While violence related to drug trafficking prevails in many parts of the Americas, some countries opt for legalization policies to counter illegal flows, public health aspects, and public security. The changing context of drug trafficking and violence in the Americas is shaped by the prohibition regime, recent waves of its ruptures through cannabis legalization, and the tensions between the regional/local. The current momentum of cannabis regulation in Germany links to the findings of interAmerican experiences. Discussions by international experts from Colombia, Mexico, Ecuador, the U.S., Netherlands, and Belgium are open to the general public, activists engagement, institutional work, and students.

The first appearance of the newly elected Colombian President Gustavo Petro at the U.N. General Assembly in September 2022 can be equated with a small earthquake in global drug policy. For the first time, a high-ranking Latin American politician in office linked the international prohibition regime and the War on Drugs to the climate crisis and species extinction in the tropical jungles. Capitalist exploitation and related power structures are called out behind the insatiable demand for drugs and fossil fuels. Violence in the fight against drug trafficking and the coca plant through large-scale and prolonged pesticide spraying is responsible for environmental damages and socio-economic crises.

Recent years have also been marked by changing dynamics on specific issues of cannabis legalization in the Americas. In 2012, Uruguay was the first country to legalize and regulate cannabis production, consumption, and distribution for personal recreational use, contesting the dominant prohibition regime. At the same time, a wave of legalization set in with the pioneering U.S. states of Washington and Colorado, defying U.S. federal law ever since. Recently, Canada (2018) and Mexico (2021) legalized cannabis for recreational use, initiating a new phase of interregional politics.

The multidimensional research axes of violence and (il)legality related to drug trafficking and inquiries of the local and regional levels require interdisciplinary social sciences and humanities approaches that combine abstract, conceptual approaches with empirical studies. How is violence linked to the illegality of drug production and trafficking? How are regional dynamics and local responses and repercussions embedded in the context of prohibition and legalization in the Americas?