Online illicit drug vendor

Examples of illicit drugs that may be sold by online drug vendors include recreational psychoactive drugs like stimulants, depressants, cannabinoids, hallucinogens, and entactogens; controlled pharmaceutical drugs like stimulants and sedatives or hypnotics; and performance-enhancing drugs (PEDs) like anabolic steroids and selective androgen receptor modulators (SARMs). So-called "nootropics" ("cognitive enhancers") may also be sold. ==Designer drugs==

Online vendors often sell designer drugs, also known as "novel psychoactive substances" (NPS) or "legal highs", which are analogues of controlled substances that are not yet themselves explicitly controlled and that are legal or exist in a legal grey area. The use of designer drugs known as prodrugs is also a notable way by which even otherwise illegal drugs can be sold in a legal manner by online clearnet vendors. Designer drugs are often sold as "research chemicals" (RCs) and labeled as being "for research use only" and "not for human consumption". Moreover, the law is written such that it only applies to compounds explicitly described by sellers as "intended for human consumption", which has provided an easy legal loophole for vendors to circumvent the law simply by avoiding such descriptions. ==Operations==

The drugs sold by online illicit drug vendors originate from clandestine chemistry labs, either based locally or imported from other countries like China, India, and the Netherlands. The vendors are unregulated, and the substances in such products often vary widely from labeled quantities. They may or may not actually contain the described ingredient in question, or may contain a mixture of substances. Supposedly legal designer drug products may often even contain controlled substances instead. Cryptocurrency payment methods such as bitcoin are frequently used by online illicit drug vendors to facilitate payment transactions. Street drug dealers are sometimes known to purchase illicit drugs online and then resell them at a higher price to customers in-person. Law enforcement and government agencies are well-known to actively monitor and raid online drug vendors. ==Notable examples==

A notable large online market of illicit drug vendors was the darknet market Silk Road, which was created and operated by Ross Ulbricht (Dread Pirate Roberts) in 2011 and was shut down by law enforcement in 2013. Shimsai (Akasha Song or Joseph Clements) was a major vendor of the psychedelic drug dimethyltryptamine (DMT) on subsequent darknet markets such as AlphaBay, Hansa, and Dream Market who operated from 2015 to 2022 before being apprehended by law enforcement. Lizard Labs was a developer and vendor of legal designer drugs such as LSD prodrugs like 1P-LSD and 1V-LSD that operated on the clear web from 2012 to 2024 before shutting down due to increasing legal pressure. ==See also==