Buying unlicensed slimming drugs from the Web: a virtual ethnography Lisa Sugiura ls3e10@soton.ac.uk Catherine Pope Craig Webber Buying unlicensed slimming drugs from the Web: a virtual ethnography Sales of unlicensed drugs on the Web are increasing. Why do people buy slimming drugs from the Web? Is it illegal? What are the risks? Can social theory help us understand this behaviour? By: WebSci Researcher Posted on: 15/07/11 Alert Moderator Reply By: Social Theorist Avoiding authorised prescribers by using the Web to buy medicines is ‘illegitimate’ but not ‘illegal’ because national law applies to sale and supply within a country. Yet buying these drugs breaches domestic regulation. The law has yet to catch up with the Web. Deviancy theories used within criminology and sociology might help us answer our questions. Do purchasers realise they are deviant (operating outside of accepted norms)? Posted on: 20/07/11 Alert Moderator Reply Virtual ethnography - including non-participant observation was used to look at three purposively selected Web forums. Thematic analysis showed that: people share information about purchasing unlicensed medicine and how to circumvent regulation/rules there is limited awareness of risks and sanctions the Web provides a ‘mask’ for deviant behaviour the Web seems to make deviancy possible for people who may not engage in such activities offline. By: WebSci Researcher Representation of medicine purchasing Posted on: 18/09/11 Alert Moderator Reply Methodology Information from the sites was catalogued and slimming related threads were collected using Wget and manual copying and pasting. Web posts were examined, coded and analysed guided by criminological theories. Findings Some members of the slimming community online obtain medicines without prescription by using the Web. This behaviour transcends national regulatory and licensing frameworks and can be considered deviant. Acknowledgement: The Digital Economy Programme is a Research Councils UK cross council initiative led by EPSRC and contributed to by AHRC, ESRC and MRC