Call for paper No. 22 for receipt of research articles

Call for papers. N.° 22

Central Theme: The Economics of Drug Trafficking: Global Impact, Markets and the Future

Editors: Carla Álvarez, Roxana Arroyo and Jorge Guadalupe

The global impact of the drug economy has profound economic, social, political, cultural, security, public health, human rights and international relations repercussions. Each year, it moves hundreds of billions of dollars, fuels money laundering networks, and fosters corruption and criminal violence. It is difficult to determine the magnitude of this economic scheme due to the illegal status of the drug trade; however, some international organisations implement various methodologies to approximate a figure. In 2017, the Inter-American Development Bank estimated that (only in Latin America) the money generated by this illegal economy amounted to $261 billion (IDB, 2017). It is reasonable to assume that this figure has increased, especially considering that drug use has increased by 20 % in the last ten years, according to the latest report by the United Nations Office on Crime and Crime (UNODC, 2024).

It is not only consumption that has driven the growth of drug trafficking but also the diversification of the organisations' criminal activities. Indeed, the expansion of the repertoire of crimes into wildlife trafficking, financial fraud and illegal resource extraction has also increased the profits of these groups (Interpol, 2024). In addition, this capacity for diversification has incorporated advanced technologies such as cryptocurrencies, drones and dark web platforms to expand operations and evade controls, against which governments across different states have been unable to put an effective brake on them.

The ineffectiveness of the war on drugs has raised questions about the strategies employed and has opened the debate about the importance of regulating certain substances, the need for comprehensive approaches that combine prevention of drug use, implementation and expansion of the use of detoxification treatment (according to the UNODC [2024] currently only 1 in 11 people access these services) and harm reduction plans. However, there is still much to be discussed and done; indeed, the future of drug trafficking depends on the ability of states to coordinate a comprehensive response that includes innovation, international cooperation and a more balanced approach to addressing its causes and consequences.

Drug trafficking analysis needs a multi-causal and multidimensional approach. Ideally, contributions should address the economic dimension of drug trafficking. Alternatively, contributions could examine the social elements of this phenomenon regarding the impact that the prohibition of drug production and consumption has on the levels of violence faced by communities and populations. The editors could also consider approaches that consider the impacts that the new drugs have on users, societies and international relations.

Estado & Comunes invites researchers in economics, sociology, political science, international relations, criminology, law and other related disciplines to submit papers for this dossier. The following is a non-exhaustive list of the thematic areas of interest:

Financing public policy: Articles can address the allocation of state resources in the fight against drug trafficking at the level of the military, judicial, and prison systems, prevention and social reintegration programmes, and anti-drug operations. It is crucial to address the execution and optimisation of spending, the assessment of public investment within the state framework and the functionality of the entities in charge of combating drug trafficking.
Production, supply, and demand: Articles can address topics such as cultivation (coca, poppy, cannabis), production and logistics costs. Organisational structures (small producers versus large cartels) and technologies in drug processing. Submissions can also explore value chains, money laundering, demand, consumption, and drug markets.
Drugs, technology and new markets: the economics of synthetic drugs (fentanyl, ecstasy, among others) and their expansion into global markets, trading on the dark web, the use of cryptocurrencies, and new technologies for drug production and distribution.
Methodology: contributions on methods and strategies for estimating the economics of drug trafficking, public spending in the war on drugs and comparative analyses of different realities affected by this criminal activity.
Human rights: analysis of the link between drug trafficking and other criminal activities (illegal mining, arms and wildlife trafficking, among others) and their impact on violence (gender violence, murders, disappearances, torture and displacement, human trafficking, forced recruitment) and territories (illegal occupation of land, forced displacement, extractivism, ecological conflicts, land dispossession, criminalisation of communities). Proposals will be considered that link human rights with security agendas in the face of drug trafficking, its impact on the social fabric and cultural changes.
Public policies against drug trafficking: contributions can explore security policies against drug trafficking (interdiction of drug trafficking, crop eradication, strengthening of security forces, the dismantling of criminal networks), inter-institutional coordination (police, public health, justice) and international cooperation (security-development nexus, border control, global policies, crop eradication).

Keywords: economics of drug trafficking, illegal markets, international cooperation for security, anti-drug public policy, technological innovation.

Guidelines for authors: https://n9.cl/iudbo