Crowdsourcing Drug-related Data: A Pilot Study on the Use of Crowdsourcing for Collecting Data on Retail Drug Prices

• In Event: Researching Illicit Markets: Online, Offline and In-Between

Abstract

Traditionally, criminologists have collected statistical data either by conducting surveys or accessing administrative records. These sources are advantageous for several reasons but often have several limitations (e.g. relatively small samples; non-representativeness, etc.). In the recent years, social media provided an unprecedented source of information to examine problems that have historically been difficult to study. This proposal will build on the potential of social media and big data for crime and security research and their use for evidence-based solutions. Specifically, it presents the preliminary findings of Drugsource.io, an online crowdsourcing platform that collects information about the price of several illicit drugs in the UK (i.e. cocaine, cannabis, amphetamines, methamphetamines, NPS, etc.). The results show that information on drug prices can generate valuable insights for policy makers, public health and law enforcement practitioners. Data on prices can be used to monitor how drug users adapt their consumption according to prices, predict number of overdoses, understand how traffickers respond to law enforcement interventions and track drug trafficking flows. Concluding, the paper suggests that alternative methodologies which draw on the solicitation, collection, and analysis of crowdsourced data may be able to explore questions that have been heretofore difficult to examine.

Author

• Luca Giommoni, Cardiff University