supply is held up as an example of how unhelpful the current view is, particularly around cannabis and young people, and as evidence that the ‘house of cards’ that is the current conceptualisation of the drug market and the drug dealer needs reappraisal along with policy that is currently insufficiently nuanced to respond appropriately.

This chapter explores the disruptive potential of the Internet to transform illicit drug markets while also challenging stereotypical depictions and superficial understandings of supply and demand. It argues that the digital transformation of illicit drug markets combines, on one hand, a reconfiguration of the scope and impact of how sellers, buyers, and other actors interact within and upon digitally mediated retail drug markets and, on the other hand, continuing trends in the embeddedness of market structures in cultural, economic, political, and legal realms. We develop conceptual ideas for studying the architecture of digital drug markets by drawing on interdisciplinary approaches to digitalisation, markets, and drugs. To understand the functioning of online drug markets, we first need to understand digitalisation. Thus, we draw on scholarship on the digital transformation of society and, second, put forward an understanding of markets that considers how personal relations and social structures enhance and restrict market exchange. Thus, we draw on economic sociology. Third, we build on and extend social science research on illicit drug markets which points out that drug markets exhibit significant variations over time and across jurisdictions. The introduction aims to provide a research agenda that can help us to explore ongoing digital transformations of illicit drug markets. It expands and deepens scholarship on the technological, structural, economic, and cultural factors underlying the resilience and growth of digital drug markets. It also goes beyond a concern with just one type of digital drug market into wider forms of digital environments.

Cryptomarkets have expanded rapidly since the launch of Silk Road in 2011, offering a significant new mode for the sale and distribution of illicit drugs. One of the key questions accompanying the proliferation of cryptomarkets and online drug distribution concerns how these unique online fora alter relationships between drug suppliers and their customers. Existing research points to an increase in perceptions of safety and respect among people who use cryptomarkets to purchase drugs relative to other ‘offline’ modes of drug acquisition. There is a growing body of evidence that suggests that drug suppliers are also attracted to cryptomarkets by perceptions of increased safety, as well as by market norms and institutional processes that are characterised by respect and courteous engagement. These issues fall broadly under what has been termed market ‘gentrification’ – that is, the substitution of offline drug market norms, which are sometimes characterised by violence, intimidation, suspicion, and exploitation, with relative feelings of safety, respect, and courtesy. This chapter explores the ‘gentrification hypothesis’ and examines how the unique structural characteristics of cryptomarkets, which include user feedback and ratings, dispute resolution systems, and administrator and community ‘policing’ of cryptomarkets, as well as online discussion forums, assist in fostering the development of pro-social norms that appear to be prevalent on cryptomarkets.

Internet use has changed the mechanics of drug dealing. Although this has spurred some initial academic interest in how markets and their users have been changing, the issue is still under-researched. The purpose of this paper is to understand how the organisation of the distribution of prescription drugs and other illegal drugs overlap in these online markets by analysing data gathered from observation of the Swedish Facebook drug market and its participants.

Data were gathered during three months of digital ethnography conducted among Swedish Facebook posters supplemented by 25 interviews with sellers (20) and buyers (5). Screenshots and interview data were coded by carrying out an NVivo-based content analysis. The analysis is based on descriptive statistics of drug types, co-occurrence with other drugs, group size and the demographic characteristics of sellers. Additionally, the interviewees’ descriptions of the marketplace and their drug dealing or buying activities were included in the analysis.

In total, 57 Swedish Facebook groups that sold illegal substances were located. The groups rarely specialised in specific drug types, but were convened around demographic factors, such as specific cities and locales. The sales of prescription drugs were part of the overall activity of groups selling other illegal drugs, but they were more often sold in separate Facebook posts, possibly by specialist sellers. Swedish Facebook sales primarily concerned alprazolam, tramadol, pregabalin and clonazepam, and were sold by both professional and amateur sellers.

This study reports findings from a Nordic comparative study on social media drug dealing, representing the first in-depth study of digitally mediated prescription drug dealing outside of cryptomarkets.

