CLAS Hosts Book Talk on Colombia’s “Marijuana Boom”
On March 25, 2021, the Center for Latin American Studies (CLAS), an affiliated center of the Frederick S. Pardee School of Global Studies at Boston University (BU), hosted an event exploring Colombia’s transformation from a model of Latin American democracy and economic modernization to a drug paradise.
This virtual book talk featured remarks by Lina Britto, Associate Professor of History at Northwestern University, on her latest book Marijuana Boom: The Rise and Fall of Colombia’s First Drug Paradise.
In her talk, which was moderated by Ana Villarreal, BU Assistant Professor of Sociology, Britto traced Colombia’s transformation from a model of democracy and modernization into a marijuana paradise. According to Britto, the “marijuana boom” in Colombia was a critical component of hemispheric relations to the extent that it served as a training ground for war on drugs in South America.
A recording of the event is available below.
CLAS provides students with a versatile and powerful vehicle to develop an in-depth and interdisciplinary understanding of the Latin American region. The program offers students a wide variety of regionally-focused courses in Latin America, which are taught by a range of academic departments. The interdisciplinary nature of the program provides the necessary breadth and depth for students to understand the complexities and remarkable diversity of Latin America, defined as the 20 independent countries in the Western Hemisphere south of the United States with Spanish, French, or Portuguese as their official languages. Learn more about this center on the CLAS website.