US Imperialism and Mexican Drug Policy, 1912–25: A Reassessment

Since the 1960s, the United States has carried out an aggressive, in some ways imperialistic approach to drug policy worldwide. This has especially been the case with neighboring Mexico. That recent history has often led scholars to assume that, dating back to Mexico’s signing of the Hague International Opium Convention in 1912, Mexico has been forced by the United States to pursue whatever drug policy it has adopted. As I demonstrated in my 2012 book, the roots of Mexican drug prohibition actually run deep into the colonial era and that, with respect to marijuana, Mexican prohibitionism was not only “home grown” but helped influence developing prohibitionist attitudes in the United States. This paper examines the next chapter in the story, focusing on drug policy more generally between 1912 and 1940, with particular emphasis on opiates. How much were Mexican approaches to drugs shaped by United States influence during this key period?

Between 1912 and 1940 the United States gradually become more involved in Mexican drug policy, culminating in an aggressive diplomatic intervention that forced Mexico to cancel a revolutionary program for the treatment of drug addicts. This final incident in 1940 is well known, but other major watersheds along the way, including Mexico’s 1914 banning of smoking opium and its 1924 ban on heroin, have never been thoroughly examined by scholars. My research has uncovered the detailed discussions and considerations that led to these laws, as well as the internal deliberations that resulted from the U.S. intervention in 1940. This paper will analyze these key incidents to explore how influential the U.S. was on Mexican drug policy down to 1940, and how that influence coexisted with an emerging Mexican revolutionary nationalism, a key component of which required Mexican policymakers to resist U.S. diplomatic incursions in the name of Mexican self-determination.