NCJ Number
154362
Journal
Latin American Perspectives Volume: 20 Issue: 1 Dated: (Winter 1993) Pages: 83-97
Date Published
1993
Length
14 pages
Annotation
Drug abuse and drug law offenses in the United States are analyzed with respect to the ways in which they are related to the social and political conflict generated by the distorted and unequal development of capitalism in Latin America and the Caribbean and with respect to specific hypotheses that deserve further research and testing.
Abstract
The discussion emphasizes that focusing only on drug trafficking overlooks the economic, social, political, and cultural conditions responsible for the persistent expansion of the consumption and production of a variety of drugs, particularly in North America. It also notes that the capitalist mode of production has transformed both legal and illegal drugs into commodities. Illegal drugs represent reproducers of the social relations of dependent capitalism; the production of illegal drugs is a source of conflict. Until new and solid bases are developed for relations among all countries in North and South America and the United States abandons its use of the struggle against drug trafficking as one more tool in its policy of domination over the hemisphere, levels of conflict will increase and it will be difficult or impossible to reach a hemispheric consensus on action. Finally, it would be useful to analyze Cuba's drug policies and their implementation. 18 references