Skip to Navigation Skip to Posts Skip to Content
Protein Protein
  • Home
  • Join
  • Sign in
  • About
  • Contributors
  • Contact
  • - Sections
  • Seeds
  • Supplement
  • Forums
  • Briefings
  • Reports
  • Observations
  • Stories
  • Sounds
  • - Network
  • Studios
  • Agency
  • Store
Tags
  • Adventure
  • Advertising
  • Age
  • AI
  • Americans
  • Art
  • Art & Design
  • Beauty
  • Belonging
  • Berliners
  • Books
  • Brazilians
  • Briefings
  • Chinese
  • Community
  • Currency
  • Currency
  • Dating
  • Dirty Words
  • Drugs
  • Dutch
  • Erotica
  • Events
  • Exclusivity
  • Fashion
  • Food & Drink
  • Forums
  • Friendship
  • Gen A
  • Gen Z
  • Gender
  • Germans
  • Good Growth
  • Health
  • Hoarding
  • Humanity
  • Identity
  • Influence
  • Italians
  • Journal
  • Londoners
  • Luxury
  • Mindfulness
  • Music
  • New Spirituality
  • New Yorkers
  • Nostalgia
  • Observations
  • Ownership
  • Parisians
  • Partnership
  • Photography
  • Play
  • Podcast
  • Politics
  • Privacy
  • Profiles
  • Publishing
  • Rebalance
  • Refocus
  • Relevancy
  • Reports
  • Responsive
  • Retail
  • Seeds
  • Sexuality
  • Slow Tech
  • Social Media
  • Sport
  • Subcultures
  • Supplement
  • Sustainability
  • Technology
  • Tokyoites
  • Transportation
  • Travel
  • Updates
  • Wellness
  • Work
  • Youth
Socials
Become a member
Protein Protein
  • Home
  • Tags
Trip Advisor
Observations

Trip Advisor

Jake Hanrahan Jake Hanrahan February 16, 2015 7 min read
  • Share on X/Twitter
  • Share on Facebook
  • Share on LinkedIn
  • Share on Pinterest
  • Email

As with pretty much everything else, the impact the internet has had on the narcotic trade over the past decade is significant, but it’s what comes next that’s really interesting.

Illustration by Rob Pybus

When recreational drugs first became popular in the 1960s and 1970s, they were enjoyed mostly by the well-off. Champagne parties were nothing without a bowl of cocaine on the table, the hectic lifestyles of rock stars were often powered by speed pills, and cannabis was something that intellectual, bohemian types smoked to open their minds. Fast forward half a century and we have a drugs war that’s out of control, clandestine chemistry labs dotted around the world, new legal highs popping up regularly, an addiction epidemic and a thriving online drugs bazaar worth $1.2 billion over just two years.

Times have indeed changed. Drug networks used to be founded upon a mix of cartel business ethics, ruthless gang violence and corrupt police. Now these have been replaced with an internet connection, vacuum packing and decentralised electronic currencies. While it’s true that advances in technology have given rise to many drug-dealing operations, they’ve also opened the floodgates to a new generation of tech-savvy drug barons.

The most significant technological advances to revolutionise the drugs underworld, though, are not moisture barrier bags, the Los Zetas cartel’s radio system, or even narco-submarines, but something much more mainstream – the internet. With the rise of the web, the drugs marketplace has been able to spread its reach as never before. Legal highs, for example, would undoubtedly still be an underground alternative for seasoned drug users if it wasn’t for the internet.

This post is for paying subscribers only

Become a member now and have access to all posts, enjoy exclusive content, and stay updated with constant updates.

Become a member

Already have an account? Sign in

Protein Protein

A place where people and ideas grow

  • Home
  • Join
  • Sign in
  • About
  • Contributors
  • Contact
  • - Sections
  • Seeds
  • Supplement
  • Forums
  • Briefings
  • Reports
  • Observations
  • Stories
  • Sounds
  • - Network
  • Studios
  • Agency
  • Store

© 2025 Protein XYZ Ltd. All Rights Reserved. Protein is a registered trademark of Protein Holdings Ltd.
Feed
Paid Post Seeds

What Brands Can Learn From Women's Football

Sep 2, 2025 4 min read
Paid Post Seeds

Passive Attack

Aug 28, 2025 5 min read
Seeds

Built to Belong

Aug 21, 2025 3 min read
Paid Post Seeds

Food for Thought

Aug 19, 2025 4 min read
Forums

Taste vs. AI

Aug 14, 2025 2 min read
Paid Post Seeds

Social Reading

Aug 12, 2025 3 min read
Paid Post Seeds

Make Art Anyway

Aug 7, 2025 5 min read
Paid Post Seeds

Notes on Cringe Summer

Aug 5, 2025 5 min read
Paid Post Seeds

Signs of the 'New Ugly'

Jul 31, 2025 7 min read
Seeds

What Type of Nostalgic Are You?

Jul 29, 2025 2 min read
Load More You've reached the end of the list
  • Home
  • Join
  • Sign in
  • About
  • Contributors
  • Contact
  • Seeds
  • Supplement
  • Forums
  • Home
  • Join
  • Sign in
  • About
  • Contributors
  • Contact
  • - Sections
  • Seeds
  • Supplement
  • Forums
  • Briefings
  • Reports
  • Observations
  • Stories
  • Sounds
  • - Network
  • Studios
  • Agency
  • Store
Tags
  • Adventure
  • Advertising
  • Age
  • AI
  • Americans
  • Art
  • Art & Design
  • Beauty
  • Belonging
  • Berliners
  • Books
  • Brazilians
  • Briefings
  • Chinese
  • Community
  • Currency
  • Currency
  • Dating
  • Dirty Words
  • Drugs
  • Dutch
  • Erotica
  • Events
  • Exclusivity
  • Fashion
  • Food & Drink
  • Forums
  • Friendship
  • Gen A
  • Gen Z
  • Gender
  • Germans
  • Good Growth
  • Health
  • Hoarding
  • Humanity
  • Identity
  • Influence
  • Italians
  • Journal
  • Londoners
  • Luxury
  • Mindfulness
  • Music
  • New Spirituality
  • New Yorkers
  • Nostalgia
  • Observations
  • Ownership
  • Parisians
  • Partnership
  • Photography
  • Play
  • Podcast
  • Politics
  • Privacy
  • Profiles
  • Publishing
  • Rebalance
  • Refocus
  • Relevancy
  • Reports
  • Responsive
  • Retail
  • Seeds
  • Sexuality
  • Slow Tech
  • Social Media
  • Sport
  • Subcultures
  • Supplement
  • Sustainability
  • Technology
  • Tokyoites
  • Transportation
  • Travel
  • Updates
  • Wellness
  • Work
  • Youth
Socials
Paid Post Seeds

What Brands Can Learn From Women's Football

Sep 2, 2025 4 min read
Paid Post Seeds

Passive Attack

Aug 28, 2025 5 min read
Seeds

Built to Belong

Aug 21, 2025 3 min read
Paid Post Seeds

Food for Thought

Aug 19, 2025 4 min read
Forums

Taste vs. AI

Aug 14, 2025 2 min read
Paid Post Seeds

Social Reading

Aug 12, 2025 3 min read
Paid Post Seeds

Make Art Anyway

Aug 7, 2025 5 min read
Paid Post Seeds

Notes on Cringe Summer

Aug 5, 2025 5 min read
Paid Post Seeds

Signs of the 'New Ugly'

Jul 31, 2025 7 min read
Seeds

What Type of Nostalgic Are You?

Jul 29, 2025 2 min read
Load More You've reached the end of the list
Become a member