Online Illicit Drug Distribution in Thailand: Results From an Exploratory Qualitative Content Analysis of X Advertisements. (Preprint)

• DOI: 10.2196/preprints.71703
• Publication Date: 2025-02-10T15:20:07Z
• Authors: Francois Rene Lamy; Seung Chun Paek; Natthani Meemon

BACKGROUND The study examines the content of illicit drug advertisements on X (formerly Twitter) in Thailand. Over the past decade, social media platforms have been utilized to facilitate online substance trade, leveraging their anonymity, ease of access, and user-friendly interfaces. Despite the growth in use of such platforms for drug distribution, there is a paucity of research conducted in Thailand that aimed to grasp the types of substances, marketing strategies, and public health risks associated with this phenomenon.

OBJECTIVE Inductively explore the content of tweets advertising drugs in the Thai language.

METHODS Tweets advertising psychoactive substances in the Thai Language were collected manually between April and July 2024. A qualitative content analysis was performed on collected tweets. Tweets were coded based on five themes: types of substances advertised, marketing strategies, delivery methods, number of substances per tweet, and location references. Intercoder reliability for each theme were assessed using Krippendorff’s Alpha, achieving substantial agreement across most codes.

RESULTS During the data collection period, 3,832 tweets advertising drugs were collected. Most tweets (63.3%) mentioned five or more substances, with depressants like opioids (73.3%), antihistamines (62.5%), and benzodiazepines (52.4%) being the most frequently advertised. Common marketing techniques included direct contact information (74.3%) and fast delivery (31.7%). Delivery methods primarily involved courier services, but tend to offer multiple options at once. Tweets that mentioned at least one sex-performance enhancer were frequently (77.7%) advertised in combination with a benzodiazepine.

CONCLUSIONS This study results suggest the presence of a large number of substances advertised for sale on the Thai X chatter. This digital form of drug trading is facilitated by possible direct messaging and the large number of courier services existing in Thailand. Our findings call for the development of real-time monitoring systems harnessing drug-related data from social media to inform public health practitioners about emerging substances and trends and address the challenges posed by the digital drug trade.