With a focus on Latin America, this course examines the historical, comparative, and current dynamics of two global commodities: illicit drugs and oil. These commodities, which depend on a U.S. consumer base, generate unfathomable wealth and unrelenting violence at local, national, and international levels. We follow them from extraction and production through consumption, examining socioeconomic and environmental impacts, their relationship to state corruption, and possible strategies for responding to the problems they create.