Technology: The New Gateway to Drugs

The drug problem in our nation continues to evolve as technology evolves. Used to, if you were interested in having a particular drug, you had to meet your middle man and order, either from what he had on him or what he could get a hold of. The chain of command and the menu were handled by word of mouth, mostly.

This made undercover work easier and thus made taking down sellers and buyers less difficult. However, with the advancement of technology, the drug world has grown leaps and bounds and not in the right direction. With new ways to make contacts, sell, and buy, authorities are scrambling to keep up. Here are a few ways that tech is aiding the drug business.

Image Source: Pixabay

Cell Phones

In the old days, the majority of conversation between a buyer and seller happened by word of mouth and you never really knew if the deal was going to go down until you arrived at the agreed upon place. This was the main form of communication, because the police learned quickly to tap the phone lines.

While that is still possible with today with a landline, the drug business is getting smarter and learning to adapt using technology. One of those ways is through the use of disposable cell phones, also called burner phones. A burner phone is technically a prepaid phone. Being a prepaid phone, it is not under contract and thus harder to track making contact between buyer and seller much easier.

Online Stores

Another way modern tech allows the drug cartels to flourish is through online businesses. There are businesses for everything under the sun online from cloth diapers to your next heroine dose. For real!! Drug cartels are moving up and adapting to the evolving forms of technology. Some sites run a front.

To the untrained eye, they may be selling prescription drugs, sunglasses, or even toys, but in reality, if you bought a toy train on one of these sites, you might actually be buying a kg of cocaine. Because of the nature of these shops, it takes the authorities a little more time and research to bust those behind them, which in turn gives the drug dealers plenty of time to turn a profit and make repeat customers.

Drones

Last, but not least, some of that stuff you see in the movies is real. Every soldier knows that one way to get the drop on your enemy is to know what he is doing before they do it. Some dealers and buyers have taken this to heart and have learned to program and control drones that act as a lookout while a deal is in progress. This allows them to see the police coming and scatter at the first sight making arrests a delicacy.

Technology has been an asset to the world in so many ways. This is obviously not one of them. However, as time goes on, authorities will be working, and already are in most cases, to use the same technology and newer to eradicate the drug business once and for all.