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From 2018 to 2021, seizures of counterfeit oxycodone pills containing non-pharmaceutical fentanyl or other novel synthetic opioids increased significantly contributing to continuing increases in overdose mortality in Northern America. Evidence suggests that counterfeit pills are distributed through cryptomarkets. This article presents data regarding the availability and characteristics of oxycodone pills advertised on one major cryptomarket between January and March 2022. Collected data were processed using a dedicated Named Entity Recognition algorithm to identify oxycodone listings and categorized them as either counterfeit or pharmaceutical. Frequency of listings, average number of pills advertised, average prices per milligram, number of sales, and geographic indicators of shipment origin and destination were analyzed. In total, 2,665 listings were identified as oxycodone. 48.2% (1,285/2,665) of these listings were categorized as counterfeit oxycodone, advertising a total of 652,699 pills (93,242.7 pills per datapoint) offered at a lower price than pharmaceutical pills. Our data indicate the presence of a large volume of counterfeit oxycodone pills both in retail- and wholesale-level amounts mostly targeting US and Canadian customers. These exploratory findings call for more research to develop epidemiological surveillance systems to track counterfeit pill and other drug availability on the Dark web environment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Novel synthetic opioids are fueling the overdose deaths epidemic in North America.Recently, non-fentanyl novel synthetic opioids have emerged in forensic toxicological results. Cryptomarkets have become important platforms of distribution for illicit substances. This article presents the data concerning the availability trends of novel non-fentanyl synthetic opioids listed on one cryptomarket.Methods: Listings from the EmpireMarket cryptomarket "Opiates" section were collected between June 2020 and August 2020. Collected data were processed using eDarkTrends Named Entity Recognition algorithm to identify novel synthetic opioids, and to analyze their availability trends in terms of frequency of listings, available average weights, average prices, quantity sold, and geographic indicators of shipment origin and destination information.Results: 35,196 opioid-related listings were collected through 12 crawling sessions. 17 nonfentanyl novel synthetic opioids were identified in 2.9 % of the collected listings for an average of 9.2 kg of substance available at each data point. 587 items advertised as non-fentanyl novel synthetic opioids were sold on EmpireMarket for a total weight of between 858 g and 2.7 kg during the study period. 45.5 % of these listings were advertised as shipped from China.Conclusions: Fourteen of the 17 non-fentanyl novel synthetic opioids were identified for the first time on one large cryptomarket suggesting a shift in terms of novel non-fentanyl synthetic opioids availability. This increased heterogeneity of available novel synthetic opioids could reduce the efficiency of existing overdose prevention strategies. Identification of new opioids underpins the value of cryptomarket data for early warning systems of emerging substance use trends. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: The United States is facing a "triple wave" epidemic fueled by novel synthetic opioids. Cryptomarkets, anonymous marketplaces located on the deep web, play an increasingly important role in the distribution of illicit substances. This article presents the data collected and processed by the eDarkTrends platform concerning the availability trends of novel synthetic opioids listed on one cryptomarket.Methods: Listings from the DreamMarket cryptomarket "Opioids" and "Research Chemicals" sections were collected between March 2018 and January 2019. Collected data were processed using eDarkTrends Named Entity Recognition algorithm to identify opioid drugs, and to analyze their availability trends in terms of frequency of listings, available average weights, average prices, and geographic indicators of shipment origin and destination information.Results: 95,011 opioid-related listings were collected through 26 crawling sessions. 33 novel synthetic opioids were identified in 3.3 % of the collected listings. 44.7 % of these listings advertised fentanyl (pharmaceutical and non-pharmaceutical) or fentanyl analogs for an average of 2.8 kgs per crawl. "Synthetic heroin" accounted for 33.2 % of novel synthetic opioid listings for an average 1.1 kgs per crawl with 97.7 % of listings advertised as shipped from Canada. Other novel synthetic opioids (e.g., U-47,700, AP-237) represented 22 % of these listings for an average of 6.1 kgs per crawl with 97.2 % of listings advertised as shipped from China.Conclusions: Our data indicate consistent availability of a wide variety of novel synthetic opioids both in retail and wholesale-level amounts. Identification of new substances highlights the value of cryptomarket data for early warning systems of emerging substance use trends. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]