This scholarly examination of the worldwide web of narcotics today provides students, social workers, health providers, law enforcement officers and policy makers with an up-to-date, overall exploration of the world of drugs. Vast resources are pumped into the 'war on drugs'. But in practice, prohibition has failed. Narcotics use continues to rise, while technology and globalisation have made a whole new range of drugs available to a vast consumer market. Where wealth and demand exist, supply continues to follow. Prohibition has failed to stem consumption and production, criminalised social groups, impeded research into alternative medicine and disease, promoted violence and gang warfare, and impacted negatively on the environment. The alternative is a humane policy framework that recognizes the incentives to produce, traffic and consume narcotics.

Inaugurated in 1984, America's "War on Drugs" is just the most recent skirmish in a standoff between global drug trafficking and state power. From Britain's nineteenth-century Opium Wars in China to the activities of Colombia's drug cartels and their suppression by U.S.-backed military forces today, conflicts over narcotics have justified imperial expansion, global capitalism, and state violence, even as they have also fueled the movement of goods and labor around the world. In Drug Wars, cultural critic Curtis Marez examines two hundred years of writings, graphic works, films, and music that both demonize and celebrate the commerce in cocaine, marijuana, and opium, providing a bold interdisciplinary exploration of drugs in the popular imagination. Ranging from the writings of Sigmund Freud to pro-drug lord Mexican popular music, gangsta rap, and Brian De Palma's 1983 epic Scarface, Drug Wars moves from the representations and realities of the Opium Wars to the long history of drug and immigration enforcement on the U.S.-Mexican border, and to cocaine use and interdiction in South America, Middle Europe, and among American Indians. Throughout Marez juxtaposes official drug policy and propaganda with subversive images that challenge and sometimes even taunt government and legal efforts. As Marez shows, despite the state's best efforts to use the media to obscure the hypocrisies and failures of its drug policies-be they lurid descriptions of Chinese opium dens in the English popular press or Nancy Reagan's "Just Say No" campaign-marginalized groups have consistently opposed the expansion of state power that drug traffic has historically supported. Curtis Marez is assistant professorof critical studies at the University of Southern California School of Cinema-Television.

This book explores the origins, history and organisation of the international system of narcotic drug control with a specific focus on heroin, cannabis and cocaine. It argues that the century-long quest to eliminate the production, trade in and use of narcotic drugs has been a profound failure. The statistics produced by the international and domestic narcotic drug control agencies point to a sustained expansion of the drug trade, despite the imposition of harsh criminal sanctions against those engaged, as producers, traffickers or consumers, in the narcotic drugs market. The roots of this major international policy failure are traced back to the outdated ideology of prohibition, which is shown to be counterproductive, utopian and a fundamentally inadequate basis for narcotic drug policy in the twenty-first century. Prohibition, championed by many US policy makers, has left the international community poorly positioned to confront those changes to the drug trade and drug markets that have resulted from globalisation. Moreover, prohibition based approaches are causing more harm than good, as is demonstrated through reference to issues such as HIV/AIDS, the environment, conflict, development and social justice. As the drug control system approaches its centenary, there are signs that the global consensus on narcotic drug prohibition is fracturing. Some European and South American states are pushing for a new approach based on regulation, decriminalisation and harm reduction. But those seeking to revise prohibition strategies faces entrenched resistance, primarily by the U.S. This important text argues that successive American governments have pursued a contradictory approach; acting decisively against the narcotic drug trade at home and abroad, while at the same time working with drug traffickers and producer states when it is in America's strategic interest. As a result, US policy approaches emerge as a decisive factor in accounting for the failure of prohibition.

Focusing on political economic ideas and analysis, the author examines the reasons behind the lack of international concensus on the most effective methods for dealing with international drug production, distribution and trade.

"This comprehensive volume makes a substantive and unique contribution to understanding the drug trade at the national, regional, and global levels. Bringing together respected scholars and analysts from diverse disciplines and from Latin America, Europe, and the United States, it is the most important single volume in the field this decade."--Michael Gold-Biss, American University Stemming from an international conference held in Utrecht, this collection encompasses the political, economic, social, and legal aspects of the illegal drug industry. The introduction provides an overview of the political economy of the drug industry followed by discussions of the impact of the drug industry on the Latin American source countries; drug trafficking and money laundering; the war on drugs, transnational crime, and international security; and current options for intervention and control. Contents Part I. Introduction 1. The Political Economy of the Drug Industry: Its Structure and Functioning, by Menno Vellinga Part II. The Drug Industry: Its Impact on Economy, Politics, and Society and the Drug Control Effort in Source Countries 2. Has Bolivia Won the War? Lessons from Plan Dignidad, by Eduardo A. Gamarra 3. Questionable Alliances in the War on Drugs: Peru and the United States, by Mariano Valderrama and Hugo Cabieses 4. Illegal Drugs in Colombia: From Illegal Economic Boom to Social Crisis, by Francisco E. Thoumi 5. Mexico: Drugs and Politics, by Luis Astorga 6. The Political Economy of Drugs in the Caribbean: Problems without Passports, by Ivelaw L. Griffith Part III. Trafficking and Money Laundering 7. The Political Economy of Drug Smuggling, by Peter Reuter 8. Post-Fordist Cocaine: Labor and Business Relations among Colombian Dealers, by Damián Zaitch 9. Follow the Money: Anti-Money-Laundering Policies and Financial Investigations, by Ernesto Savona Part IV. The Drug Industry and the War on Drugs 10. Perversely Harmful Effects of Counter-Narcotics Policy in the Andes, by Rensselaer Lee 11. Diverging Trends in Global Drug Policy, by Martin Jelsma 12. Multilateral Drug Control, by Sandeep Chawla 13. The European Union and Drug Control: Issues and Trends, by Tim Boekhout van Solinge Part V. Drugs, Transnational Crime, and International Security 14. Globalization and Transnational Organized Crime: The Russian Mafia in Latin America and the Caribbean, by Bruce Michael Bagley 15. The War against Drugs and the Interests of Governments, by Alain Labrousse 16. Drugs and Transnational Organized Crime: Conceptualization and Solutions, by Ybo Buruma Part VI. Conclusion 17. The Drug Industry, Its Economic, Social, and Political Effects, and the Options of Intervention and Control, by Menno Vellinga Menno Vellinga has served as professor of development geography and director of the Institute of Development Studies at Utrecht University, the Netherlands. He presently occupies the Bacardi Chair for Eminent Visiting Scholars at the Center for Latin American Studies at the University of Florida.

The Politics of Narcotic Drugs brings together leading experts on the drugs trade to provide an accessible yet detailed analysis of the multiple challenges that the contemporary trade in narcotic drugs and its prohibition pose, from the local to the international community. Through the use of country and regional case studies that include Afghanistan, Mexico, Colombia and the Middle East, the drivers of the drugs trade and the security and development dilemmas created by the prohibition of narcotic substances are explored. Contributions that assess the international drug control regime, British anti-drug enforcement organizations, 'narcoterrorism' and options for drug policy reform engage readers in current debates and the narrative frameworks that shape discussion of the drugs issue. The book is an invaluable guide to the dynamic and far-reaching issue of narcotic drugs and the impact of their prohibition on our countries and communities. The chapters are followed by an A-Z glossary of key terms, issues and organizations, and a section of maps and statistics.

Offers new and cutting-edge research on the role of drugs in Iranian society and government. This title is also available as Open Access on Cambridge Core.