Have you ever wondered just how illegal drugs make their way from wherever they’re produced in the world into the hands of ordinary people in the United States? If you haven’t, let’s considerate it together and let’s consider what fascinates me the most in all of it which is how drug dealers use technology in every stage of the drug selling process and how technology on a broad scale has made the illegal drug trade an international thing at all. 

Technology has been used to sell illegal drugs for almost as long as drugs have been illegal. From the early days of the emerging telephone network service to the use of corner payphones to dealers carrying pagers and eventually mobile phones and burner phones and using apps like Snapchat or Instagram to reach their customers. 

Even something as simple as a phone call or text message represents the final step in the secret journey of getting ecstasy from a manufacturer in the Netherlands into the hands of a music festival goer on a summer evening in Anywhere, USA.  

Drug dealing and the drug trade has evolved right along side emerging technologies and will continue to do so into the future. 

Phones - and eventually pagers - dominated drug dealing from its earliest days and into the 90s. The mid 2000s gave rise to the dark web and cryptocurrency followed shortly thereafter. The power and promise of anonymity and privacy with the popularization of encryption and communication apps like WhatsApp, Signal, and Telegram have given new rise to what it means to use technology to leverage sales completely in the dark. 

On today’s show, I interview “Marcus”, (who is using a pseudonym and whose voice I have altered by request). He is a retired drug dealer who took advantage of every bit of technology available to sell almost every kind of drug you can imagine, from pot to MDMA (also known as ecstasy). He started selling in high school to fund his own smoking habit and it was something he continued into college and into his life as a young professional in the world of legitimate work. 

Marcus used social media to find customers, the dark web to buy from overseas, and cryptocurrency to make it all happen. 

If a technology was available to help Marcus move more product, and evade the feds at the same time, he was likely using it. 

Joining me in my interview with Marcus is my co-producer, Dagny Battaglino. You will hear her asking questions and joining our conversation throughout as we get to know the secret life of tech as it’s being used to buy and selling drugs down on Main Street and all over the world. 

One last note, and something that really stood out to Dagny and me, is how much care Marcus put into being the safest drug dealer he could be. He religiously tested everything he ever bought and sold and he intentionally avoided selling to young people. His honor code as your friendly neighborhood drug dealer shines through throughout.