The article examines the ways in which the “phenomenon of drugs” was discussed, defined, and addressed in Argentina between 1880 and 1960. It focuses on two central themes: the local political debates regarding the uses, regulation, and penalization of drugs, and the manner in which the practices, subjects, and social contexts related to drugs are conceptualized from the perspective of psychopathology and local criminology. Despite the fact that they were influenced by the guidelines of international entities and currents of thought, both of these processes feature a specific local dynamic that results in policies aimed at the control of bodies and populations, as well as in moral systems of classification of subjects and practices.