Drugs & Cyberspace

The rapid development of technology and especially information and communication technologies (ICT) has brought great changes to our daily lives, changes that humanity had not known in its previous historical moments.
The impact of these developments is visible in our daily practices, whether it concerns our communication (especially with the use of social media) or our various transactions (purchase of various products, method of payment for our purchases, access to sources of knowledge, etc.), significantly facilitating our life and improving its quality. At the same time, this development also highlighted a series of problems resulting from the existing socio-economic inequality, such as the existing digital and technological gap, where it is found that part of the world's population is not yet connected and that ICT users are not at the same level and at the same starting point.
This reality is exploited by various organized crime groups, that commit several offences within the Cyberspace (the interconnected reality of billions of devices (mainly mobile devices) and billions of users) at all lengths and widths of the earth, as the internet has united all points.
The development of the gray economy through the creation of new markets where all forms of illegal products, such as addictive substances (drugs), medicines and weapons are traded, puts organized society (through the states and the organizations that form it) in front of a very important challenge.
Anonymous markets, such as the “Silk Road” on the dark web (Darknet), are a constant challenge to the authorities who are called to deal with the problem of drug trafficking, which has devastating consequences for every society (and for the future of every society that is its children).
Responsible information means prevention and awareness, which can limit and why not eliminate a phenomenon that has been putting in trouble humanity for many years and that nowadays seems to start acquiring different dimensions.
The acquisition of digital skills today should also include a series of other skills that are more broadly related to specialized perspectives around health and hygiene, highlighting handling of critical situations and ways of dealing with cases that can become fatal for the fate of every member of a society (and especially children). The prioritization or not of choosing a responsible and meaningful information belongs to each society individually as a choice for its next day.

Georgios Papaprodromou, Major General (ret.) - Cybercrime expert