Tijuana White: drogas, cultura y desesperanza en tiempos del fentanilo

This paper addresses the relationships between drugs and culture in the fentanyl era in the city of Tijuana, on Mexico’s northern border, based on a review of newspapers, an analysis of governmental videos on addiction prevention, and ethnographic material. Drawing on the work of Michel Aglietta and others, we propose the existence of an addiction regime that (re)produces discourses on substance use and its institutional treatment, generating a contentious language regulating the forms of signification around drugs, and the diverse fashions in which the state manages populations involved in the drug economy, particularly in social contexts where structural conditions of despair prevail.