Epilogue: drugs in war, peace and the everyday

Contrary to the overgeneralizing discourses that accompany militarized drug prohibition policies, “illicit drugs” are a diverse phenomenon that are imagined, constructed and policed as a category in diverse ways in different global contexts. Using Mexico as a starting point, this essay highlights the power of comparative case studies in their capacity to reveal how diverse the very phenomenon of drugs is and how pervasive the violence of militarized prohibition policies forged through the prerogative of economic profit continues to be. This violence does not combat organized crime but rather serves to impose social control over populations and territories and in the process guarantee the expansion of transnational capital at any cost. I argue that an approach attentive to everyday life, provides insight into how localized experiences and encounters with drugs and their cultures of trade and consumption are.