Home Grown: Marijuana and the Origins of Mexico's War on Drugs

iSaaC CamPoS, Home Grown: Marijuana and the Origins of Mexico's War on Drugs. Chapel Hill, nC: university of north Caro- lina Press. 2012. x + 331 pp. iSBn 978-0- 8078-3538-8.isaac Campos has produced an outstand- ing work of historical scholarship in Home Grown, which will provide specialist and non- academic audiences alike with a fascinating, accessible and highly engaging account of marijuana's place in mexican and world his- tory. not only does Campos make a timely contribution to contemporary debates about prohibition as a method of drug control but he also makes several significant contribu- tions to the historiography of modern mexi- co, and powerfully illustrates the importance of synthesizing contemporary scientific and historical research in developing our under- standing of drugs and their consequences at an individual and a societal level.in the introduction and opening chapter, Campos provides an accessible and broad- ranging overview of historical and contempo- rary scientific literature on the relationship between cannabis use and mental illness, a discussion of how social and cultural contexts actively shape pharmacological responses to particular drugs, and a cross-cultural survey of literary, historical, and popular beliefs about the properties of cannabis and the consequences of its use. Chapters two and three then chart the historical development of mexico's relationship with marijuana from the colonial period to the nineteenth century, covering colonial-era issues of medicine, religion, economics and culture and the emergence of a nineteenth-century nation- alist discourse about lo mexicano. Through surveying several centuries of mexican history, Campos shows how marijuana came to be understood as an 'indigenous' plant, despite having been originally introduced to mexico by Spanish colonists.Chapters four to seven provide the heart of Campos's analysis. These parts of the book explain the rapid development, during the late nineteenth century, of an overwhelm- ingly negative, alarmist, yet widely accepted consensus in mexico that marijuana use was directly responsible for repeated outbursts of violent, psychotic behaviour, particularly among criminal prisoners and soldiers. Through the analysis of a large volume of newspapers, medical and psychiatric texts, criminological works, archival records, the penny press and other popular sources such as folk songs, Campos demonstrates that although marijuana use was not widespread in mexico during this period, there was a disproportionate concern for the drug's social implications, due to the dominance of the idea that it caused highly dangerous behaviour. …