DHIS 25A18 - The 200-Year War on Drugs : a Global History of Narcotics Prohibition

Why have governments come to ban drugs? What are the anti-narcotics order's underpinnings? What are its policy lessons? This course, combining history with current affairs, examines the rise of the global drug regime and considers its present-day governance lessons. Drug suppression was born of a specific historical process, beginning with the opium wars and culminating in a UN-centred global system. Students will learn how the anti-narcotics system was constructed, in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, and with what consequences. They will evaluate the various drug regimes having existed historically: the full tolerance once practiced in the US and UK, the Asian opium monopolies, the Portuguese decriminalization of possession, etc.. Finally, they will be invited to think over contemporary challenges to prohibition: cartel violence, the opioid epidemic, marijuana legalization, and consider paths for reform.
Pierre CAQUET
Séminaire
English
None
Autumn 2022-2023
Students will be evaluated based on a short in-class presentation (30%), an end-of-term essay on a set topic (60%), and general engagement and participation (10%). Brief preparatory materials will be provided before each class.
Babor, Thomas (ed.), Drug Policy and the Public Good, 2nd edn, Oxford, 2018.
Musto, David, The American Disease: Origins of Narcotic Control, 2nd edn, Oxford, 1987.
Pietschmann, Thomas, A century of international drug control', Bulletin of Narcotics (2007).
Barton, Patricia & Mills, James (eds), Drugs and Empires: Essays in Modern Imperialism and Intoxication 1500-1930, Basingstoke, 2007.
Berridge, Virginia, Illicit drugs and internationalism –the forgotten dimension', Medical History (2001).
Davenport-Hines, Richard, The Pursuit of Oblivion: a Global History of Narcotics, 1500-2000, London, 2001.
European Drug Reports, Lisbon: European Monitoring Centre for Drugs and Drug Addiction, 1996-.
Gootenberg, Paul, Andean Cocaine: the Making of a Global Drug, Chapel Hill, 2008.
Inciardi (ed.), James, The Drug Legalization Debate, 2nd edn, London, 1999.
Lovell, Julia, The Opium War, London: Picador, 2011.
Rasmussen, Nicolas, On Speed: the Many Lives of Amphetamine, New York, 2008.
United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime, World Drug Reports, Vienna, UNODC, 1997-.