From Cocaine to Captagon: Why Drug Policy Needs a Comprehensive Approach

26 September 2025

GIGA researchers Prof. Dr. Sabine Kurtenbach, Janaina Maldonado, and Dr. Jonas von Hoffmann, together with partners from EU-LAC and HIAS, recently published a policy brief calling for a comprehensive and coordinated strategy to combat drug trafficking. Their approach frames containment as a shared global responsibility. In this interview, they share key insights from their research and outline what sustainable drug policy might look like. 

What is currently being done to curb cocaine smuggling, particularly in Europe and Latin America? 

GIGA experts: Counternarcotics measures typically target either supply or demand. Eradicating coca crops or providing for alternative livelihoods are examples of supply-side measures, while demand-side ones include drug prevention and treatment for cocaine users. Nevertheless, much of what is done today still involves leaning heavily on repression and incarceration, particularly against small-scale producers and traffickers. 

What connects supply and demand is a sophisticated global supply chain that spans coca production in Colombia, Peru, and Bolivia through cocaine users worldwide. Along this supply chain, efforts are being made to detect and disrupt the flow of illicit goods, through investigative work, surveillance, and seizures, especially but not limited to the ports – like Hamburg – through which most of the world’s cocaine is shipped. Most strategies, though, focus on one part of the supply chain – production, transport, or consumption – in isolation. 

Why is the “War on Drugs” deemed to have failed? 

The “War on Drugs” began with President Richard Nixon’s declaration of war in 1972 and has continued today, driven by repressive, supply-side counternarcotics policies like forced eradication, interdiction, and incarceration.  These measures have failed to curb supply and demand – drug use is rising. On the other hand, due to the “War on Drugs,” we have seen recurrent human right abuses, public health crises, environmental destruction, a fuelling of violence, as well as the undermining of state capacities and other negative externalities. 

What are the most effective levers to combat drug trafficking? 

Many counternarcotics measures are both ineffective and inefficient, as they target the weakest links in the supply chain like coca cultivators and street-level dealers. But their removal from the board does not alter the dynamics of the game. It would be more effective to focus on transnational traffickers, money launderers, or so-called brokers, who all play a crucial role in facilitating the global trade in illicit drugs. Taking them out, though, is more costly, challenging, and time-consuming. Even if successful on the individual level, others will fill the void as long as profits remain high. Moreover, this global web relies on protection markets and state infiltration, enabled by corrupt officials. Taking a holistic perspective must also include addressing the various economic, political, and social links between drug trafficking organisations and politics in producer and consumer countries alike. In our policy brief, we present an assessment of the problem and list recommendations for each critical point, including bi-regional cooperation and the active inclusion of civil society in the design of policies. 

What concrete steps could Germany take at the Port of Hamburg to address these issues? 

Several indispensable steps are, to some degree, already underway: improving available information, learning from successes and failures, increasing interagency collaboration and intelligence-sharing, and strengthening international cooperation. Part of the effort also involves accepting that some illicit drugs will always slip through even the tightest security net.  

On a more concrete level, improving physical port security and technical surveillance, fixing loopholes, raising awareness among workers, or incorporating new technologies can collectively make it much more difficult to smuggle drugs through a certain port. However, it is essential to coordinate strategies throughout the supply chain in order to avoid a “balloon effect” whereby trafficking routes simply move to another area. 

What do you mean by the “Economies of Peace” you recommend implementing here? 

The term originates from Peace Studies and refers to economies that do not generate direct physical violence. While many economies give rise to structural violence, inequality and human rights abuses, illicit drugs tend to generate high levels of physical violence when criminal organisations fight each other and/or the state as well as force civil society actors into cooperation or silence. In relation to illicit drugs, economies of peace would hence change these dynamics by removing negative incentives via improved livelihoods, the empowerment of civilians, and greater government accountability based on the rule of law.  

How can this be achieved in the context of the drug market? 

To answer this, more research is needed. Regarding drug policies, a workshop participant stated: “Today drug trafficking is increasingly based on networks, making the ‘business’ highly flexible and able to adapt to changes in context (and to counternarcotic strategies).” Future research needs to address the complexity of drug production, trafficking and consumption. This is, we need a comprehensive view disentangling the various problems (drivers, crime, marginalisations to name just a few) but with an effort to focus specifically on the connections between these problems. In order to tackle the effects of drug economies, we need to establish our own network.