the cost vs purity of drugs on the dark web : marijuana vs cocaine vs weed

The Cost of Hard Drugs including illegal drugs, prescription drugs, and Non Drugs on the web according to Economist data

Online Drug buying marketplaces are thriving on the dark web.Online Drug Sellers are competing on price and quality and have started giving the local drug cartels a hard time.hard drugs Turnover has risen from an estimated $15m-17m in 2012 to $150m-180m in 2015. And the share of American drug-takers who have got high with the help of a website jumped from 8% in 2014 to 15% this year, according to the global drug survey.In the past two years, those who bought drugs from dark net markets increased from nearly eight percent to 15% according to the Global Drug Survey. 

While most people are still buying from street dealers, the global trend toward online cryptomarkets have started to worry the established drug cartels.

According to recent economist data, on buying hard drugs over the deep web,Cannabis accounted for 38,000 sales out of 360,000 purchases on the dark web.However MDMA /Ecstacy was also popular (with the highest sales by value).Above all prescription drugs like oxycodone and diazepam MDMA (ecstasy) sold the most by value (see graphic). Marijuana followed by cocaine was the most popular product on the deep web.

Almost all sales are via “cryptomarkets”where dark websites that act as shop-fronts.These provide an escrow service, holding payments until customers agree to the bitcoin being released. Feedback systems like those on legitimate sites such as Amazon and eBay allow buyers to rate their purchases and to leave comments, helping other customers to choose a trustworthy suppliers

The cost of one ounce of weed on the dark web

The administrators take a 5-10% cut of each sale and set broad policy (for example, like to whether to allow the sale of guns).  They pay moderators in bitcoin to run customer forums and handle complaints.

Online Drugs bought from the deep web are comparatively pricey.Even though buyers can browse for a bargain, in most countries a gram of heroin costs roughly twice as much online as on the street. The markup for cocaine is around 40% .However this increase of price has 2 reasons.1) The cost takes into account the cost of getting caught and the consequent litigation and consequences and and 2 ) the purity of the drug, which is much higher than your friendly neighborhood guy who sells you weed. A study by energy control puts the average purity level for cocaine, from deep web was of 71.6%, compared with 48% for cocaine bought on Spanish streets.Over half of the dark-web samples contained nothing but cocaine, compared with just 14% of those bought offline. 

Once a deal is struck and payment is waiting in escrow, drugs are packed in a vacuum-sealed bag using latex gloves to avoid leaving fingerprints or traces of DNA, and dipped in bleach as a further precaution against leaving forensic traces.