Drugs are a great internet commodity as, much like Jeff Bezos’ decision to start Amazon by selling books, they are relatively straightforward to warehouse and distribute, if not to produce. The challenges come in consistently communicating with consumers and ensuring information is reliably passed along the supply chain. Information feedback is limited due to being clandestine. Online and offline information sharing functions best where markets are relatively heterogenous and involve multiple unconnected players, allowing consumers to compare with each other and assess the validity of different quality claims.
Drug users are knowledgeable consumers. They have to be, due to the limits of the market. Therefore, the internet provides an effective knowledge overlay for users own experiences and a check on their expectations. Drug use is mostly still a mutually learnt activity, like most other kinds of intoxication. The internet allows users to extend their knowledge into different fields and adopt new kinds of substance use with greater ease. It does have an effect on how fungible drug use is, and the extent to which users are willing to move from one drug to another.
Knowledge is a contested by everyone involved in the market. There is a continuous discussion about other players’ motives, whether they are honest actors or malicious, and what the effects of particular drugs signify about its qualities.
Cryptomarkets host a knowledge-focused culture. The markets for a range of products. They give users the ability to select specific products that are not available on the street market. This is where one of the positive effects for users is to be found. Users take personal enjoyment in making use of the cryptomarkets. The process of expanding and refining their technical know-how and their knowledge about the different varieties of drug for sale was rewarding for them.
As always I will concede that these tests are not definitive, but they are better than nothing (as was evidenced by yesterday’s fiasco with Suited Vendor) and for those misinformed people who believe that other caine’s will react to this test and appear to be cocaine – giving a false positive, the website addresses this directly:
The EZ Test Cocaine Purity test is very insensitive to the usual cuts such as mannitol and such, but will as a bonus, not react to any other substance from the family of cocaine (lidocaine, procaine,etc.), which are frequently used to fool the poor soul who wants to taste it. These other -caines will only produce a numbing effect (at best) and contribute to really bad hangovers!!
As Energy Control, a harm reduction organising operating on the cryptomarkets point out to users, it is easy for vendors to make supportable but misleading claims. Vendors sometimes send samples to Energy Control for testing and use the label of ‘EC Tested’ when they post the test results. Vendors might do this to test for toxicity of a batch, to ensure they themselves are not being scammed by someone higher of the food chain, or to illustrate the quality of their product to customers. There are plenty of ways in which they may select and post test results showing just the best results for them, or they may flat out inflate the results: ‘By some strange, unknown cause, data in vendors pages are often around 10% higher than test results provided’ (DoctorX 2019). Drug checking services are one useful instrument which helps users and vendors and is a piece of the information puzzle, but only one. Like any other data point, its relevance can degrade quickly, or it just be wrong. Drug user communities spent a lot of time on comparative epistemology as a result.
Quality Is an Unstable Quality
As the testing debate shows there is no one tell-all indicator that will resolve debates about quality. Nobody really agrees what drug quality means. That does not stop people trying. One of the claims made about cryptomarket supplied drug is that they are of a higher quality than street drugs. However, what that means is not in itself consistent. Quality can stand for consistency, qualities of chemical purity, strength of effect, predictability of effect, dependability of supply and value for money. Users know drugs through the body and the body becomes the store of experience. Buying drugs on the cryptomarkets involves creating a stable, interpretable quality from these many possible qualities. Committed cryptomarket users often say that quality is higher when purchased on the darknet. ‘Street quality’ is used to refer to poor quality, fizzy, adulterated products of little worth. However, many drug users have tried and found little difference between the two sources and decided to stick with their local dealer. The two markets share much of the same supply chain. The benefits of operating on the cryptomarkets are partly dependent on how well one can realise the advantages it offers.
