Beyond Africa and the War on Drugs: Reassessing Drug Markets Research and Policy

This article reassesses the book Africa and the War on Drugs (2012) and a related special journal issue (2016) in the light of drug market and policy developments since 2012. As part of this reassessment, we question some of the assumptions made in the book and special issue. More specifically, the article first outlines the key arguments of the book and the special issue and then sketches some of the key drug market developments on the continent since. Third, it discusses the major unchanged problem with drug markets in Africa, i.e. the lack of data. We end by considering the major difference since 2012: a new and lively debate about drugs and drugs policy in many African countries, which this special issue is arguably also part of. We argue that these new debates about drugs are welcome, yet they continue to exclude the voices of the ones most affected by drugs: market insiders, such as drug users, traders and cultivators.