Why Is Strict Prohibition Collapsing? A Perspective from Producer and Transit Countries

In this contribution we lay out a simple political economy theory that helps explain the current debate on prohibitionist drug policies in Latin America and their slow but sustained collapse as a strategy to confront illegal drug production and trafficking. Viewed from the perspective of producer and transit countries, prohibitionist drug policies are a transfer of the costs of the drug problem from consumer to producer and transit countries, where the latter are pushed to design and implement supply-reduction policies. The contribution shows how the low effectiveness and high costs of these policies have led the region to ask for an urgent and evidence-based debate about alternatives to strictly prohibitionist drug policies.