Red Emma’s

The story of America’s "War on Drugs" usually begins with Richard Nixon or Ronald Reagan. In his new book, Containing Addiction, Matthew R. Pembleton argues that its origins instead lie in the years following World War II, when the Federal Bureau of Narcotics—the country’s first drug control agency, established in 1930—began to depict drug control as a paramilitary conflict and sent agents abroad to disrupt the flow of drugs to American shores. In a series of complicated twists and turns on a global stage, Pembelton explains how America applied a foreign policy solution to a domestic social crisis, demonstrating how consistently policymakers have assumed that security at home can only be achieved through hegemony abroad. The result is a drug war that persists into the present day. Don't miss this critical talk!