Drug Control and Development: A Blind Spot
Development questions have been central to international drug policy since the first tentative steps towards a global control regime over a century ago. The strategy that was devised to limit the cultivation of mind- and mood-altering plants imposed a disproportionate cost on cultivating territories...
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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Institut de Hautes Études Internationales et du Développement
2020-09-01
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| Series: | Revue Internationale de Politique de Développement |
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| Online Access: | http://journals.openedition.org/poldev/3667 |
| _version_ | 1818427820813058048 |
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| author | Julia Buxton |
| author_facet | Julia Buxton |
| author_sort | Julia Buxton |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | Development questions have been central to international drug policy since the first tentative steps towards a global control regime over a century ago. The strategy that was devised to limit the cultivation of mind- and mood-altering plants imposed a disproportionate cost on cultivating territories in the global South. This burden intensified in the post-war period and as the 1961 Single Convention on Narcotic Drugs and United States ‘war on drugs’ in the 1970s institutionalised ‘narcotics’ as a security issue and a law enforcement concern. Despite criminalisation and coercive state eradication efforts, illicit narcotic plant cultivation (opium poppy, coca) has persisted, reaching record highs after 2015. Recent decades have seen improved understanding of development deficits as the driver of sustained illicit cultivation. However, high-level efforts to promote inter-agency and thematic linkages between drug strategy and global development goals have seen the reinvention of orthodox approaches to both drug control and poverty reduction. Neither has a record of sustainable success or of raising concerns as to the counterproductive impacts of policy reproduction. In patching together new ideas within failing paradigms, alternative development is better understood as ‘policy bricolage’. |
| first_indexed | 2024-12-14T14:51:48Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-bf59c77acc134190a58632f50b98f26e |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 1663-9375 1663-9391 |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-12-14T14:51:48Z |
| publishDate | 2020-09-01 |
| publisher | Institut de Hautes Études Internationales et du Développement |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Revue Internationale de Politique de Développement |
| spelling | doaj.art-bf59c77acc134190a58632f50b98f26e2022-12-21T22:57:08ZengInstitut de Hautes Études Internationales et du DéveloppementRevue Internationale de Politique de Développement1663-93751663-93912020-09-011210.4000/poldev.3667Drug Control and Development: A Blind SpotJulia BuxtonDevelopment questions have been central to international drug policy since the first tentative steps towards a global control regime over a century ago. The strategy that was devised to limit the cultivation of mind- and mood-altering plants imposed a disproportionate cost on cultivating territories in the global South. This burden intensified in the post-war period and as the 1961 Single Convention on Narcotic Drugs and United States ‘war on drugs’ in the 1970s institutionalised ‘narcotics’ as a security issue and a law enforcement concern. Despite criminalisation and coercive state eradication efforts, illicit narcotic plant cultivation (opium poppy, coca) has persisted, reaching record highs after 2015. Recent decades have seen improved understanding of development deficits as the driver of sustained illicit cultivation. However, high-level efforts to promote inter-agency and thematic linkages between drug strategy and global development goals have seen the reinvention of orthodox approaches to both drug control and poverty reduction. Neither has a record of sustainable success or of raising concerns as to the counterproductive impacts of policy reproduction. In patching together new ideas within failing paradigms, alternative development is better understood as ‘policy bricolage’.http://journals.openedition.org/poldev/3667drug economydrug policiescriminalisationprohibitiondrug cultivationdrug control strategies |
| spellingShingle | Julia Buxton Drug Control and Development: A Blind Spot Revue Internationale de Politique de Développement drug economy drug policies criminalisation prohibition drug cultivation drug control strategies |
| title | Drug Control and Development: A Blind Spot |
| title_full | Drug Control and Development: A Blind Spot |
| title_fullStr | Drug Control and Development: A Blind Spot |
| title_full_unstemmed | Drug Control and Development: A Blind Spot |
| title_short | Drug Control and Development: A Blind Spot |
| title_sort | drug control and development a blind spot |
| topic | drug economy drug policies criminalisation prohibition drug cultivation drug control strategies |
| url | http://journals.openedition.org/poldev/3667 |
| work_keys_str_mv | AT juliabuxton drugcontrolanddevelopmentablindspot |