Cannabis prices on the dark web

Abstract

With the recent trends in legalisation and with the transition of illegal drug markets to the internet, much more detailed information about the price and quality of cannabis is now available, making an analysis of the determinants of prices easier. This column analyses data collected over a two-week period in 2015 from a dark web marketplace, which details about 500 cannabis prices from around 140 sellers in 18 countries. It concludes that the internet-based cannabis market is characterised by monopolistic competition, where many sellers offer differentiated products with quality variation causing dispersion of cannabis prices.