Join CEO Megan Lundstrom as she sits down with advocates, survivors, and community members to explore the complex realities of human trafficking.
Through honest conversations and powerful insights, these podcasts shed light on critical issues, share lived experiences, and highlight paths to change. Watch the latest episodes below.
Drug-Based Coercion
What is Drug-Based Coercion?
Drug-based coercion is a pervasive, yet seldom acknowledged strategy used in modern sex trafficking schemes. Traffickers may supply drugs, force drug use to initiate addiction, or withhold drugs as punishment—all calculated methods to deepen control. Addiction is not consent, it’s coercion.
What Does the Data Say?
The National Human Trafficking Hotline consistently identifies substance use as both a risk factor and a method of coercion in trafficking cases. From 2018 to 2022, the hotline identified 8,613 likely victims whose traffickers exploited their addiction or used drugs as a means of control in cases involving force, fraud, or coercion. An additional 2,497 likely victims during that same time period reported that prior substance use made them more vulnerable to trafficking in the first place.