From Prohibition to Decriminalization: Interrogating the Emerging International Paradigm Shift in the War on Drugs Discourse

This project aims to interrogate the emerging counter-hegemonic war on drug discourse through a neo-Gramscian lens. Given that the estimated $2.5 trillion-dollar effort (Wood, 2011) has done little to stifle either drug consumption or production over the course of the past 40 years, a consensus is beginning to emerge surrounding the need for a policy change, especially in the countries of Latin America. While drug use was once something to be dealt with solely by the juridical and military branches of government, governments in the Americas increasingly understand drug use as a public health issue, including, although to a lesser extent, the United States. This thesis will focus specifically on the Bolivian and Guatemalan cases to ask if we are seeing the creation of a new hegemony in the War on Drugs context.