Consumer research and marketing rarely examine illegal forms of economic life despite the fact that market terminology is often (and increasingly) applied to describe the exchange relations in illicit markets like prostitution and drug consumption. Represents an attempt to use a consumer research perspective to explore the youth consumption of illicit recreational drugs. The findings show that the illicit structure of the market for recreational drugs has a direct effect on the consumer decision‐making process in terms of expectations, risk judgments and source credibility. The findings highlight the importance of social networks and implicit exchange relations in the market for recreation drugs. The paper concludes that there is value in a drawing on a consumer research approach to examine illicit marketing contexts.

The purpose of the study is to review The False Claims Act (FCA) settlements and challenges facing the industry to suggest the motivation behind firms’ alleged fraudulent activity. FCA has been applied against pharmaceutical companies by the US Government to combat marketing fraud including kickbacks, improper pricing and off-label promotion. The interests of the US Government and medical professionals are also considered. Changes to the law governing pharmaceutical marketing practices are recommended.

Cases settled under the FCA between 2005 and 2012 were identified by accessing the US Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS) Corporate Integrity Agreements Web site and annual reports and the quitamhelp.com Web site. Case details were collected from US Department of Justice press releases, DHHS annual reports, and case documents in the Public Access to Court Electronic Records database.

Of the settled cases in the final sample, improper pricing practices were evident in 33 per cent of the cases; off-label promotion in 52 per cent; and both in 15 per cent of the cases. Forty-eight per cent of the alleged fraudulent marketing activity occurred within the brands’ first year and 68 per cent within the first two years on the market. Reported settlements ranged from US$4 million to US$4.3 billion.

This research simultaneously considers business issues facing the pharmaceutical industry and alleged fraudulent marketing activity to recommend changes to the law governing drug promotion. Changes have the potential to improve the balance between the respective interests of industry, medicine and government and to improve compliance and patient care in the future.

This paper aims to explore the influence of marketing investment on drug diffusion processes, to analyze the heterogeneity of the diffusion characteristics and to understand the drug diffusion patterns in the prescription and over-the-counter (OTC) markets.

The study introduces marketing investment into the Bass model. The authors use the Generalized Bass Model (GBM) to examine the influence of marketing efforts on drug diffusion in Chinese prescription and OTC markets.

The results of this study suggest that the imitation effect in the prescription drug market is greater than that in the OTC drug market; drug diffusion in the OTC market reaches saturation earlier in the diffusion process. Before reaching the critical state, the effect of marketing investment on drug diffusion in the OTC market is greater than that in the prescription market, and after the critical state, drug diffusion in the prescription market is more sensitive to marketing investment.

The study demonstrates the value of the GBM in empirical analyses of drug diffusion across two distinct markets, and the marketing regulation policies governments adopt have a powerful impact on the speed at which drugs become available in different markets. It enriches the extant product diffusion literature by highlighting the different diffusion patterns of the two segments of pharmaceutical market.

To expand understandings of conflict, this chapter offers a detailed assessment of how exchange is enacted within local heroin markets. Addressing drug dealing and heroin users’ buying drugs for their peers (i.e., brokering), this research expands how illegal drug markets are commonly understood. A generalized framework is presented that highlights patterns of exchange.

Findings come from a 36-month study of a demographically diverse sample of 38 heroin users in Cleveland, OH. Methods involved open-ended, semi-structured interviewing and participant observation, conducted by the author and a team of graduate students.

Instead of framing exchange as either an economic or social act, this chapter shows how trade in heroin markets is often both. Here Gudeman’s (2001) dialectic between market and community is embodied in inter-subjectivities of traders, promoting both trust and conflict. In this context, conflict is the result of perpetual ambiguity all market participants can experience.

Applying a blended notion of exchange as both social and economic offers new insight on conflict and expands its orientation beyond narratives of political economy. Here, in addition to the economics that often promote conflict, the social elements of exchange (e.g., reciprocity) are emphasized.

Research has understood conflicts in drug market operations through trader characteristics (e.g., poverty, race, class, privilege). This chapter emphasizes opportunities for conflict irrespective of individualized characteristics by outlining structural elements of exchange.

Newly marketed drugs present unavoidable risks, no matter how diligent the level of pre-market review. Numerous adverse drug events attest to the need for post-market vigilance. However, the Food and Drug Administration monitors drugs with considerably less rigor after launch than before. This burdens both public health and public trust in the safety of new medicines. As new technologies such as genomics guide a larger share of drug development, the issue will become more acute. Most reform proposals present considerable logistical challenges. A promising alternative is to harness existing managed care databases to search for drug effects.