The Political Economy of the Drug Industry: Latin America and the International System (review)

Every couple of years, collections such as this one appear on the international political economy of the Andean coca and cocaine trades. Menno Vellinga's is a good cut above the rest. Not surprisingly, with its European and Latin American tilt, and the number of perceptive and seasoned specialists involved (seventeen), the book is a timely corrective to the rosy view of the "Drug war" still coming out of Washington. There is some illuminating economics of illicit trades found here (notably the chapters by Vellinga and Peter Reuter), but there is really not much real history, save for Luis Astorga's fine essay on Mexican drug politics and United Nations official Sandeep Chawla's plea to study the historical-cultural foundations of distinctive global drug regimes. Rather than view recent declines in Bolivian and Peruvian coca crops as sure signs of progress, most authors analyze the unintended consequences of North American drug policies, including the heavy social costs borne by peasants and the intensification of illicit drugs and violence in Colombia and Brazil. In contrast to failed "ideological" U.S. interdiction, eradication, and alternative-cropping models, the authors suggest a range of pragmatic, health policy or eclectic approaches to drug control. Historians need to ponder how we got into this hundred-year war against these ever-popular Latin American commodities.