Here is the thing tho, by bestman’s own admission on his vendor page, and backed up by reviews on forums and his feedback, the quality of bestman’s gear is not consistent, it goes up and down. Due to his glowing feedback, I wouldn’t say it is ever BAD, but sometimes it is not as strong as others. Right now, I believe, he is selling g’s for $125. Now would be the time to go try him out people, but read his profile, based on what he is saying, I think he knows this gear is not his best batch. I am sure it is just fine tho, especially for the price of $125 for a full g. That is less than what some people on the streets near me are charging for a bundle, and there is usually less than .5 of a g in those bundles, so I don’t think you can go wrong, really. Just know for anyone who is interested in trying bestman that his quality changes, but his prices are nice and low, where I like them. His gear is legit and it will give you a good rush, I get a good nod myself, and the legs are long long long. Almost too long, I got to wait so long to take another hit to get another nice rush again because of how long the gear lasts. And I don’t know about you guys, but for a guy like me who likes to get the most out of his gear, cheap heroin with a good rush and long legs is all I need. I am with kitty, I def recommend giving bestman a shot.
Novice users sometimes start from an understanding that any change in the drug effect must be the result of a malicious dealer adulterating the drug with another substance to pad it out. More experienced users come to the understanding that quality is always going to be malleable and in part it is up to the user to ensure their experience is the one desired by them.
Understanding the drug being taken is necessary for there to be a consistent effect so in that sense knowledge is recursive. We know drug X has Y effect as long as we are sure that drug X continues to be drug X. When users of drug X now use drug Z and want Y effect, then does that mean both drugs in the same class, or are effectively the same drug? Drugs cannot be reduced to one element.
Drug markets share and shape knowledge. This is true of offline markets and cryptomarkets. Cryptomarkets have the advantage of doing so much more readily and publicly. Drug categories change what drugs are. The make-up of drugs is a politically contested issue. This is relevant when attributing actions to drugs such as ‘drug related crime’.
Paraphernalia and Preparation
Product-- I went to cut open the MBB and spilled some of the cola. Luckily it was over my mirror plate so no loss but y’all be careful if you do order. The smell wasn’t as strong as other colas I’ve had but remember that you shouldn’t judge cola based on smell. It definitely had that cola taste to it and the numb was just right IMO; not too strong, not weak, and doesn’t set in immediately. It was powder but it stuck very well together. No burn on the inhale which was amazing for me as I’ve had a destroyed nose now for over 2 weeks after having some bad cola. The euphoria was mellow at first, not leaving me strung out. It wasn’t as mellow as others I’ve had but surely didn’t have me bouncing off the walls. No jitteriness and no fiend. Definitely a quality cola. 40 minutes in, I wanted a little more zest so I had some of the shatter that he threw in (I know my concentrates and the shatter was FIRE, better than the cola) for free and this was the exact cocktail I needed. I feel the cannabis accentuated the cola experience and I was just so happy and energetic. (maybe it was doing more cola :--D)
I had this daunting task of dishes to clean and there was no shortage of motivation when the cola got me just right. Dogs could even sense the state of mind and almost seemed happier too! Definitely gave me that feeling we look for in cola. And as with any quality cola, it just faded off and left me back to normal. I do recommend this stuff, friends, if you’re tired of the pickings here on S.
In this account, there is a range of expertise involved. The vendor provides the substance and the user the skill and knowledge required to make it into a drug. Users demonstrate responsibility for the their ability to use it in an effective way. The figure of the expert is a common one in accounts of illicit drug use rituals. Obtaining an illicit drug requires the expert to be in the know, to know who to talk to and how, and to be skilled in judging the quality of a potential purchase. In cases of shared ritualised consumption, other members of the group show how they value these skills by deferring to the expert’s judgement.
Asha illustrates the common pecking order of consumption. One goes first as she provides and prepares the drug. In some accounts, the provider of the drug is different from the person who prepares, which was more frequently the case with cannabis. In those accounts the preparer usually went first, followed by the provider. Less experienced users are often left, or leave themselves, until the end, having had a chance to observe the consumption process in action. In several accounts, snorting has the element of sequence common to many drug use rituals. In this case, it continues until the table is clean, ensuring there is no incriminating evidence and also that the ritual is completed with the drug being entirely consumed. The consumption must be complete for the ritual to be satisfactory, something of a general feature in the accounts and also noted in the wider literature (Du Toit 1977).
