Researchers examining the ways illicit drugs are bought and sold through the internet have discovered a sharp rise in the number of people using the online market place to sell Australians cannabis and ecstasy.

The study, by the National Drug and Alcohol Research Centre, is the first to monitor sellers of illicit drugs to Australians. It found that while the internet does not yet compare to the backstreets as a place to get drugs, the amount of online sellers – both domestic and international – is increasing.

From August 2012 to February 2013 researchers reported a 32 per cent jump in the number of sellers using the Silk Road marketplace – a marketplace much like eBay where transactions are encrypted, anonymous and made using the online currency Bitcoin – to sell cannabis, ecstasy and MDMA. They found the number of sellers, mainly international, rose by 92 to 374. Domestic retailers had increased by about 22 per cent, to 44, by February.

Researchers also found that retailers were using what they termed as the “surface web” to sell emerging psychoactive substances. These substances, which can be found for sale through search engines like Google, are often marketed as ‘legal highs’ when

via Online Cannabis, Ecstasy Sales Booming: Silk Road, Drugs, Internet.