The production and use of drugs is a complex phenomenon, with manifistation rooted in historical context,  cultural enviorment, economic model, the circumsatnces of a country, different values as assigned by users, as well as the actual differences between substances.  Nevertheless it is reduced and homogenized as the drug problem, as if it is  a uniform, unhistoric phenomenon.

In the last hundred years this issue has become ¨the social question¨. With the aid of different social actors,  as well as the state ,the use of drugs has been  framed to be a social problem.

The drug control policies express tensions, contradictions, and conflicts about the way to regulate consumption and production.  Within this framework, local and international debates on drug policy are developing.

In the Latin American context -characterized by enormous social inequality, income disparity, and poverty - these debates cannot ignore the consequences that the drug control policies have produced in the region: social isolation, a disproportionate incarceration of drug users and small dealers or “mules,” social violence, environmetanl damage,  and violations of basic human rights.

Initiated in 2003, the Conference on Drug Policy aims to be a platform for  discussion and elaboration of solution-oriented proposals.