Cocaine, writes filmmaker Dominic Streatfeild, "is not some evil spawn of Satan but simply a commodity." Like other commodities, cocaine has a history. When the Spanish conquistadors came to South America and observed that Indians who chewed the leaves of Erythroxylon coca could, it seemed, march over the tallest mountain or through the densest forest for days on end, they knew they were onto something. The newcomers took to growing coca themselves, and in time their product found an audience outside the continent, with users such as Sigmund Freud, Ernest Shackleton (who "took Forced March cocaine tablets to Antarctica in 1909 for the energy boost they gave"), Duke Ellington, and, eventually, half of Hollywood to testify to its powers. Streatfeild's appropriately rapid narrative takes in such key moments and players as "the year of cocaine" 1969, when the film Easy Rider reintroduced the drug to American popular culture, and George Jung, whose exploits are chronicled in Ted Demme's film Blow, to create a portrait of the drug that ranges over centuries. Though he supports legalization, Streatfeild acknowledges the evil and corruption surrounding the trade. Drawing lessons from history, he also suggests the possibility that "cocaine will fizzle out in the year 2015 the way it did in the early twentieth century." At the close of this absorbing book, he adds, "It deserves to." --Gregory McNamee
Brilliant (Rating 5 of 5)
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A subjective, informed , and well written look at a highly emotive topic
It Is Not a Supply Issue (Rating 5 of 5)
» taking a rest
"Cocaine; An Unauthorized Biography", by Dominic Streatfield should be read by anyone who holds public office, anyone who campaigns as a warrior against drugs, and anyone else that thinks the problem of the abuse of cocaine and its variants originates outside of The United States. Coca leaves have been in use for several thousand years, and they are still in use today. Whenever you drink a Coke from Coca Cola, Coca Leaves contribute to the taste. There is NO narcotic in the product; Coke has a subsidiary corporation in Chicago, Stepan Chemicals, which removes the cocaine from the leaves prior to their use in creating the drink. Remember the disaster that was "New Coke"? New Coke did not use the Coca Plant, the public hated it, and Classic Coke was brought back to market instantly, with the Coca leaves once again present.
Streatfield went anywhere he needed to write this story, if that meant going to Columbia and meeting with some of the largest producers of the drug he did. He met with paramilitary groups that are fighting the Columbian Government, and he met with the smallest of producers. It is no exaggeration to say that he routinely went where is was somewhat likely he would not return.
As you read the book you will gain the incredulous attitude that the author developed as he researched this book. For the reality is that Cocaine has flowed in to the United States and will continue to do so regardless of the money that is spent to prevent it. We share a nearly 2,000-mile border with Mexico whose government has been only too happy to assist in the transportation of the drug to the US. This country also has thousands of miles of seacoast that cannot possibly be watched. You will read of seizures of Cocaine that is measured in tons! These seizures have no effect on the drug trade. For confirmation on how fruitless the "war on drugs" has always been you need only to read the interviews with DEA Agents and a variety of other law enforcement officials.
The issue of cocaine and the resources that are spent on it are absurd. The issue of drugs will get you votes if you run for office, and that is where the value of cocaine lies. A few numbers may help to illustrate how our elected officials waste billions of dollars every month.
Between 40 and 50 BILLION dollars are spent per year to prevent the movement, use, etc, of illicit drugs. This does not include the money spent on the largest prison population on the planet and the cost of building new facilities. What does the US get from its 50 BILLION dollar expenditure on drugs? There is zero income and the lives lost from all illicit drugs per year in the US are around 6,000 people.
The biggest drug that kills in this country kills more than all of the following causes combined, car accidents, all illicit drugs, suicides, AIDS, homicides, and accidental gun deaths. This drug is of course tobacco. You can research the numbers yourself, but they will fall between 400,000 and 450,000 deaths per year. If the current rate of new smokers stays constant the young people under the age of 18 at present will contribute 6 MILLION more bodies to the death toll. Alcohol kills between 100,000 and 125,000 people per year. Car accidents kill about 1,000 people per week.
Even though the Federal Tax on cigarettes has dropped from 31% per pack in 1960 to 11% in 2000, 6.3 billion dollars is collected. The states collect a comparable amount; I found that Maine expects 98 Million in revenue this year. Unfortunately The Fed pays out over 600% more for healthcare for smokers, some 38 Billion. But that type of fiscal incompetence is routine for Washington, and I have not even mentioned the massive amounts of dollars the tobacco companies pour in to the pockets of those running for office.
What this book does is put illicit drugs in to perspective. There is clearly more harm done by Cocaine than just those who die from it. Law enforcement officials are killed, and one death cannot be justified in this "war".
Whether it is Cocaine, Heroin, Crack, or a host of pharmaceutical drugs, if someone wants to use them they can get them. They always have, and they always will.
So what has the public been protected from after hundreds of billions of dollars have been spent on this war?, little to zero. The men and women who have died during their service in this war gave their lives for what?
The drugs that kill hundreds of thousands people every year are legal and they produce income from taxes. They are socially acceptable, and when given the blessing of legality is elevated above the satanic illegal drugs. When one person dies from an illicit drug lawmakers go berserk. When 75 die from cigarettes for each death from illicit drugs, what outrage takes place? None! Alcohol provides 20 bodies for a single drug death. Drunk drivers per year kill thousands. The numbers suggest 4-5 corpses from drunk driving for every illicit drug death.
I cannot find the adjective to describe the CEO who testified before congress that, "cigarettes are as addictive as chocolate chip cookies". As long as the government and the people who vote them in to office tolerate this kind of theater of the absurd nothing will change.
Cocaine is a problem because it has been vilified. The damage it does is negligible when compared to the drugs that kill on a genocidal scale yearly. I no more advocate the use of cocaine than I do tobacco. But when it comes to prioritizing the problems that cause tremendous damage to this country, cocaine is not going to be anywhere near the top of my list
(Rating 5 of 5)
