The (Online) Supply of Lifestyle Medicines: A Criminological Study

It is widely argued that the trade in illicit pharmaceutical drugs is a growing and underestimated criminological phenomenon, especially in the context of the ever-expanding market reach presented by the Internet. However, this extensive and ultimately life-threatening online market is under-researched by criminologists. Drawing on the results of an innovative interdisciplinary project exploring the online trade in illicit medicines, this chapter focuses on the supply of illicit lifestyle medicines – or enhancement drugs – in the United Kingdom. The aim is to offer an empirically-grounded social scientific analysis of the nature and dynamics of the trade. The discussion covers the online sites marketing and advertising illicit lifestyle drugs, the channels and networks of production and distribution, and the illicit suppliers and their social organisation. As the argument unfolds the analysis centres on the rise of the Internet as one factor working in conjunction with the non-digital in a dynamic way, along with a variety of interacting transnational structures and processes, to enable the supply of illicit lifestyle drugs in the UK