ABSTRACT
For over a century the United States has domestically and internationally promoted a set of prohibitionist drug policies that have consistently failed to stop illegal psychoactive drugs from entering the US market or being produced in the region. Nor have different US governments been able to sustainably maintain declines in the use of these substances. In fact, since the 1980s US drug control policies have contributed to human rights violations, widespread corruption, political instability and even direct support for individuals or institutions directly implicated in drug trafficking into the United States. The US position at United Nations General Assembly Special Session (UNGASS) 2016 was to uphold the prohibitionist international conventions while his administration oversaw billions of primarily security assistance and training to abusive, corrupt, and sometimes drug trafficking security forces in Mexico, Colombia, and Honduras. The importance of global capitalism and the transnational elite is relevant to the international resistance to prohibitionist drug policies.
