Cocaine-Abuse Books

I give major props to Ms. Brown for the excellent work she put in for this novel. The thing that grabbed me most was that this was one of the few novels that was based on the DRUGS that infected our community, but also detailed how it affected everyone involved in the DRUG life. It didnt just detail the rise and fall of a drug dealer, or the trials & tribulations of a crackhead. It viewed what it was like to be a mother of a crackhead (Jada's mom), or the daughter of a woman with low self esteem(Ava). The book involved so many characters- Sunny was a diva, but she too had her faults. This book outlined how drugs effect everyone around you. I really loved how even after Jada got herself together, she too was human and fell back into temptation only to make it to the top again.
The ending was great. I appreciated that Jada & Born didn't live together happily ever after, or that Born didn't get killed in a drive by shooting. Tracy Brown kept it real from the beggining to the end. I have read this book at least 5 times, you would never think that this book is 496 pages!

This book was an extraordinary read and definitely a page turner. Jada and Born's story are so real and I'm sure similar to a lot of people whose lives involve drugs in some way. The book involves drama, suspense, romance, action all in a story that is far from being a fairy tale and very realistic. The book offers a history of almost all of the characters and helps you understand why they became who they are. Our book club read this book for September 2008's discussion book and all of the members were unanimously blown away by it. I would and have recommended this book to any reader. I plan to read more Tracy Brown books in the future.

This is the best book that I have read in a couple of years. It is a must read. The last book that I felt this way about was Noire's G-Spot. This story is about a young woman with a broken soul that goes through the trials and tribulations of life. She goes through and loses so much in her story just to get back to the top. I cried when she started getting her life back in order. This story is so bitter sweet. It was perfect from beginning to end. I absolutely loved this book.

This novel starts out typical enough - two teenage girls hanging out with two teenage boys in a house all alone with their hormones running wild. That's where typical ends.

Jada and her sister Ava's reality is a cycle of emotional, physical, and sexual abuse brought on by their mother Edna's boyfriend. Edna chooses to blame herself and her daughters for the abuse and sets them all up for a life of pain.

Jada starts smoking weed with her friend Shante and they advance to mixing it with crack under the false impression that they wouldn't get hooked. This is the start of Jada's crack addiction.

Born is the son of Leo, a notorious hustler. Born looks up to his dad for being the most admired man in the hood and wants to be just like him. That is until Leo falls prey to crack addiction. This changes Born's outlook forever. He can't believe his dad could be so weak.

Jada and Born cross paths after she has kicked her addiction. Both are skeptical about starting a relationship but can't deny the sparks between them. When Jada finds the strength to tell Born about her past, against his better judgment Born allows Jada into his heart. The condition is that she'll never go back to crack again or it's over. Jada agrees to these terms believing that love will conquer all. The problem is, Born is a hustler and deals in the very drug that took over Jada's life. He can't watch her 24/7 and doesn't seem to realize that having crack in front of Jada is like putting food in front of a starving person and telling them not to eat it.

Born and Jada's love story is so intense it jumps off the pages. Tracy Brown does an excellent job of making you feel for the characters. You'll laugh, cry, and root for the characters to be together but just as in life everything doesn't always turn out as planned. At first glance this book may seem long but once you start reading you won't pay attention to what page you're on. The length is necessary to understand how Jada and Born's upbringing affects the choices they make and that love doesn't always conquer all. If you buy this book it will not disappoint.

THIS BOOK WAS VERY WELL WRITTEN. I ENJOYED IT FROM PAGE ONE. Although it is a long book to read, it is so well worth it. This book never got boring at all. I recommened that everyone read this book.

Babylon Boyz by Jess Mowry kept me up all night reading to see what happened next. This is a story about Dante, Pook and Wyatt, three brothers who live in Oakland, Cali. Dante has a heart problem caused by his mom's addiction to crack before he was born. Pook is gay. And Wyatt is a cool fat dude. Babylon Boyz is a story about life in the hood and thuggers and drugs, but it's really a story about friendship and that it's more important to stay true to your friends than the game. Friends care about you, the game doesn't. If you like this book you should also like Voodu Dawgz, Skeleton Key, and Way Past Cool by Jess Mowry.

