The international community is grappling with increasing challenges in combating and preventing drug abuse, compounded by the rapid advancements of the internet age. This study examines the electronic promotion of narcotics and psychotropic substances by analyzing the evolving tactics used in illicit drug trafficking in cyberspace, with a particular focus on the Arab context. It explores how social networks and online platforms are exploited to propagate drug culture, expand illegal markets, and target younger audiences through attractive and deceptive digital strategies.
The study also addresses the technical and legislative challenges faced by relevant authorities in monitoring and preventing these activities, especially given the transnational nature of the internet and the various encryption and concealment techniques employed by promoters. Drawing from these insights, the study proposes a series of executive measures to strengthen countermeasures, including the development of national legislation, enhanced international cooperation, the use of artificial intelligence tools for monitoring, and increased public awareness about the dangers of online drug promotion. It also discusses several potential obstacles that could hinder the effectiveness of these measures, such as limited technical and human resources and insufficient coordination among relevant authorities.
This study serves as a vital resource for researchers, policymakers, and professionals in cybersecurity and mental health, offering both qualitative analysis and practical recommendations for tackling one of the most pressing digital challenges related to community security and public health in the modern era.
المراجع أولًا: المراجع العربية
- مكتب الأمم المتحدة المعني بالمخدِّرات والجريمة، تقرير المخدِّرات العالمي (2023)، الأمم المتحدة، نيويورك، 2023.
- مكتب الأمم المتحدة للمخدِّرات والجريمة. (2019). الإعلان الوزاري بشأن تعزيز إجراءاتنا على الصعيد الوطني والإقليمي والدولي ابتغاء التعجيل بتنفيذ التزاماتنا المشتركة بالتصدي لمشكلة المخدِّرات العالميَّة ومواجهتها، أغسطس 2019. https://www.unodc.org/documents/commissions/CND/Subsidiary_Bodies/Subcommission/54th_Documentation/19 - 06697_A_ebook.pdf
- الهيئة الدوليَّة لمراقبة المخدِّرات (INCB). (2023). تقرير عام 2023. https://www.incb.org/documents/Publications/AnnualReports/AR2023/AR_05_Arabic.pdf
- الهيئة الدوليَّة لمراقبة المخدِّرات. (INCB).2021. تقرير عام 2021. https://www.incb.org/documents/Publications/AnnualReports/AR2021/Annual_Report/E_INCB_2021_1_ara.pdf
- الهيئة الدوليَّة لمراقبة المخدِّرات (INCB). (2022). تقرير عام 2022. https://unis.unvienna.org/unis/uploads/documents/2023INCB/INCB_annual_report - Arabic.pdf
ثانيًا: المراجع الأجنبيَّة
- Abazid, H.,»Drug Abuse in the Middle East: A focus on Syria.» In Handbook of Substance Misuse and Addictions: From Biology to Public Health, pp. 2629 - 2648. Cham: Springer International Publishing, 2022.
- Abdel Samad, Y.,»Case study: dark web markets.» Dark Web Investigation (2021): 237- 247.
- Adel, A., and Mohammad Norouzifard.»Weaponization of the growing cybercrimes inside the dark net: The question of detection and application.» Big Data and Cognitive Computing 8.8 (2024): 91.
- Afilipoaie, A., and Shortis,P.,»Silk Road: After being closed twice, can the brand ever ‘rise again?’, GDPO Situation Analysis, January, 2015.
- Aldalbahi,S., and Albesher, A.,»Young Saudis’ Evaluations and Perceptions of Privacy in Digital Communities: The Case of WhatsApp and Telegram.» Sustainability 15, no. 14 (2023): 11286.
- AllahRakha, N.»Rethinking digital borders to address jurisdiction and governance in the global digital economy.» International Journal of Law and Policy 2, no. 1 (2024).
- Alzahrani, I., et al.,»Enhancing Cyber - Threat Intelligence in the Arab World: Leveraging IoC and MISP Integration.» Electronics 13, no. 13 (2024): 2526.
- Andrei, F. et al»Investigating Security Folklore: A Case Study on the Tor over VPN Phenomenon.» Proceedings of the ACM on Human - Computer Interaction 7, no. CSCW2 (2023): 1- 26.
- Andrei, F. et al,.»Trust intermediary in a cryptomarket for illegal drugs.» European Sociological Review 40, no. 1 (2024): 160 - 172.
- Andrew, J., and Baker, M.,»The general data protection regulation in the age of surveillance capitalism.» Journal of Business Ethics 168 (2021): 565- 578.
- Boekhout van Solinge, T.»Global cocaine flows, geographical displacement, and crime convergence.» In The Evolution of Illicit Flows: Displacement and Convergence among Transnational Crime, pp. 57- 81. Cham: Springer International Publishing, 2022.
- Byungkyu, L. et al,»Systematic evaluation of state policy interventions targeting the US opioid epidemic, 2007- 2018.» JAMA network open 4, no. 2 (2021): e2036687- e2036687.
- Clark,L.,»Overcoming the Challenges of Policing Drug Trafficking on the Dark Web», Searchlight.Cyber, accessed December 10, 2024.
- Cruz, S., and Martín - del - Campo, R.,»Synthetic Opioids as New Psychoactive Substances (NPS).» In Opioids: Pharmacology, Abuse, and Addiction, pp. 363- 383. Cham: Springer International Publishing, 2022.
- DEA,»2020 National Drug Threat Assessment (NDTA)», 2020.
