- In Poland, you wait for your mephedrone delivery like you would for a pizza – it comes in less time than it takes for the police to arrive. Without leaving the house, anyone can buy almost any drug. Channels on the Russian Telegram app advertise the services of hundreds of dealers across the country.
- Two popular Polish platforms are also used for online drug dealing: parcel lockers and BLIK payments. Last year alone, parcel locker provider InPost discovered half a ton of drugs in shipments.
- Both platforms are aware of the problem. Although they cooperate with the police, their control over who sends what through them is limited.
- We have investigated the scale of the phenomenon: it is huge. We found hundreds of thousands of advertisements for the sale of drugs.
- The online trade epidemic is claiming lives, but the police catch dealers randomly or not at all. Some police stations do not see the problem. The authorities have no plan on how to deal with the situation.
And if it isn’t for online channels, it is “taxis” delivering coke whose numbers are shared around. And if it isn’t that, it is the stalls everyone knows at the markets. And if it isn’t that it is the local dealer working out of his flat…
It is a never ending whack-a-mole until drug policies change from a criminal punishment focus to a public health focus.
AS everyone who knows anything about economics know: when theres a demand, there are people who will fulfill that demand. The state has the choice if he wants to fulfill this demand in a safe environment or if he wants to risk peoples lives by letting consumer rely on the black market.