When drugs meet new technologies

Summary: The question of the impact of digital innovations in the field of drugs deserves to be posed in a broader way. The text presented here introduces this special issue. It puts the question of illicit drugs into a sociohistorical perspective, to put these drugs into perspective and remove them from the ideological framework of the long-used prohibitionist discourse that continues to exist within the French debate. But the aim of this issue of Psychotropes is not simply to analyze the evolution of drug trafficking. We will reflect on some cautious lines of thought, looking at the Darknet and the effects of new forms of commerce linked to the period of lockdowns and curfews that we have experienced since March 2020. Peer counselling and face-to-face harm reduction, as well as exchanges and therapies mobilizing new technologies, are also discussed.