‘We are not Drug Traffickers, We are Colombian Peasants’: The voices and history of cocaleros in the substitution programme of illicit crops in Colombia

Drugs and development policies lack a historical political economy perspective. This has led to situation where issues of everyday state-making agrarian conflicts are ignored. Alternative frameworks that incorporate these elements do not go beyond mere procedural participation. is also the case with Colombia's Comprehensive Plan for Substitution Illicit Crops (‘PNIS’), resulting from recent 2016 peace agreement. Through ethnographic work content analysis coca growers' demands, we demonstrate how growers ones who best understand reasons them participate in this therefore, can most clearly design implement transition strategies drugs policies. In addition history economy, alternative approaches must draw on experiences those have suffered state-building processes.