“I never straight up say I’m selling,” he says. His posts on the app are simpler than most, just a photo of some weed and maybe a few words on the strain. Body language says a lot, too.” Unlike Tony, Jessie is willing to take online payments but admitted that “online is riskier.” I can tell by their attitude and demeanor. “I can tell if a is worth dealing with depending on what they want. “I mix it up, online and face-to-face,” he says. Jessie, the second Whisper dealer I spoke with, claims to have been in the game for a while, and though he was less talkative than Tony, he carefully described how he deals weed and “other things.” There are those like Tony who advertise for face-to-face transactions and others who advertise for online transactions. For Tony, sketchiness announces itself with “weird-ass messages” or “act nervous.” He guarantees his own safety by always carrying a gun.Īs a precaution, most dealers only use these platforms for advertising and work out the transaction details via Kik, a chatting app the main difference is not between the various apps but between the two general styles of dealer found on these apps. “I try to appeal to pretty much anyone that ain’t too sketchy,” he says. Tony has been selling for nearly 10 years and said he posts pictures and then decides who to serve based on customer behavior. On Whisper, a messaging app that allows users to send and receive messages anonymously, two weed dealers-Tony and Jessie -agreed to talk with me about their operations. For all drugs, ? indicates quality ? is a claim to potency and dollar signs indicate the product is for sale. Emojis can be reputable indicators, too-look out for any of the following: ????.
Some users post requests but that’s the easiest way to get scammed or arrested, so, if you’re trying to buy, you’re better off searching for sellers and messaging them directly.Īfter hashtags come imagery-most posts selling weed use one of the following: neon fractals and bright color washes big piles or mason jars of nugs semi-naked young women hitting massive bongs and dutches. Popular hashtags, like #Kush4Sale or #OGKush, are important, and a good place to start. In conversations with dealers and buyers, a trend emerges among the stories of smooth transactions. So, how do you cop online without getting burned? And, if you’re dealing, how do you cultivate a reputable image that buyers can trust? On top of that, it’s an environment with little incentive for dealers to transact honestly. In the new, app-based drug economy, there is no reliable method for either party to establish a positive reputation. On outlets like Silk Road, there’s feedback and reviews of buyers and sellers. On the street, customers and dealers can read each other face-to-face. Social media apps offer little information to go by when deciding which hashtag-riddled account of Snoop Dogg memes is going to have the better product. These days, if a smartphone app is social and location-based, you can guarantee there’s a dealer near you.īut proximity doesn’t guarantee anything for the consumer. Right now, customers are buying product off Instagram, Grindr, Tinder, Whisper, Yik Yak, and more. With every round of busts, the marketplace operators, vendors, and buyers learn from the mistakes of others and find new ways to protect themselves from arrest or from being ripped off. In early 2011, Silk Road opened for business and darknet marketplaces proliferated across the web.
Since 2010, the internet has facilitated countless illicit drug transactions, when the year-old “Adamflowers” marketplace moved onto the darknet and rebranded as “The Farmer’s Market,” the first major darknet marketplace for drugs. On particularly invincible nights out, they bought drugs from sketchy men in dark corners of the club. When I was younger, people bought drugs from friends.