| Hans-Günter Meyer-Thompson | International
USA. INHUMAN TRADE: How the opioid epidemic has helped fuel human trafficking
Criminals who traffic human beings often prey on the most vulnerable.
In Massachusetts and around the country, experts say that human traffickers have increasingly been exploiting the vulnerability created by opioid addiction to coerce people - mostly young women - into a life of modern-day slavery.
Julie Dahlstrom, a clinical associate professor with the Immigrants’ Rights and Human Trafficking Program at the Boston University School of Law, said drug addiction is one of several factors, along with homelessness and past trauma, that increase an individual’s risk of becoming a victim of human trafficking. (wickedlocal.com, 09.08.2017)