Before leaving [for the remainder of the evening], my friend Dahlia reaches into her purse and pulls out a small, clear pill bottle of Adderall, her physician prescribed bottle of ADHD (attention deficit hyperactivity disorder) medicine. Carefully, she lays out five little blue pills, and, using a ring taken from her finger, she crushes the pills with precision and skill. I pull out a credit card and dollar bill from my wallet and lay them on the table for Dahlia to use. She picks up the card and cuts the crushed pills into four straight lines. She stands back and we all gather round, admiring her work. I grab the dollar bill from the table, roll it tightly, and hand it to Dahlia, who initiates the process as she bends down, puts the bill to her nose and snorts, then, using the credit card again to arrange the bits she missed into a smaller line, she repeats. One by one, we follow suit, until the table, once covered with the fine grain blue powder, is inconspicuously clean. (Asha)
The substance in use in Asha’s account is Adderall, a prescription medication available in the USA for narcolepsy and Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD). It is a psychostimulant made up of various amphetamine salts. It is available in quick-release tablet or slow-release capsule form. The preparation described by her involves crushing the tablets and cutting the resulting powder into a form small enough for absorption by the mucal membrane. The process effectively changes the medicine into a recreational drug with properties similar to ‘speed’ (street amphetamine) by altering its pharmacokinetics so that the drug is rapidly absorbed into the bloodstream without metabolisation.
Asha gives a typical account of the precise, careful and measured ritual preparation involved in consuming a drug by snorting. Diarists gave other accounts of snorting drugs, such as cocaine, MDMA/ecstasy and unclassified legal highs. Each account had similar features of expertise with the expert as the person who measures and cuts up the drug having some responsibility for ensuring the ritual is completed. The same person has responsibility for caring for others’ drug use and the care of naïve users. The user who possesses the drug-making paraphernalia—in the case of drugs prepared for snorting, commonly a mirror, a razor blade and sometimes a currency note or straw—is validated and governs the group dynamic. The paraphernalia provides a group focus. All participants get a line from the same mirror and of (as far as possible) the same size. The person doing the cutting demonstrates their skill and equanimity by dividing the lines equally. Paraphernalia is a technology which is part of the drug use technoculture. Paraphernalia used in these rituals were often described as ‘storied’, memorialised with past intoxication scenes, shared memories and relationships. The act of bringing out a storied bong or a waterpipe may spark conversation and recollection about friends present and absent. Storying can attach to form or brand rather than a continuous object, such as a brand of cigarette paper.
My skin tingles a little at the crisp sound of the two cigarette papers I lick and stick together, this is followed by a third paper delicately placed in the middle overlapping the other two. I open the cigarette in my hand with one smooth sweeping lick and empty a good part of its contents into the cradled papers. I unwrap the cellophane from the hard brown block resting next to my papers. The smell of earth and wood is singed with my lighter, crumbled between my fingers spread evenly into the joint. I roll the package between my thumb and forefinger. I start from the middle and gradually work my way to the end applying the suited amount of pressure, satisfied I lick the papers together and place a custom made piece of cardboard ‘roach’ into one end and twist the other. (‘Lara’)
The satisfaction described by Lara comes from the delicate and precise preparation. Part of the anticipation, represented by her skin tingling, is heightened in the sensory experiences she describes: the sound of cigarette papers rustling, the texture of hash burnt and crumbled between her fingers, and the wholesome smell given off by singeing it. Hash, short for hashish, is a solid preparation of cannabis. Burning the hash generates a distinctive smell that indicates its quality and makes it easier to crumble into a joint. The smell is taken as evidence of hash being a natural preparation, in contrast to artificial ‘chemical’ drugs like mephedrone and Ecstasy, with their associations of potency and risk.
I ‘spark up’ the joint. My first inhalation is short and light. I inhale again except this time tightly holding it deep in my lungs and finally exasperating the smoke from my mouth with a pleasurable and sensual delight. I continue to smoke, my head feels light and my eyes heavier, the sounds in the room open up, I become aware of the hard floor beneath my feet and of my body as part of the room. The feel and texture of everyday material objects become more intense and interesting. I pass the joint to my partner… I feel part of my true essence, free to express myself and be who I am. My thoughts and ideas come to my mind and evolve quicker than I can excitedly express them. An idea leads to another idea, until I have so many ideas! I’m eager to share new found truths about the things that have always been there however insignificant or monumental they might be. (‘Lara’)
Lara experiences a profound sensation of transcendental immanence, more than can be expressed by words. The sense of experience intoxication as ‘beyond words’ is something also common in accounts psychedelic drug use. It may reflect a genuine aspect of the experience of being ineffable, or the lack of a cultural language with which to name these experiences. This is in contrast to the extensive and rich language in use in Scotland to describe the many variants of drunken intoxication and its consequences.
