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.

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Twelve-lecture course, each comprising a presentation by the lecturer, student presentations, and a class discussion prompted by key texts.

Students will be evaluated based on a short in-class presentation (30%), an end-of-term essay on a set topic (50%), a forum discussion of weekly reading (10%), and general engagement and participation (10%). Brief preparatory materials will be provided before each clas