“To Save the Mexican Race from Degeneration”

In the 1920s, the United States tried to introduce alcohol and drug prohibition in Mexico as part of the transnational crusade undertaken by American protestant groups and evangelical missionaries. Alcohol proscription never gained popularity in Mexico, but narcotics, which were not a big concern to Mexicans back then, were forbidden in 1912, hence joining the American punitive path and unknowingly sowing the seeds for the high social costs and crime cycles of the last forty years.