A crystallised residue is laced into the mirror top. With it lays a curled up twenty pound note. I reach into my purse and pull out a credit card and small packet of MDMA. I tap some crystals out onto my cherished mirror and crush them flat, transforming it into white powder. I cut and spread it into equal lines; two for each person sitting in the circle. I lick my finger and run it down the side of the card, gumming the residue I lift off. I take the note between my fingers, lean over the mirror, and quickly inhale the two lines. I sniff. I feel a sharp pain shoot through my nostril followed by a cooling liquid oozing down my throat. I blink. I pass the loaded mirror to my left. All I care about now is the sense of euphoria flooding through my body and soon it will encompass the entire room. (‘Nina’)
In Nina’s account, the act of snorting the drug is somewhat unpleasant. There is a physical challenge to her, as the drug is difficult to consume. It induces brief pain, followed by a cold, oozing sensation. The distaste response is an expected part. However, the physical sensations are quickly overshadowed by the sense of euphoria she experiences. She describes the euphoria as occurring throughout her body, one that extends to encompass the whole scene, a totalising sensation that submerges the self. This drug ritual reduces the salience of self in the interaction between self and object. These accounts describe a dual preparation of drug and user. There was direct use of and commentary on cue reactivity in the preparation process. This commentary could be a way of overcoming ambivalence, dealing with negative cue reactivity by invoking it.
In the drug field, the question of ‘there is a thing there, but what is it’ seems to be far more complex, recursive and sticky. For example, the phenomenon of needle fixation among heroin users is hard to reduce to simple observation and response. Injecting drug use is a multiple activity consisting of rituals, habits, fixations, demonstrations of skill, dependence, and cultural myths.
Repair work was a central part of the intoxication experience for men and women. In the hours following their drug taking, the following morning and throughout the days that followed, groups of friends would review and ‘repair’, re-tell stories in ways that minimised harm to bodies and reputations, and emphasised fun and excess. Social media were used in what is called ‘playbour’ (Kücklich 2005). Photographs and videos shared via Facebook or other social networking sites such as Instagram and Twitter would mediate the retelling of the night out. Social media provided references for others to ‘work towards’ what ended up being deemed a ‘good night’ or a ‘good drunk’. This shared learning provided a model for working towards, a display of a good night which those involved would strive to recreate, reliving the best nights through specific drinks, music, locations, conversations, jokes and anecdotes.
The memory work done by individuals in groups is fundamentally different from the data collection carried out by administrators, which produce a thoroughly different impersonal record with no scope for recoding. Instead it is additive. Institutional administrative memories do not change in the way that individual recall does. For health administrators, the problems of binge drinking are problems at the time, and for ever more. Calculating risk for health researchers, medics and other responsible adults involve a very different kind of memorialisation.
How Users Share Knowledge and Assess Quality
Why do 95% of vendors claim their coke is pure or uncut then you get it and there is no shine or “flakey” appearance? i havent personally bought any on agora yet so no disrespect to the vendors on here selling it as i cant judge but on the road that was the case and that was on [Silk Road] SR1 and 2. I’ve been asking myself the same question. JustSmuggledN’s coke met those standards but he received a thorough bashing and 73% purity report on SR2. Not sure where the hell the guy is now with SR2 being down but his blow was very very clean, shiney, and flakey.
