By Paul Gootenberg, with Commentary by Julio Cotler

Cocaine has a long and mostly forgotten history, which more often than not over the past century has revolved around relationships between the United States and the Andean Republic of Peru.2 This essay examines that U.S.-Peruvian axis, through three long historical arcs or processes that proceeded–and in some sense inform–the hemispheric “drug wars” of the past twenty years. For each stage, I will focus on the changing U.S. influences, signals or designs around Andean coca and cocaine, the global contexts and competing cocaine circuits which mediated those transnational forces and flows, and the notably dynamic Peruvian responses to North-American drug challenges. Each period left its legacies, and paradoxes, for cocaine’s progressive definition as a global, illicit and menacing drug.

Washington, DC: The Wilson Center, 2003. 62p.

By Anita Hardon.

Navigating Uncertainty in Search of the Good Life. Situates chemical enhancement in terms of the challenges that young people face in managing a range of expectations and pressures. Uses ethnographic material from young people across the globe, including The Netherlands, USA, Indonesia and the Philippines. Examines how young people view the risks of using chemical substances, confronting the uncertainty of the practice while also attending to the perceived benefits.

Cham: Springer, 2021. 335p

By Anke Stallwitz.

A Case Study from the Shetland Islands. “The objective of the empirical study presented in this book was to investigate the location-specific aspects impacting on the features and social structure of the heroin scene in Shetland as perceived by local heroin users. Furthermore, participants’ representations concerning the characteristics of various types of heroin users and user groups as embedded in the overall structure of the subculture were examined.”

Springer (2012) 388p.