Drugs 2.0: The Web Revolution That's Changing How the World Gets High - Softcover

An informed, entertaining and profoundly sobering explanation of the state of play in the modern day global narcotics trade. ... Power delves into the minutiae and oddities of the trade s development in illuminating detail. Some of it is technical, but it s rarely dry and often very funny. ... Drugs 2.0 is profoundly compelling. --Metro

Powers lifts the lid on forums where amateur chemists and dedicated drug experiments compare notes. Anyone who has remained unaware of the existence of the Dark Web will be genuinely shocked at what it s now possible to buy on the streets. --Herald

Though light in tone and often pretty funny, Drugs 2.0 delivers huge amounts of information, user experiences and a very balanced view. Drugs 2.0 is hugely informative and I can't recommend it highly enough if you want to read about how we got to a place, as Power says, "one step ahead of the law". --Testpressing

A clear-headed look at a hidden subculture. --New Scientist

This summer's must-read book for cosmic voyagers and those interested in the exploration of altered states. Mike Power's Drugs 2.0 is well-researched, informative and often funny look at a web-based narcotics industry and economy that has revolutionised the ways the world het its rocks off. --'Best summer read', Metro

It's a global billion-dollar industry that has been revolutionised by the same forces that have revolutionised everything else and, in this carefully researched book, Power enumerates the ways ... there are some astonishing stories here. --Carole Cadwalladr, Observer

'Mike Power is a sure guide to this murky cyber world, with its torrent of new tablets, capsules and powders' --Paperback review, Sunday Telegraph

'Fascinating and vivid' --Paperback review, Steven Poole, Guardian

A few years ago, deals were done in dimly-lit side streets or on the phone via a friend of a friend. Today, you can order every conceivable pill or powder with the click of a mouse. But the online market in narcotics isn't just changing the way drugs are bought and sold; it's changing the nature of drugs themselves. Enterprising dealers are using the web to engage highly skilled foreign chemists to tweak the chemical structures of banned drugs - just enough to create a similar effect, just enough to render them legal in most parts of the world. Drugs such as mephedrone (aka meow meow) are marketed as 'not for human consumption', but everyone knows exactly how they're going to be used - what they can't know is whether their use might prove fatal. From UK dancefloors to a department of toxicology, via social networking sites and underground labs, Mike Power explores this agile, international, virtual subculture that will always be one step ahead of the law.