Monitoring online illicit drug market during the COVID-19 in Georgia

This study examines changes in transactions on a major online drug market Matanga used in Georgia during the early stage of COVID-19 pandemic between April 2020-April 2021. We used a locally developed scraper software to monitor and record transactions.

Over the first 6 months of monitoring total revenues exceeded $4.5 million. There were 1,369 unique drug listings posted. On average day the webpage offered 138 listings with different substances (min 118, max 142). On average day, the revenue was 27,083.76 USD and the minimum and maximum daily revenues were 8,189 USD and 287,406 USD respectively. With the total 22,364 transactions over the reported period, the average number of daily transactions was 132 (min. 35, max. 882). Among 19 categories of different drugs sold on Matanga, cannabis products occupied the largest volume of sales, both in terms of a number of transactions and in terms of revenues generated. Daily offers and daily sales were vastly equal throughout the studied period. In other words, customers were willing and able to buy all and every substance offered by sellers. Prices for some drugs offered through online market have increased (substantially) and for others have not. Data for the second 6 month of monitoring are being analyzed and will be presented at the conference.

Drug supply through online drug market did not seem to be seriously affected during the lock-down period. It is not clear what share of the overall drug transactions in the country the Matanga platform accounted for, or what was the share of this specific webpage in the overall Internet and mobile app mediated drug sales. We suggest that the online market for illicit drugs in Georgia is undersupplied and it can potentially absorb more drugs that are currently offered for online sales.