UC Irvine

The illegal drug trade has presented numerous challenges for many regions around the globe but none more so than Latin America. Some nations in Latin America have followed the U.S. and adopted a “law and order” approach in their attempts at combating the illegal drug trade while other nations have adopted a “regulate and treatment” approach. This dissertation analyzes how different Latin American countries are combating the illegal drug trade and explores the effectiveness of the two approaches. To examine the successfulness of each approach, I analyze the drug production and seizure rates among the different narco-economies of Mexico, Colombia, Bolivia, and Uruguay. This dissertation also examines the illicit drug production models of Mexican Transnational Criminal Organizations (MTCOs) as they respond to the legalization of recreational cannabis in the U.S. by examining U.S. southern border illicit drug seizure data and conducting interviews with drug control experts comprised of former and current government officials and academics from around the world. Lastly, this dissertation assesses the relationships between the narco-economies and the legitimate economies of the cases examined.

I find that all four cases examined have experienced both successes and failures while combating the illicit drug trade from 2000 to 2015, indicating neither prohibitionist drug control policies nor alternative drug control policies can claim absolute success in their attempts to combat the illicit drug trade. The results of the dissertation highlight the need for countries to implement individualized drug control policies that best combat the illicit drug trade activities most prevalent in their countries. Moreover, I find that MTCOs are diversifying not only their illicit drug production models as they respond to recreational cannabis legalization, but also their criminal activities generally. Lastly, I find that the economies of Mexico and Bolivia benefit from the production of heroin and coca respectively, while, counter-intuitive to my expectations, I find that the seizures of certain illicit drugs also contribute to economic growth in a number of cases.