Drug Trafficking, Security Threats, and Impacts on Youth: A Comprehensive Review
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Drug trafficking is one of the most acute transnational security issues of the 21st century and has far-reaching consequences to the youth populations worldwide. This is a comprehensive review of the existing literature that studies the nexus between drug trafficking networks, security vulnerabilities, and youth vulnerability. These include epidemiological, trafficking, and criminal network structure, security implication on nations and communities, and the multifaceted effects on the youth. The main conclusions are that the drug trafficking business produces more than 400 billion dollars of revenue annually all around the world stimulating organized crime, state institutions corruption, violence and instability. The youth populations are vulnerable to various interrelated factors: direct entry into trafficking groups, the experience of violence related to drugs, an increased risk of addiction, social destabilization, and a decreased rate of development. The geographic areas of focus such as the Southeast Asia, South Asia, Latin America, and Africa indicate the way in which trafficking networks take advantage of institutional vulnerabilities and geographic vulnerabilities. The paper will explore such security threats as cartel violence, state capture, terrorism-trafficking nexus, and community destabilization. International responses to interventions which have to be evidence-based, supply-side interdiction, demand reduction, development of alternative livelihoods and youth-based prevention strategies are critically analyzed. This review shows that the challenge of drug trafficking needs a multi-faceted security and public health strategy that acknowledges the protection of youth as a top priority. The future directions of research are longitudinal studies on the trauma of trafficking, assessment of the youth-focused intervention, and analysis of new threats such as the production of synthetic drugs and networks of the dark web distribution.
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