SHORE & Whāriki Research Centre, College of Health, Massey University, Auckland, New Zealand.
SHORE & Whāriki Research Centre, College of Health, Massey University, Auckland, New Zealand.
Int J Drug Policy. 2022 Oct;108:103819. doi: 10.1016/j.drugpo.2022.103819. Epub 2022 Aug 9.
Social media is increasingly being utilized to facilitate the buying and selling of illegal drugs, particularly by young people. However, the range of social media and messaging platforms means people must make 'choices' around which platforms they will use to conduct drug transactions. Polymedia theory suggests that people use different media to manage their social relationships, 'choosing' appropriate channels or platforms based on platform features and the social context of the relationship. This paper uses polymedia theory to explore how buyers and sellers navigate platform 'choice' for drug trading, and how this bears similarities to the ways in which they move between different platforms in their daily lives. We conducted anonymous online interviews with thirty-three people who buy and/or sell drugs via social media and encrypted messaging apps in New Zealand to explore the factors shaping their selection of platforms for drug transactions. Our findings highlight the importance of the relationship between the buyer and seller in shaping how interviewees weighted the relative importance of platform security and convenience. Though more commercial drug sellers exercised considerable influence in directing buyers of drugs towards a given platform, this pattern was less characteristic of how platform 'choice' was navigated in contexts of drug supply between friends. In social supply contexts, platform 'choices' were often not explicitly made, but rather exchanges were channelled through platforms already in use within the social group. We highlight the tensions that arise between seller preferences for a more secure platform and buyer preferences for greater convenience in contexts of friendship. Our findings highlight the importance of understanding social media drug market engagement as shaped by broader patterns of social media engagement, and the distinctions between different social contexts and personal relationships, consistent with polymedia theory.
社交媒体越来越多地被用于促进非法药物的买卖，尤其是年轻人。然而，社交媒体和信息传递平台的范围很广，这意味着人们必须在进行药物交易时“选择”使用哪些平台。多模态媒体理论认为，人们使用不同的媒体来管理他们的社交关系，根据平台功能和关系的社交背景，“选择”合适的渠道或平台。本文运用多模态媒体理论，探讨了买家和卖家如何在毒品交易中进行平台“选择”，以及这种选择方式如何与他们在日常生活中在不同平台之间的转移方式相似。我们对 33 名通过社交媒体和加密消息应用程序在新西兰买卖毒品的人进行了匿名在线访谈，以探讨影响他们选择毒品交易平台的因素。我们的研究结果强调了买卖双方关系在塑造受访者如何权衡平台安全性和便利性相对重要性方面的重要性。虽然更多的商业毒品卖家在引导毒品买家选择特定平台方面发挥了相当大的影响力，但这种模式在朋友之间的毒品供应背景下，指导平台“选择”的模式并不典型。在社交供应背景下，平台“选择”通常不是明确做出的，而是通过社交群体中已经使用的平台进行交流。我们强调了在友谊背景下，卖家对更安全平台的偏好与买家对更大便利性的偏好之间存在的紧张关系。我们的研究结果强调了理解社交媒体药物市场参与是如何受到更广泛的社交媒体参与模式以及不同社会背景和个人关系之间的区别的影响，这与多模态媒体理论是一致的。
