Conference on Prevention of the Illicit Drug Trade on the Internet

The main objective of this Conference is to discuss further enhancement of law-enforcement activities, to provide an opportunity to share information, best practices, and lessons learned in order to improve the role of the OSCE participating States in the strengthening of prevention mechanisms against illicit drug supply with the use of modern technologies and communication systems.

The participants, including representatives of law-enforcement agencies, will also exchange information on the new trends in illicit drugs supply and new methods of forensic computer investigations, and will also have an opportunity to build stronger international and regional co-operation to combat the illicit drugs trade on the Internet.

Summary

The growth of the Internet has led to the distribution of data to a much more diverse audience. According to current statistics, there are over 2.7 billion people using the Internet in 2013, which corresponds to 39% of the world’s population.

Despite the many positive aspects of the Internet, there are some associated negative issues. One of these is the illicit drug trade. The recent 2013 joint Report of the European Monitoring Centre for Drugs and Drug Addiction (EMCDDA) and Europol highlighted that the Internet is becoming of growing importance for drug traffickers to conduct their business. The Internet is emerging as an online marketplace for drugs and contributing to the rapid global diffusion of new trends by facilitating communication and providing access to knowledge, expertise and logistics in illicit production, usage or trafficking of narcotics. The Internet has facilitated the development of a new market for unregulated psychoactive substances.