- Dhali, M., et al.,»Cryptocurrency in the Darknet: sustainability of the current national legislation.» International Journal of Law and Management 65, no. 3 (2023): 261- 282.
- Ebrahimi, M., et al.,»Semi - supervised cyber threat identification in dark net markets: A transductive and deep learning approach.» Journal of Management Information Systems 37, no. 3 (2020): 694-722
- EUDA,»EU Drug Market: New psychoactive substances — Distribution and supply in Europe: Synthetic cannabinoids», 2024.
- Financial Action Task Force»Illicit Financial Flows from Cyber - Enabled Fraud.» 2023.
- Frank, R. and Mikhaylov, A.,»Beyond the ‘Silk Road’: Assessing illicit drug marketplaces on the public web.» Open Source Intelligence and Cyber Crime: Social Media Analytics (2020): 89 - 111.
- Guarita, B., et al.,»Monitoring drug trends in the digital environment–new methods, challenges and the opportunities provided by automated approaches.» International Journal of Drug Policy 94 (2021): 103210.
- Ijiga, A., et al.,»Advanced surveillance and detection systems using deep learning to combat human trafficking.» Magna Scientia Advanced Research and Reviews 11, no. 01 (2024): 267- 286.
- INTERPOL,»Cybercrime threat response», accessed December 10, 2024.
- IUT (2024). International Telecommunication Union, https://www.itu.int/ar/Pages/default.aspx/#/ar
- Javeriah, S., et al.,»The anonymity of the dark web: A survey.» IEEE Access 10 (2022): 33628 - 33660.
- Kassab,S., et al,»Terrorism and Organized Crime.» In The Illegal Drug Trade and Global Security, pp. 101- 121. Cham: Springer International Publishing, 2022.
- Kumar,A., and Rosenbach,E.,»The Truth About the Dark Web», International Monetary Fund, September, 2019.
- Kuner, C., et al,. The EU general data protection regulation: a commentary. Oxford University Press. 2020.
- Kushwaha,P. et al.,.»Enhancing clinical drug trial monitoring with blockchain technology.» Contemporary Clinical Trials (2024): 107684.
- Miliano et al.,»Sales and advertising channels of new psychoactive substances (NPS): internet, social networks, and smartphone apps.» Brain sciences 8, no. 7 (2018): 123.
- Mohamed, C.,»The Dark Web and the future of illicit drug markets.» Journal of Transportation Security 15, no. 3 (2022): 173- 191.
- Oxford Analytica.»Middle East captagon flows threaten regional security.» Emerald Expert Briefings oxan - db (2022).
- Per Håkon,M., et al,»The Ransomware - as - a - Service economy within the darknet.» Computers & Security 92 (2020): 101762.
- - Priyanka, G., et al,»Illegal Drug Use and Government Policy: Evidence from a Darknet Marketplace.» (2024).
- Radcliffe, D. et al, Social media in the Middle East 2022: A year in review. SSRN, 2023.
- Scheffler, S., and Mayer.J.,»Sok: Content moderation for end - to - end encryption.» arXiv preprint arXiv:2303.03979 (2023).
- Shambhavi, S.,»Issues with enforcing Mutual Legal Assistance Treaties (MLATs): Access to cross - border data in criminal investigation.» Available at SSRN 3815270 (2020).
- Singh, S. et al,»Social Network Analysis: A Survey on Process, Tools, and Application.» ACM Computing Surveys 56, no. 8 (2024): 1- 39.
- Son, J. et al., ,»Forensic analysis of instant messengers: Decrypt Signal, Wickr, and Threema.» Forensic Science International: Digital Investigation 40 (2022): 301347.
- Tomazic, T. , and Jerkovic, O.,.»Online interventions for the selective prevention of illicit drug use in young drug users: Exploratory study.» Journal of medical Internet research 22, no. 4 (2020): e17688.
- Turner, A., et al.,.»Analysis techniques for illicit bitcoin transactions.» Frontiers in Computer Science 2 (2020): 600596.
- UNODC (n.d.).»Undercover operations.» Retrieved December 10, 2024.
- UNODC,»Global Programme on Cybercrime», accessed December 10, 2024.
- UNODC,»Use of the Dark Web and Social Media for Drug Supply», accessed December 10, 2024.
- UNODC. (2022). World Drug Report 2022, booklet 1, Executive Summary Policy Implications. New York, United Nations publication. https://www.unodc.org/unodc/en/data - and - analysis/wdr - 2022_booklet - 1.html
- UNODC. (n.d.). Drug seizures. Retrieved from https://dataunodc.un.org/dp - drug - seizures
- UNODC. (n.d.). International law aspects of countering terrorism. Retrieved from https://www.unodc.org/documents/terrorism/Publications/FAQ/English.pdf
- Valeria,C., et al.,»Identifying new/emerging psychoactive substances at the time of COVID - 19; a web - based approach.» Frontiers in psychiatry 11 (2021): 632405.
- VAN NOORT, A. E. F.»Interception of electronic communications.» The (dis) approval (2018).
- Zhang, T.,»Privacy evaluation of blockchain based privacy cryptocurrencies: A comparative analysis of dash, monero, verge, zcash and grin.» IEEE Transactions on Sustainable Computing (2023).
- Zhengyi,L., et al.,»Demystifying the dark web opioid trade: content analysis on anonymous market listings and forum posts.» Journal of Medical Internet Research 23, no. 2 (2021): e24486.
- Ziavrou, K.,»New Psychoactive Substances: Challenges for Law Enforcement Agencies and the Law», George C. Marshall European Center for Security Studies, June, 2018.