In this talk, Dr. Hoffer will present ethnographic and survey data from a long-term investigation of heroin market operations. The modern opioid epidemic, which combines the use of prescription opiate medications, heroin, and illicit fentanyl, has resulted in more U.S. deaths than the Vietnam War. With no signs the crisis is abating, one long-existing challenge associated with this and other drug epidemics has been understanding the illegal drug market. Common questions concern how people access and engage local opioid markets, how these markets operate and adapt, and how markets expand and grow. Dr. Hoffer argues that modern opioid markets are complex networks of self-organized peer relations rather than independent economic systems run by drug trafficking organizations (DTOs). He will discuss the applied and policy implications of this reorientation, and the role agent-based modeling can play in measuring local opioid demand.
Presented by The Undergraduate Anthropology Club and The Department of Anthropology. For additional information please contact: undergraduateanthropologyclub@gmail.com
