Fake Meds Online (PDF)

"In this thoughtful and carefully researched book Hall and Antonopoulos describe an illegal market that has been largely ignored by government agencies and social scientists alike. While this trade lacks the tawdry glamour of other illegal markets such as drugs, gangs and people, the authors of this important book have unpicked the workings of a business that is genuinely transnational and constitutes a real threat that implicates orthodox commercial forces, and blurs conventional distinctions between legal and illegal enterprise".

- Dick Hobbs, author of Lush Life

"In this highly readable and original study, Hall and Antonopoulos bring together insights from criminology, medical sociology, political economy and internet studies, and in doing so offer a much-needed account of how the supply of, and demand for, illicit pharmaceuticals has become a multi-billion dollar criminal enterprise."

- Majid Yar, author of Cybercrime and Society

This book provides a timely criminological investigation into the rapidly growing sale of fake medicines online. Some estimates suggest that the fake medicine trade has now overtaken marijuana and prostitution as the world's largest market for criminal traffickers. This increase has been particularly apparent in the context of various evolutionary phases in information and communications technologies, and the Internet now acts as the main avenue through which this criminal market is expanding. Thus far - despite growing concern and media attention - this extensive, extremely profitable, and ultimately life-threatening online market is yet to be fully explored. Drawing on the authors' own criminological investigation of both the supply and demand sides in the United Kingdom, this study offers the first in-depth and empirically-grounded analysis of the online trade in illicit medicines. Founded on rigorous research, and bolstering a rich area for debate, this book will be of particular interest for scholars of drugs, criminology and technology studies.

Alexandra Hall is Senior Lecturer in Criminology at the School of Social Sciences, Business and Law, Teesside University, UK.

Georgios A. Antonopoulos is Professor of Criminology at the School of Social Sciences, Business and Law, Teesside University, UK.