Transnational Research Centre on Emerging Drug Markets
Transnational Research Centre on Emerging Drug Markets
Transnational Research Centre on Emerging Drug Markets
Transnational Research Centre on Emerging Drug Markets
The Transnational Research Centre on Emerging Drug Markets (TRC-EDM) is an international research and advocacy hub dedicated to critically examining the social, economic, and political transformations taking place as countries move away from punitive drug prohibition toward regulated markets.
Based at Loughborough University and operating through a hub-and-spoke model across the Global South and North, TRC-EDM connects researchers, grassroots organisations, policymakers, and advocates working at the frontlines of drug policy reform.
At a historical moment in which drug policy reforms, particularly around cannabis, are generating new regulatory frameworks and global industries, TRC-EDM seeks to ensure that transitions to legal markets are economically fair, socially just, and environmentally sustainable. We focus especially on the risks of corporate capture, financialisation, and the marginalisation of traditional cultivators and small-scale producers in emerging markets across Ghana, South Africa, Colombia, Brazil, and beyond.
The centre produces and disseminates actionable knowledge through collaborative workshops, oral storytelling archives, policy-oriented research, and multimedia outputs. We aim to amplify the voices of communities directly affected by drug policy, bridge Global North–South dialogues, and map regulatory models and key economic actors shaping these markets.
Through strategic partnerships with universities, grassroots organisations, and media producers, the centre fosters cross-regional learning, supports reparative and equity-oriented policy approaches, and builds a sustainable infrastructure for long-term global collaboration in drug market governance.
Directors and funders
• Kojo Koram (Loughborough University, UK)
• Chevon C. Holmes (UC Davis, USA)
• Paulo J. R. Pereira (PUC-SP, Brazil)
• Robert Chlala (UCLA, USA)
Research themes
Emerging Regulatory Models & Political Economy
Mapping and analysing new drug regulatory frameworks across jurisdictions, with attention to international economic law, trade, financialisation, and global value chains.
Corporate Capture & Market Concentration
Investigating the role of transnational corporations, financial actors, and global capital in shaping cannabis and other emerging drug markets.
Reparative, Justice-Oriented & Sustainable Models
Identifying and amplifying equity-based regulatory approaches that promote racial, gender, environmental, and economic justice.
Grassroots Knowledge & Oral Archive
Documenting the lived experiences of cultivators, small producers, and frontline actors during transitions from prohibition to regulation.
Global North–South Knowledge Exchange
Building collaborative research infrastructures linking universities, community organisations, and policymakers across Africa, Latin America, Europe, and North America.
