[dkenyser]

People have been using Crypto to buy drugs since its earliest days, people have been using the darknet to sell and distribute drugs since its earliest days, and people have been using dead drops to transfer drugs and other illegal goods since the dawn of organized crime.

None of this is new, or unique to Russia.

[Isamu]

Good point. To be fair they are reporting on the new dominance of this model in Russia, rather than claiming this is the first time anyone has seen this. “Driven by large platforms such as Kraken, Mega, and Blacksprut, Russian darknet markets control 93% of the global share, generating approximately $1.5 billion in revenue in 2023 alone. This dominance marks a new era for organized crime, with Russia’s digital drug economy vastly surpassing traditional Western darknet markets in scope and influence.”

[Johanx64]

> None of this is new, or unique to Russia.

Russia has extreme levels of alcoholism and drug abuse. A lot of it is quite unique to Russia, country that brought you Krokodil and things messed up beyond your wildest imagination.

People in the west really have no slightest clue.

[reisse]

> Russia has extreme levels of alcoholism and drug abuse.

Russia _had_ extreme levels of alcoholism in the 1990s and in the beginning of 2000s. Since then, their anti-alcohol campaign was very effective. Instead of outright banning alcohol (which was tried in the 1980s and led to a bootlegging boom), they taxed the hell out of strong liquors, prohibited advertising them, prohibited nighttime sale of alcoholic drinks including beer, prohibited everything except beer on sports events, and executed other measures to make alcoholic beverages _uncomfortable_ to obtain.

As a result, alcohol consumption per capita decreased nearly twofold. Now average Russian drinks less than average American [1].

1. https://www.cia.gov/the-world-factbook/field/alcohol-consump...

[who_not_cia]

The World Health Organization's numbers are broken down a bit more [1].

Claiming a twofold decrease since the beginning of the 2000's is not supported by the WHO's numbers. Peak consumption in Russia looks to be in 2006, there's been a 28% decrease in consumption since 2006.

Women in Russia do consume less than women in the USA in 2020, 4.2L vs 4.4L but Russian men still out drink their American counterparts at 18.1L vs 15.5L.

The WHO numbers of litres of alcohol consumed per-captia, three year average:

Russia

  2020 M&F 10.5 [ 7.2 - 13.9] M 18.1 [12.5 - 24.1] F 4.2 [2.9 - 5.6]
  2006 M&F 14.6 [10.9 - 18.5] M 25.0 [18.5 - 31.5] F 6.0 [4.4 - 7.6] 
  2000 M&F 13.9 [10.1 - 17.7] M 23.7 [17.2 - 30.2] F 5.6 [4.0 - 7.2]

USA

  2020 M&F  9.9 [ 7.3 - 12.8] M 15.5 [11.4 - 19.9] F 4.4 [3.2 - 5.8]
  2006 M&F  9.4 [ 6.6 - 12.3] M 14.8 [10.4 - 19.3] F 4.2 [3.0 - 5.6]
  2000 M&F  9.1 [ 6.4 - 11.7] M 14.3 [10.2 - 18.6] F 4.0 [2.8 - 5.3]

1. <https://www.who.int/data/gho/data/indicators/indicator-detai...>

[VK538FY]

Thank you for citing real statistics instead of idées reçues from the 1990s, as the above poster did.

[mikrl]

Yet the narrative is

- the West has all of these much worse

- Russia is upstanding and moral

- if these exist in Russia, it’s because of western influence

Which conveniently removes the responsibility from Russian authorities and emboldens western jackasses who see Russia as some kind of beacon for… something.

[wongarsu]

In reality alcoholism has been an issue in Russia basically forever, and has helped fill state coffers since Ivan the Terrible.

Maybe Russia can blame the West for the dark net.

[flotzam]

The thing that's new is making all of these puzzle pieces come together, at scale

[dantyti]

from tfa: > Russian darknet markets control 93% of the global share, generating approximately $1.5 billion in revenue in 2023 alone

does seem very relevant to expose Russia's outsized influence.

[HelloNurse]

The purposes of such an alarm can include general fearmongering, excuses for eavesdropping, excuses for curfews and searches, excuses for face recognition in public spaces, excuses for cryptocurrency restrictions, supporting requests for increasing law enforcement budgets because of the war on drugs, and so on.

Actual news are optional, although in this case both a rise of high tech methods in retail drug trading over time and widespread usage in Russia seem likely.