From horticulture to psychonautics: an analysis of online communities discussing and trading plants with psychotropic properties
From horticulture to psychonautics: an analysis of online communities discussing and trading plants with psychotropic properties
This study is a spinoff of the cross-disciplinary project “FloraGuard: Tackling the Illegal Trade in Endangered Plants”, and focuses on the analysis of online forums dedicated to the discussion and the trades of plant species, often highly endangered in nature, that are sought after for their psychotropic properties. The study sheds light on the interesting but overlooked area of the intersection of environmental crimes, illegal online trades, and drug use. Some species of conservation concern have known psychoactive/analgesic properties; as these properties are now openly and broadly discussed in specialised online communities, attention is required both as regards the potential for health-related harms suffered by reckless users, and for environmental-related harms for the species in question.
Lavorgna, Anita
6e34317e-2dda-42b9-8244-14747695598c
Rekha, Gopala Sasie
9efb56db-3c5c-449f-b340-e2c99b20d34c
Lavorgna, Anita
6e34317e-2dda-42b9-8244-14747695598c
Rekha, Gopala Sasie
9efb56db-3c5c-449f-b340-e2c99b20d34c
Lavorgna, Anita and Rekha, Gopala Sasie
(2020)
From horticulture to psychonautics: an analysis of online communities discussing and trading plants with psychotropic properties.
Trends in Organized Crime.
(doi:10.1007/s12117-020-09389-5).
Abstract
This study is a spinoff of the cross-disciplinary project “FloraGuard: Tackling the Illegal Trade in Endangered Plants”, and focuses on the analysis of online forums dedicated to the discussion and the trades of plant species, often highly endangered in nature, that are sought after for their psychotropic properties. The study sheds light on the interesting but overlooked area of the intersection of environmental crimes, illegal online trades, and drug use. Some species of conservation concern have known psychoactive/analgesic properties; as these properties are now openly and broadly discussed in specialised online communities, attention is required both as regards the potential for health-related harms suffered by reckless users, and for environmental-related harms for the species in question.
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Accepted/In Press date: 24 June 2020
e-pub ahead of print date: 8 July 2020
Identifiers
Local EPrints ID: 442132
URI: http://eprints.soton.ac.uk/id/eprint/442132
ISSN: 1084-4791
PURE UUID: 53e0f39c-a3e9-4c58-b1cc-4f634a230e4d
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Date deposited: 07 Jul 2020 16:50
Last modified: 17 Mar 2024 05:42
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