This is the big one, the one we are all here for, bestman365’s product. I am going to judge the product somewhat critically, and I feel I was being a bit generous with the score of 8, but when it comes down to it this is some quality dope for a very reasonable price, and we need more domestic USA #4 vendors like that in the markets. Overall, this dope is a great score, and you will be satisfied with your order. The vendor advertised the gear I ordered as “Raw”, “Pure”, and “Uncut”. I would say “Uncut” is the most accurate of those adjectives, because I believe what bestman means is that he himself has not stepped on this heroin, it is pure in the sense that it is purely the dope the vendor picked up from his supplier, and he has not added any cuts himself. The dope is a beige color and when you add water it becomes a dark brown. When drawn up, the spoon is left pretty much clean, but there is a very dark brown residue that will collect on the cotton. The only thing bestman has written on the product’s page for its description is, “((((Warning Very Strong)))))” and for the most part that is accurate. It is not the strongest dope I have ever got my hands on, but it is not to be trifled with. I have only needed a very small amount, and it has had me nodding for extended periods of time. I believe the legs, or duration of the high is pretty long, but it is hard for me to say because I have lost all self control since I got the dope on monday afternoon and have booted up nearly every 2--4 hours since. This is not because it is weak dope, but because I am going thru a hard time and don’t give a fuck. Let’s put it like this, this dope has had me fucked up 24/7 since monday, and I still have more than a quarter of my gram left. I am not sure of the exact weight of my “gram”, but I can tell you it is a very fat gram and I am surprised I have done as much dope as I have, with how much I have left. The first hit I took after getting the letter in the mail was my biggest hit, and when I weighed the dope, bag and all, after I took that hit, the scale read 1.25g. Not sure of the weight of the small baggie the gear came in, but it is safe t say my gram was over 1.0. The rush is decent, and very welcome after the trash I had been getting locally on the street, which has done.
Heroin vendors would grade their products, presenting them as different strengths and forms for different markets. Some would sell ‘potency’ and ‘extreme’ versions or types for smoking and injecting.
Alison, I ordered from beige last Thursday, so mine was shipped out on Monday, presumably with yours. So I would definitely expect it to arrive tomorrow. It’s definitely really nice, amazingly clean. I’ll have to do a proper review later, but for now I’ll just say it’s really nice. Not sure if its really worth the price, except as a novelty, because it’s not really twice as pure as his Colombian stuff. However, being able to have something this pure is a real rarity with heroin, so its just nice to have.
Seriously, it is difficult to find heroin of this quality outside of a hospital. It may not be quite pharmaceutical grade, but its definitely some of the purest available. It is almost pure white, dissolves pretty much entirely in water, and draws up almost clear. I don’t have a very high tolerance at all, and only the tiniest bit of this powder makes me feel nice and warm and totally pinned. My nose is all fucked up right now, so I’ve only been shooting it, but the legs are still decent. I haven’t had enough to nod on it yet; instead I’ve been feeling energetic and euphoric all day. This China White fits all the symptoms of pure diamorphine; it’s definitely over 90% pure. The price sucks, but you aren’t going to get anything better outside of a clinic somewhere like Switzerland.
Cannabis vendors made claims about the overall qualities of the plant and its place of origin, rather than specific claims about THC and CBD. There is a claim to naturalness being made by those vendors.
As evening comes around, I decide to do maybe a third of the bag. I prep my shot, wipe my left elbow, insert needle and dig down until I get that lovely plume of blood. I push down the plunger, remove needle, and apply tissue waiting for that golden RUSH. Sure enough, 30 or 45 seconds later, waves of warmth course through my body while I smile at the world in pure joy. For the next few minutes I feel just like Jesus’ son; not a thing in the world could bother me. For some reason, I find that less pure dope gives a better rush than the purer stuff. This shot, IMO, gave an absolutely amazing rush. Another few hours pass by, and I’m able to get another proper rush.
Purity could signify a practical quality, that of chemical strength or lack of contamination. It could also signify an ideal quality, the capacity of the substance to help the user locate their ideal desired high, rush or other effect.
Adulteration and Contamination
Most vendors selling “fishscale” would result in such a test. Most cartels don’t wash all the alkoloids out so you never get 89% coke to begin with. Then they usually add 10‐-15% of levamisole. This is so the typical fishscale sold on the darkents. Tier 2/3. Then you get the vendors that do acetone washes and they usually get a 10% leva with about 70% (sometimes higher with additional acetone washes), about tier 2. Then comes everything that is uncut and may just have some unflushed alkaloids that cause it to not test at 89% but is usually >80%; Tier 1 cola, the top of the market (rare but available)’.
