Titre
Combining Internet Monitoring Processes, Packaging and Isotopic Analyses to Determine The Market Structure: Example of Gamma Butyrolactone
Type
article
Institution
UNIL/CHUV/Unisanté + institutions partenaires
Périodique
Auteur(s)
Pazos, D.
Auteure/Auteur
Giannasi, P.
Auteure/Auteur
Rossy, Q.
Auteure/Auteur
Esseiva, P.
Auteure/Auteur
Liens vers les personnes
Liens vers les unités
ISSN
1872-6283
Statut éditorial
Publié
Date de publication
2013-07
Volume
230
Numéro
1-3
Première page
29
Dernière page/numéro d’article
36
Peer-reviewed
Oui
Langue
anglais
Résumé
The Internet is becoming more and more popular among drug users. The use of websites and forums to obtain illicit drugs and relevant information about the means of consumption is a growing phenomenon mainly for new synthetic drugs. Gamma Butyrolactone (GBL), a chemical precursor of Gamma Hydroxy Butyric acid (GHB), is used as a "club drug" and also in drug facilitated sexual assaults. Its market takes place mainly on the Internet through online websites but the structure of the market remains unknown. This research aims to combine digital, physical and chemical information to help understand the distribution routes and the structure of the GBL market. Based on an Internet monitoring process, thirty-nine websites selling GBL, mainly in the Netherlands, were detected between January 2010 and December 2011. Seventeen websites were categorized into six groups based on digital traces (e.g. IP addresses and contact information). In parallel, twenty-five bulk GBL specimens were purchased from sixteen websites for packaging comparisons and carbon isotopic measurements. Packaging information showed a high correlation with digital data confirming the links previously established whereas chemical information revealed undetected links and provided complementary information. Indeed, while digital and packaging data give relevant information about the retailers, the supply routes and the distribution close to the consumer, the carbon isotopic data provides upstream information about the production level and in particular the synthesis pathways and the chemical precursors. A three-level structured market has been thereby identified with a production level mainly located in China and in Germany, an online distribution level mainly hosted in the Netherlands and the customers who order on the Internet.
PID Serval
serval:BIB_F3637A46773C
Open Access
Oui
Date de création
2013-02-23T09:42:42.180Z
Date de création dans IRIS
2025-05-21T06:15:34Z
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Nom
BIB_F3637A46773C.P001.pdf
Version du manuscrit
published
Taille
257.63 KB
Format
Adobe PDF
PID Serval
serval:BIB_F3637A46773C.P001
URN
urn:nbn:ch:serval-BIB_F3637A46773C4
Somme de contrôle
(MD5):410afb694b36cf08e63afcdeb6b9a1ae