Babylon Boyz, by Jess Mowry, is a thrilling novel about inner city life. It's based around the lives of three youg teens. Starting out with the words "Hey Homo," it captured my attention right away. Pook is the homosexual who is out of the closet. Wyatt is very overweight and Dante is a Rastifarian with a serious heart condition. These boys are best friends who want more than anything to get out of Babylon, their dangerous ghetto. Throughout the story they encounter many problems including: dealing drugs, fights, gang problems, tagging bathrooms and running from Air Touch. (A big gangster/bully)
A quote that particularly stuck in my mind was: "We all just little black ants in Babylon, waitin' to get stepped on and too stupid to see it." It's kind of true because these boys know that they will never be good enough with society looking down on them all the time.
I guess the whole reason I liked the book was, even though the characters may come off rough edged or as black trouble makers they are not. If other people took the time, they would find a bunch of passionate young men.
I would recommend this book to all mature audiances because the content may not be appropiate for children.

Since childhood, they have been best of friends, three troubled boys, Pook, Wyatt, and Dante. They want nothing more than to escape their ghetto, crime-filled neighborhood, where everyone around them seems like "little black ants...waitin' to get stepped on an' too stupid to see it." They have no way of reaching their dreams-until they discover two packets of cocaine worth thousands of dollars.

What would you do? Would you sell drugs at your school, deteriorating your community and getting the money YOU desperately need for medical school, a heart operation for your dying friend, and most importantly, a one-way ticket from behind the bars of your own neighborhood?

That's exactly what these three boys had to decide when Pook and Dante witnessed Air Touch, a rich and popular drug dealer, throwing a suitcase full of what they thought was money, out of his car window during a police chase. Later, they bring the suitcase home realizing they had brought home the same terrifying evidence that had killed Dante's own mother.

And everyone knows, "It only gets worse before it gets better." Not only was this incident a problem, dilemmas rained in regarding Pook's homosexuality, the homelessness of a younger boy the trio makes friends with, and Wyatt's obesity. And the new homeless "boy" has a great surprise for us all!

I would recommend this book to all mature readers age twelve and up, regardless of gender. Also, just because a tree died to make this book, doesn't mean you'll die reading it. Actually it's the complete opposite. Reading this book gave me a much closer view into our own great neighboring cities about how life really is for some kids like you and me. And not only does Mowry do a spectacular job of revealing the secrets of Oakland, California, she verbally indicates the setting of lower class residents all over the United States. If you're also in to fiction, this book is definitely calling your name! This book deserves to be put in every hotel side drawer in America!


Monique K.
Des Plaines, Ilinois

(Submitted by Justine Spencer)

Life ain't always like some of you may live it the easy way- sometimes life sucks, and sometimes it ain't fun at all. And that's the way it is for these three homies, the Babylon Boyz.

Take Pook, tall, gorgeous, and gay. Always fighting for who he is, always wanting to get outta Babylon and be a doctor.

Take Dante, who's never had a chance. His mom was heavy into crack when she was pregnant with him, and died when he was born-born with a bad heart. If he's really good, no smoke, no alcohol, no excitement of any kind, he might live till he's 30.

Take Wyatt, over 300 pounds of flab with a 300 pound attitude to back it up. Don't mess with him-you don't want to know how he sneaks his gun into school every day.

For these brothers, life is not fun. Life is not easy. Everyday they fight the gangstas in the street and the jocks at school who hate gay boys, fat guys, and guys with bad hearts and a worse attitude.

These are the good guys, Pook, Wyatt, and Dante, but what will happen when they witness a crack dealer's arrest, and end up with his gun and the briefcase he threw out of the car just before the cops caught up with him? It could be money-money for a new heart, a medical education, a new start. It could be crack, crack that they could sell for that money. But either way, that briefcase is guaranteed to be danger. What will they do with it?

Jess Morwy wrote the awesome book, Babylon Boys about friends sticking together to stand strong in Babylon. The Babylon boys stick through rough times making good or bad choices to stick with one another. The book is written in third person narrative explaining what kind of life people in Babylon live. (Troubles you face in Babylon are watching for cops, protection to family, drugs, and even school problems as well). Babylon relates to real life in Chicago's South side and also New York's crime and hatred. Most cities face problems with drugs, cops, and wrong decision just like this book and more problems. There are lots of things to like about this book, such as when they make fun of one another in a profanity kind of way and get in fights with older people because they think they are not the same because they of a bad heart, are fat, or even gay. This book is an adventure for thrill seekers, or even a book to imagine and learn what it would feel like to live with troubles everyday and only way out is a illegal way out would you take it.