The other vendors that I’ve used who are still vending are bestman365, FattusCatteratus, Manuel Noriega, and subsrgood. beige is very similar to subs in terms of quality and price, and are the 2 top shelf vendors. Pricey, but worth the price, with beige having better stealth and slightly cheaper prices. bestman and FatCat also have similar quality, which is still very good. Their dope gives a better rush, but doesn’t last as long, and you definitely need more of it. FatCat is more expensive, and since they raised prices again, maybe not worth the price, although they also have pretty good stealth, while bestman’s stealth can’t even be called such, as Batin pointed out earlier. I got Manuel Noriega’s stuff back when he was still sending out ‘good’ quality, but I still rank him at the bottom. It seemed potent, but I’m pretty sure that it seemed so potent because it was cut with some antihistamine or other sedative. Didn’t really make me itchy or nauseous, which good dope always does. Had pretty amazing stealth, but not worth it. Definitely not up to the quality of the others.
wrote this earlier but I purchased his 3.5g listing of MMF batch a little over a month ago and was shocked when I opened my pack and was staring at what seemed to be gunpowder. It had big black chunks of tar, that I actually smoked one of the large chunks and it ran just like BTH, it also had some brown powder that looked like and had the consistency of sand and then there were also clear granules that looked like table salt. They would not crush. I was expecting to get a bag of white powder that I had heard so much good about and was bummed to say the least when I saw this bullshit bag of gunpowder. I gave them a 5/5 but said that I was very dissapointed in quality and wrote them a pm saying I think they accidentally sent me the discount batch.
It seemed potent, but I’m pretty sure that it seemed so potent because it was cut with some antihistamine or other sedative. Didn’t really make me itchy or nauseous, which good dope always does.’ Forum user ‘Benzobeatz’
In this and similar accounts there is a direct link drawn between genuine, rather than apparent, potency and negative effects. In other cases, risk is a measure of potency: the stronger the drug, the greater the danger. The positive association between risk and effectiveness has been noted in relation to pharmaceuticals as well as recreational drugs (Martin 2006). Likewise, a heroin high that felt too ‘clean’ could be taken as evidence that it is adulterated and ultimately less effective. On the other hand many more sought the smooth, untroubled high as a sign of purity. Decorte (2001) suggests many users mistake side effects as signs of adulteration and so a high that feels pure is likely to be from a drug that is much less than pure. Different dynamics and expectations existed for different drugs. Heroin is expected to be higher purity than street heroin, but also to cost more. Cheap heroin is suspect as like to be cut. Cannabis is expected to be significantly cheaper for the quality. Many heroin users were willing to pay more for reliable quality. Heroin users adhered more to the idea that the drug has a set of consistent qualities that are hidden by adulteration, whereas cannabis users had a greater sense of the drug as multiple, and could perceive high chemical purity as working against effectiveness.
There are, then, a number of ways in which cryptomarkets affected the process of signalling and assessing quality. Drug vendors can ‘grade products, offering different quality products. Users employ different kinds of knowledge—craft, chemical and experiential. It is very different when assessing Xanax than meth, for example. In the case of meth, cocaine, cannabis, heroin and so on users are drawing on a rich body of shared experience to lock down the nature of the specific product they have in front of them. In the case of pharmaceuticals, the knowledge and the ability to act on it are more limited.
Conclusion
Drug markets focus on purity, predictability and potency, without necessarily having easy agreement about what those terms mean. There are lots of people who contribute knowledge in various ways, not always through knowledge work. Users crafted solutions for others, would recommend which drugs worked with which daily and weekly work cycle, or counselled others in dosing and other ways of managing the drug effects. None of these functions are unique to cryptomarkets or online spaces generally. Users gather and share knowledge and techniques where they can (Parkin 2013). The cryptomarkets scale up that process and also link it directly to specific vendors and products in ways that the local market has difficulty doing. While digital communities are effective sites of knowledge sharing and communication, they develop their own blindspots and myths as well.