GEOG 1000 Lecture Notes - Lecture 31: Opioid Epidemic, Geopolitics, Fentanyl
6 May 2018
School
Department
Course
Professor
GEOG 1000
February 5, 2018
William Payne
The Other Americans: Violence, land, and Resistance
“I couldn’t even imagine that they would kill us” John Gibler
Guerrero, Mexico
● 42 students killed in a state in Mexico by the government
● Protests occurred around the world
● Through the opioid crisis we are connected to latin America.
● Linked to the over-prescription of pain medication
● Push to find substances to replace pain meds, led to heroin use
● Now seeing many deaths linked to fentanyl
● 90-94% of all heroin in the US comes from Mexico
● The drug trade saved the economy?
● The 2008 crisis would have been worse if it weren’t for the stable drug economy
Thesis
● High level of violence in latin America is connected to global history
● A theory of violence
● Feminist Geopolitics as a way to look at the world
Geographies of Violence
● Can’t understand violence without space
● Classic dichotomies to understand kinds of violence
○ There is a difference to what violence happens in the home, and what
happens in the killing fields
○ Different forms of violence create each other
○ Women can experience violence within the home
● Move beyond dichotomies
● Reject the idea of “violent places”
○ Don’t think of things are contained within an area, but it is linked with other
areas
A plotted history of the drug trade in latin america
● Drugs as a commodity (not a moral dilemma)
● Opium in the past, now Marijuana, cocaine, heroin, methamphetamines
● War on drugs has been used in the white supremacist state to control some bodies,
controlled through the tools of the war on drugs
● Late 1800s to 1945
○ Narco system created in US
○ Legal trade of cocaine
○ Mexico’s illegal trade in opium and marijuana for US market
○ US government deemed drugs a threat to society
● 1946-1960
○ US emerges as a global power after WW2
○ Cocain production shifted to Bolivia
Document Summary
I couldn"t even imagine that they would kill us john gibler. 42 students killed in a state in mexico by the government. Through the opioid crisis we are connected to latin america. Linked to the over-prescription of pain medication. Push to find substances to replace pain meds, led to heroin use. Now seeing many deaths linked to fentanyl. 90-94% of all heroin in the us comes from mexico. The 2008 crisis would have been worse if it weren"t for the stable drug economy. High level of violence in latin america is connected to global history. Feminist geopolitics as a way to look at the world. Classic dichotomies to understand kinds of violence. There is a difference to what violence happens in the home, and what happens in the killing fields. Different forms of violence create each other. Women can experience violence within the home. Don"t think of things are contained within an area, but it is linked with other areas.
