The Drug Prohibition in Mexico (1912-1929)

This work analyzes the nationally applied set of legal mechanisms that led to the prohibition of drugs in Mexico between 1912 and 1929. This analysis is carried out within the legislative context in which each one of these legal mechanisms were passed, so as to approach the historical reasons for which the Mexican government opted to prohibit (1920) and years later to criminalize (1929) medicines that government previously regulated. This work shows how the transformation of drug laws in the first decades of the 20th century was influenced by international trends and pressures. It also shows how this legal transformation was part of an ongoing internal process dating back to the 19th century, leading to the birth of illegal drug trafficking itself.