I dont think I would be priviliged enough to be in the same room as this superhero. No need for reviews as the others did a pretty good job. After you read this, you will never trust the government again.

He deserves 10 stars.

Note that this review is 4 years after publication... four years of silence.

A book that tears the mask off the fraudulent "War on Drugs". It exposes the growth of the war from two (highly mutually destructive) agencies in 1971 (Customs and DEA) to 55 and counting. It describes very extensive, high-volume CIA involvement in smuggling itself to obtain unaccountable funding.

It documents the cost of the fraudulent war. In dollars misspent, in innocent lives lost through raids gone amok and witnesses silenced, in the credibility of government agencies and the news media, and in the harm resulting from the 5-fold increase (his figures) in drug usage during the time $1 trillion has been wasted in the fight.

Recommend finding this book used or in a library, or reading Levine's chapter in "Into the Buzzsaw" by Kristina Borjesson.

The first sign of corruption in a society ... is that the end justifies the means. ~Georges Beranos, "Why Freedom?" (1955)

When you finish going through this book, you will gain a new perspective on the drugs war, and some of the root causes of the drugs problem in United States.

"Look Mike, our country has many diverse interests and you're one man in one little corner of the world. There are a lot of people a lot smarter than you and I involved in this business who might know a few things we don't. So just because an action might seem right doesn't mean it is; and even if it's the right thing to do, sometimes it's not the healthiest."

...

He was silent for a long moment. "Mike, don't ever forget a peanut butter sandwich."
"You're kidding."
"No, I'm not. I'm telling you this because I like you."

...

"Bario was one of the best and most committed undercover agents in DEA; he had done some of the agency's highest-level deep cover work. He was also a friend of mine. A year earlier he had been arrested for smuggling heroin from his post of duty in Mexico. While in jail in a Texas border town awaiting a removal hearing, he took a bite of a peanut butter sandwich and went into convulsions, and then a deep coma. He died a month later. He wife was told by the prison warden that strychnine had been found in his blood. The official autopsy report listed the cause of death as asphyxiation -- he choked on a peanut butter sandwich.
Many of Bario's fellow agents were aware that he was involved in cases that overlapped CIA interests. The rumor was that he "knew too much" about the CIA smuggling drugs into the United States to support its own interests and that he was killed by either members of DEA's Internal Security (who was in reality CIA) or by the CIA itself. I had always been one of those who had placed little credence in the rumor. Who could really believe that a branch of the U.S. government would assassinate its own people for any reason?"

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Mike Levine is a good writer. Add that to the fact that he was one of the best undercover agents in American history and you've got the equation for a great book. I had to stop myself a number of times to remember that this is NON-Fiction. The bumbling and deception that goes on at the higher levels of our Criminal Justice system would be laughable had this been a work of fiction. There is just too much detail here for it NOT to be true. This book, coupled with Levine's other book "Deep Cover" show you how the people in power manipulate the media to show the public the reality they want them to see. In light of the Iraq war "intelligence" misinformation, we can see that nothing has changed. In fact, the stakes have gotten higher.

I rank this book with "Dark Alliance" and "C.I.A.: Cocaine In America" as the most telling indictment of America's pseudo-war on drugs. Unlike most suthors who pontificate solutions from ivory towers and exhort stratagem with quill pens, Mr. Levine, not unlike Mr. VesBucci, for that matter, advises from hard-fought experience.

When your in parts of the world were their are drug lords and Wealthy people Like California it was Like magic before, like I was living in a Drug Lord Movie. No problems worries with people telling because that is no problem unless one gets involved with differnt people who don't share the same chemistry and that does not happen with people of that chemistry because everyone does not always think the same things.

Clawson and Lee managed to compile a vast amount of data from varied sources to produce a balanced on-the-mark analysis of the cocaine industry and its impact on the region. A very impressive book.

As a person who has lived in and conducted business in Colombia, and as someone who is interested in the subjects of Colombian history, economics, and the country's struggle to maintain its own internal sovereignty, I found The Anean Cocaine Industry to be extremely informative. Bravo to Clawson and Lee -- a job well done. If you are interested in cocaine, its production and its socio-political and economic impacts, this book is an educational must read. Bottom line: a wonderfully comprehensive text on this subject.

