Abstract
In Argentina, the topic of drug trafficking has, for decades, been part of the national political conversation. For the most part, it has been approached from punitive and prohibitionist standpoints. In the runup to the 2015 presidential elections, the consumption and distribution of illegal drugs became a relevant part of the campaign agenda. Candidates stated how they would deal with the problem, if elected, and diagnosed the social impact of the issue. This article, then, analyzes the political discourse on drug trafficking during the above electoral period in Argentina, and offers a few analytical variables worth considering in future investigations on drug-related crime and the consumption of illegal substances. By reviewing audiovisual ads, presidential debates, television interviews, pamphlets, and the electoral platforms of the parties and coalitions involved in the first and second rounds of the 2015 elections, we define how presidential hopefuls dealt with the topic at hand and reached out to their potential electors. We conclude that the political discourse on drug trafficking was characterized by four main discursive through-lines: the promise of armed intervention, the territorialization of the illegal drug phenomenon, the application of legal-normative punishment, and the appeal to a citizenship victimized by drug trafficking, urban insecurity, political corruption, and the inefficiency of the incumbent government.  
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