The show must go on: a brief history of Lebanon’s drug control politics

This commentary explores the contradictory forces behind Lebanon’s implementation of drug control policies: opportunistic responses to international pressures on one hand, and an attempt to extract benefits from the industry on the other. This article argues that this logic results in ‘theatrical gestures’ by state institutions and mediatized performances of crop eradications and arrests to appease international pressures while continuing to profit from illicit economies.