"The Andean Cocaine Industry" is an expert account of drug trafficking. The authors leave no stone unturned in studying this important subject. They must be commended...this is a remarkable book.

great fun read. you can sit down and read it in a day really. the story follows some dominican kids who sell the kilos of coke. it is written like a documentary but has a TON of feeling in it. POOR CHILLE!!!!

Great book about the life of 8 young kids in New York whom changes schools and books for sealing drugs.... It tells how they became dealers,families problems and issues of friendshipp.. even thougth the book is great it does not mention in any page how society tried to help them...because they did not get any help or encoragement... any solutions any where??? more programs in such areas would definately improve the way teeneagers chooses to live their life and make their family more aware of such situations..it is not too late. quite interesting..learned more about drugs than what I ever wanted to....

Pretty good book...

A story concerning the lifes of 8 kids deeply involved in cocaine trade in NYC during the 1980's. It is told from the point of view of an outsider looking in, which I would have rather seen it documented from the 'kids' view but what can you do? Bricks of coke, cut, re-rocked, packaged, street level retail, and all the nitty-gritty details involved with the process. If your looking for a book that tells the tale of the route of cocaine from the source, into the nose/arm of a user, and the people that make it happen. This book is for you, I am a sucker for this type of literature [drug-porn] so take my review with that in mind.

http://www.junkylife.com/seedless

That movie was based on this book. I know this is probably promoting illiteracy and the ills of television, but if you like independents it's a good one. I haven't read the book. I DO READ quie a bit, but was inspired to check out the book because of the movie. The movie meanders a bit, so be prepared. Sorry I havent read the book yet but when I do I'll come back and report on what I thought

Just when you thought literary crit. was doomed to its staid exsistence, Ronell arrives on the scene. A critic (whose name escapes me) once said that while we can pick up a book, books can throw us across the room. I'm still recovering from the flight and trip this little book sent me on...

This book is revolutionary. If you've ever wondered what an artist (Avital Ronnell is a former performance artist) might be capable of coming up with if they became an academic (a professor) but were still devoted to the idea of performance, this is the answer. Think Kitaj and how his paintings is a form of interpretation of other artists' work in referencing them in the theme of his own work. In other words, Avital Ronnel's "Crack Wars" and its "analysis" of Madame Bovary is possible because it is from a field of study that is unique in that it is devoted to the study of an artform (literary arts) while itself operating in the same medium as that artform (words). The creativity exhibited in "Crack Wars", which is its most powerful proposition, shows that an interpretive "analysis" can be offered on a work of art ("Madame Bovery") without even wanting to answer the question, "What does is mean?". Much of the creative thrust seems to come from the way in which Ronnell re-metaphorizes certain elements or metaphors related to (current) drug use and applies them in the exploration of other facets of society that alters or simulates (ex. taking a "hit" or "scoring" of literature). What this does is to expand the reading of "Madame Bovery" to a whole crop of metaphors and their current exploration whose consideration in language may not have been in circulation at the time of its writing. And though this work may be on the edge of "literary studies", Ronnell is by no means a marginal figure. As head of NYU's dept of Germanic Languages, Ronnell co-lectured a graduate seminar last fall with Derrida (she is in the "Derrida" documentary with multi-colored bobby-pins relaying an interaction with Derrida's mother). Consider the language of the extensive quote below.

"Madame Bovary I daresay is about bad drugs. Equally, it is about thinking we have properly understood them. But if the novel matches its reputation for rendering its epoch- our modernity - intelligible, then we would do well to recall that epoch also means interruption, arrest, suspension and, above all, suspension of judgement. Madame Bovary travels the razor's edge of understanding/reading protocols. In this context understanding is given as something that happens when you are no longer reading. It is not the open-ended Nietzschean echo, "Have I been understood?" but rather the "I understand" that means you have suspended judgement over a chasm of the real. Out of this collapse of judgement no genuine decision can be allowed to emerge. Madame Bovary understood too much; she understood what things were supposed to be like and suffered a series of ethical injuries for this certitude. Her understanding made her legislate closure at every step of the way. She was her own police force, finally turning herself in to the authorities. She understood when the time had come to an end [...] for Madame Bovary opens herself to an altogether different history of intelligibility, in fact, to another suicide pact, cosigned by a world that longer limits its rotting to a singular locality of the unjust."

