Addiction and Human Trafficking [What You Need to Know]

What is Human Trafficking?

First, it is essential to understand what human trafficking is. For some, the definition might be clear, but it’s critically important for everyone to understand fully.

You see, some people are being trafficked right now who have no idea that it’s happening to them.

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, sex trafficking under the Trafficking Victims Protection Act of 2000 is “the recruitment, harboring, transportation, provision, obtaining, patronizing, or soliciting of a person for a commercial sex act.”

Human trafficking makes victims of both adults and minors. Any commercial sexual activity with children qualifies as trafficking, while for adults, the term entails the use of force or leverage, sometimes coercion or fraud.

Whatever the method, it involves compelling individuals to engage in commercial sexual activity, thus amounts to a form of slavery.

There are very few legal exceptions made when it comes to this horrible system. Taking advantage of another human being in this way is punishable by a potential life sentence in prison.

However, some are more insidious and deceptive with their trafficking methods. Some individuals befriend and manipulate vulnerable victims and push them to the point where they believe they are making their own decision to engage in sexual activities for money or drugs.

Often, these individuals are not even given the money they are earning.

Sex Trafficking and Drug Addiction

This is where addiction comes into play. Addiction and human trafficking are often connected. Men and women who are addicted to drugs are more vulnerable to being trafficked.

Where they once had a support system of family and friends, they may have none. Addiction and the behavior that comes with it provide a surefire path to burning bridges. Individual relationships with their families and friends are ruined either quickly or over time.

Once bridges are burned, people are left out in the open, completely isolated. This gives the perfect opportunity for these malicious people to step in and offer to be of “support.”

Slowly, the trafficker will groom and manipulate the victim into doing what they want. One way traffickers coerce these vulnerable individuals is by taking advantage of their addiction. Withdrawal symptoms often become a source of leverage.

Sex trafficking and drug addiction are intertwined because traffickers often target vulnerable people addicted to a substance. Drugs become a form of coercion or leverage.

According to the 2017 Federal Human Trafficking Report, “traffickers supply a victim with addictive substances and use the victim’s fear of withdrawal symptoms to compel them to engage in commercial sex.”

By using withdrawal symptoms as leverage, traffickers can easily frighten, manipulate, and control their victims.

From the sex trafficking cases reviewed in 2017, about 34% involved vulnerable drug addicts used in sex trafficking with their captors using drugs to maintain power. This is a reality that most people are unaware of.

When this occurs, the trafficked person is exploited to the max. The abusers and traffickers realize there is an easy string to pull to get the desired behavior.

Dr. Hanni Stoklosa’s Mission to Help Human Trafficking Victims

Dr. Hanni Stoklosa spoke to the Health and Human Services task force in 2016 about preventing and ending human trafficking.

Her speech is transcribed in an article from the Administration for Children and Families under the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. In her speech, she spoke about her experiences, including a situation where she observed a vulnerable drug addict used in sex trafficking.

Specifically, she talked about a woman who was 20 years old and entered her emergency facility.

In addition, she said the woman was “hooked on heroin and was being discharged from a detox facility when she met a man who promised to provide a consistent supply of heroin.

She was locked in a motel room in Rhode Island, forced to service over 200 men. When she finally escaped, her first stop was my emergency department. She came to my hospital to escape trafficking.”

Dr. Stoklosa believes that more than 50% of trafficking victims are like this woman addicted to heroin or other opioids. The use of opioids to control sex trafficking victims is widespread.

This is also why seeking treatment for opioid addiction is essential, as it may lead down a long and dark road.

Who are the Victims?

The Polaris Project, formed in 2002, is a non-government, non-profit organization working to prevent human trafficking. The project collects data from sex trafficking hotlines and can determine patterns, potential threats, and statistics surrounding drug abuse and human trafficking.

According to their statistics,

From January 1, 2015, through June 30, 2017, Polaris recorded 2,238 potential victims of human trafficking who had drug use induced or exploited as a means of control in their trafficking situation.

In the same time frame, Polaris recorded 926 potential victims of human trafficking who had a substance abuse issue before the possible trafficking, many of whom had this vulnerability exploited by their traffickers. Twenty-six of those were recruited into their trafficking situation directly from drug rehabilitation centers.
Of more than 2200 potential victims recorded during this period, 543 of them were minors. 

Their captors used their drug problems against them. Meanwhile, over 1800 potential victims were women, both adults and underage. It is important to note that these statistics only come from people who have called hotlines or explained their hospitals’ situations.

It is crucial to know the risks and connections between human trafficking and drug abuse to protect yourself, your family, and others. There are warning signs that can point to a potential human trafficking situation. Knowing these warning signs can be vital for you and your family.