Craigslist’s role in the illegal drug trade

In a single year, abuse of illegal and prescription drugs costs the U.S. an estimated $271.5 billion, due to increased healthcare costs, crime and lost productivity. Not to mention the growing risk of overdose and death as increasingly potent substances, like fentanyl, are introduced to the market.

This is compounded by the increasing ease with which these illegal substances have become available, enabled in no small part by the internet. And these aren’t necessarily from outlets typically viewed as nefarious, like the dark web, but from sites many of us use regularly.

In this episode I am joined by Anandhi Bharadwaj, vice dean and professor with the Goizueta Business School at Emory University to discuss her research which will be published in the INFORMS journal Management Science. Her study, “Drug Abuse and the Internet: Evidence from Craigslist,” looks at the role Craigslist and similar online platforms have played in the increasing abuse of illegal and prescription drugs in the U.S.  

Interviewed this episode:

Anandhi Bharadwaj

Emory University

Professor Bharadwaj joined the Goizueta Business School in 1995 from Texas A&M University where she received her PhD degree in Management Information Systems with a minor in Computer Science. She also holds an MBA and a BS degree in Mathematics. Before pursuing her doctoral studies, Anandhi worked as an information systems consultant at NIIT, a world-wide IT consulting firm and was responsible for IT systems development and executive training for clients world-wide.

Anandhi currently serves as the Vice Dean of Faculty and Research, and the Department Editor for the IS track in Management Science. She has also served as Senior Editor for Information Systems Research, Associate Editor of MIS Quarterly and the Journal of AIS. Her research has been published in journals such as Management Science, Information Systems Research, MIS Quarterly, Organization Science Journal of MIS, Production and Operations Management, and IEEE Transactions on Engineering Management.