Ronell's book is a tour-de-force on many levels: for its lucid and startling close-reading of -Madame Bovary-, for the densely glittering energy (and humor) of her prose, and above all for its insight -- never before so comprehensively and convincingly argued -- into addiction as a symptomatic structure of the modern condition. (The addict, she points out, embodies a peculiar challenge for thinking about the inside/outside, mind/body relation. Emma Bovary takes us farther into questions of expenditure and circulation.) This is a must-read not only for those interested in Flaubert's novel, but in the history of subjectivity more generally. Even in its craziest moments, the book is provocative and perceptive.

Avital Ronell examines drugs addiction & mania in this amazingly well written and concisely beautiful book. A book-as-object, containing installations, special sections and poetic-philosophic passages, Crack Wars is sure to please the patient reader. Draws from Flaubert, Heidegger and Derrida...contends that this "culture inspires and supports destructive play only to punish it." A must read!

This is a very good book with heplful information

I did not really come to closure of the old part of my life until I read this book. Rice is incredible. The stories must be true. I felt as though I knew all these people. Thank you for taking the time to write this book.

I bought this book hoping to find some insight into a friend's crack addiction.

This book teaches you about cocaine and cocaine addiction. It talks about who can be a cocaine addict and how to tell if you or a loved one is an addict.

The real life stories touch the heart and show that you aren't the only person going through what you are going through.

All in all this is a great book for those dealing with cocaine/crack addiction.

Mr. Richards is America's greatest living photojournalist. The depth of his social commitment to his subjects is equaled only by his amazing ability to compose the picture perfectly.

Cocaine true, Cocaine Blue represents the best of Eugene Richards. If Robert Capa's maxim about your pictures being close to be good is true, then Richards work is hands down about as close as anyone is getting.

This book focuses on the impact of crack cocaine in three eastern cities -- North Philadelphia, Harlem, and Red Hook, New Jersey.

Richards seems to have none of the fear that would stop most people, because his pictures bring a viewer over the comfort line to become shocking. The scenes exceed imagination. In fact, one of his pictures in this book was challenged for its authenticity because it seemed almost too perfect... In it, a women pauses to look at her John, her hands on his zipper, with her young child watching her. On a wall behind her, a picture of Martin Luther King, Jr. is displayed. Some black political leaders saw this picture and insisted that Richards must have set it up. He could only assert that he was truthful in his portrayal.

Truth is always stranger than fiction. This might be photojournalism's answer to magical realism: there is a wickedness and abandon to this world. The cover picture is another example -- the photograph shows an addict holding a syringe in his mouth. His eyes gleam in a way that suggests the insanity in the spirit of this individual.

Richards is for the most part a photographer who works inside America. Some domestic photographers lament that all of the best photographs are made in wars, and that the situations in our home communities preclude us from being able to make great pictures. Eugene Richards shows how this is false. He takes horrifying pictures in Long Island, in Philadelphia, in West Virginia, in Kansas City.

Eugene Richards, one of the worlds best photojournalist, has a gift to not only photograph well but also write about his subjects equally as well! He shows the world a part of this world many do not see nor wish to see. This is one of those photo books that a good photographer must have to essentially help to chisel a path in the photography world for themselves! Taking this style to learn and grow from! One can learn much by the raw and realness of Richard's Cocaine life pictorial!

This is one of the best books I've ever read. Not one page was boring. I would recommend this book to anyone.
The author does such a great job on her research, I really wish there where other books she wrote that were similar to this story.
This book would be 6 plus stars if that was an option. Buy it now!!!

Being from philly, i know alot of the characters in this book. that being said, i know alot of the characters in alot of gangster books written about philly, and alot of them suck or are a bunch of lies. this one is an exception! it's true, interesting and very detailed. so detailed that there's a chapter that basically tells you step by step how to re-rock coke. Carol Saline did a great job. i was impressed. AAAAAAA+++++++

also, 'doctor dealer' is pretty good too. it was written by mark bowden, the guy that wrote 'black hawk down'. both authors are local philly writers.

An interesting tale of Larry Lavin. A dentist with a career ahead of him. The Lure of money led to him dabble in the "Candy" of the 1980's. Intriguing was how he hid so close to the authorities as a fugitive. Good reading. Perhaps he was pursuing what many of taught is the American Dream....well worth the read.

Finally, an accurate account of the drug situation that took place around Miami, Bahamas and originating in Columbia. Interesting to read of the stand the Bahamian government played in all the dealings. An excellent read!

While reading the book you feel like you are there. Excellent book