From cannabis legalisation in the United States to the rise of psychedelics as wellness and productivity tools, the global politics of drugs is being rapidly transformed. But who really benefits from the legalisation of recreational drugs?

In this episode, journalist and author Atossa Araxia Abrahamian speaks with Kojo Koram, Professor of Law and Political Economy at Loughborough University, about his new book The Next Fix.

Drawing on reporting from Colombia, Ghana, Scotland and the United States, Koram traces the shifting relationship between criminalisation, capitalism and public health. The conversation examines the roots of drug regulation in empire, the racial inequalities embedded in prohibition, and the growing tension between movements seeking justice and corporations seeking profit from newly legal markets.

Koram also explores how substances once associated with criminality are being rebranded for elite consumption - as therapeutic treatments, Silicon Valley productivity aids and investment opportunities. At its centre is a wider question about power and inequality: who benefits when drugs move from the underground economy into the mainstream?

Kojo Koram is Professor of Law and Political Economy at Loughborough University. He is the author of The Next Fix: The Winners and Losers in the Future of Drugs.

Atossa Araxia Abrahamian is a journalist who writes about the cracks in the nation-state system. She is the author of The Hidden Globe: How Wealth Hacks the World.