Cocaine-Abuse Books

O.K., this book is listed as being a "comprehensive history" of cocaine, however, the author neglects a lot of the negative events which led to cocaine's becoming a prohibited substance. In particular, the fact that drinkers of cola beverages containing cocaine had higher mortality rates and paid higher insurance premiums because of that mortality rate. Instead, Mr. Madge cites the myth of the "Negro Coke Fiend" as being what caused prohibition. While I don't disagree that the drug war needs to be ended, I do disagree that many of these substances, in particular cocaine, are benign and can be compared to something such as caffeine. Cocaine is addictive and can be lethal in small doses (legal cocaine is marked "poison"). Any proper discussion of the topic needs to seriously consider the negative aspects of cocaine use. While mythology both pro- and anti- cocaine exists that mythology needs to be properly addressed and discussed. The most glaring of the pro-cocaine myths being that it need not be lethal and that it is not an addictive substance. The question which Mr. Madge fails to answer is what is the attraction of this dangerous substance? A better book on this topic is "Cocaine : An Unauthorized Biography" by Dominic Streatfeild.

plain and simple dont waste your money on this old information taken of other official documents dont waste your dollars

Most Americans will not want to believe the contents of this book. Scott & Marshall compile mountains of evidence to support their conclusions. This book deserves more attention.

I wouldn't say the book needs better editing. Some people may find the sheer amount of names and information presented to be cumbersome. I think the information could have been presented better by the authors, laying out facts and relationships between major parties involved such that the material is better digested by the casual reader. But this is my only criticism, otherwise this work is superb.

It is also frightening. This is a well documented, scholarly work; there is nothing here to point the dismissing charge of `conspiracy theory'. There are nearly 100 pages of references, and a great amount of this is from congressional testimony during the Kerry commission. The book documents how the CIA permitted, and one could say sanctioned, drug smuggling to reward American allies during the Contra wars against Nicaragua. The CIA did not seem to care that the drugs were destined for the US. Where was the DEA in all of this? The DEA office in Honduras was closed down after a year of operations. They could do nothing so they closed the office down. Whatever investigation leads they had were connected to the CIA, so they just quietly moved away. The authors also suggest that the DEA had information about certain drug shipments, but just looked the other way.

Meanwhile the Reagan administration, in order to bolster support for their illegal war, tried to misinform the American public by saying the Nicaraguans and Cubans were engaged in `narcoterrorism'. In classic doublespeak, Reagan told us that the evil communists were trying to peddle drugs on American streets in order to destroy us. What liars! They knew full well where the drugs were coming from. Reagan's poor memory came to his rescue, he should have been impeached.

The authors suggest that using drug smuggling as an instrument of foreign policy seemed blase to Washington, like it was nothing shocking or new. For example, heroin smuggling was a major part of the reason for the involvement in Vietnam. So maybe oil isn't the reason for the current US involvement in Afghanistan. It just happens to be the biggest opium producing region in the world..

This book provides a well-documented and comprehensive study of US involvement with drug runners and drug lords in the Central American countries of Panama, Guatemela, Honduras, etc... The book shows how this involvement was run by the executive branch of the US federal govt, often with minimal knowledge or consent by the American people, Congress, or the citizens of the Central American countries. Many of these interventions transgressed US and international law, and most likely broke laws in the local countries of action.

The goal of these interventions was to prevent the spread of communism in the area, regardless of whether the local communists were imports from Cuba/USSR or homegrown products. Specifically, Central America was formerly part of the Spanish empire. During this subjugation, society throughout the region became stratified into a land-holding minority, and a tenant majority. After WWII, many of these nations saw popular uprisings by the lower classes intent on wealth (land) redistribution. This smacked of communism, and the US government would not have any of this. Therefore, one US president after another ordered the CIA to provide arms, funding, training, and other support to groups in the region that promised to fight communists. Often times these groups were involved in the drug trade.

The result was that elected governments and local economies throughout the region were undermined by well-trained and well-armed drug lords backed and funded by the CIA. This destroyed these nations, and allowed drug lords in latin america to enter the US market. The result, a drug war on American streets.

The subject matter of the book is very important, unfortunately the text is poorly written. The book is essentially one fact (person, place, event) after another, and I easily got bogged down in the text trying to swallow all the data being presented. The book should have been edited better; specifically, half as many facts in a book twice as long would have made for a simpler and more digestable read.

This is a densely packed book that serves more as a collation of other sources - the exhaustive task of assembling it was no small feat and much thanks is to be given to Mr. Scott and Mr. Marshall for doing so. The story of drug corruption south of the border during the seventies and eighties is an epic of near mind- numbing detail, with dozens of story lines and characters intersecting at multiple junctures. This is, admittedly, no easy read, nor, for that matter, is the violence and corruption the book describes easy to stomach. But if we are to understand anything about the drug wars, aside from our government's own culpability, we must recognize how the US's unending appetite for narcotics is an integral part - if not extension - of our Cold War legacy. Forget the sanctimonious anti-drug bumper sticker slogans. Cocaine Politics shows us the Big Lie behind the fatuous eighties era motto of "Just say no."

Garbage! I have not even made it to chapter 1 yet and there are SO many spelling mistakes. Not sure who proof read this but they sure didn't have even a basic grasp of the english language. That bieng said, there is no reason to read anymore of this garbage - if the author was so lazy not to even use the spell check I don't have alot of confidence in the rest of this book. Don't waste your money.

Castillo tells a great story, even if there isn't much truth to it. Yes, all guerilla groups inevitably get involved with drugs. That's about where the truth ends. John Kerry's investigation went nowhere because there was no evidence, and he admitted that. The Los Angeles County Sheriff's Dept. also came up empty. So naturally it MUST be a dark conspiracy! Please. The contra leaders were adamant that their subordinates NOT raise money via illegal means. Besides, if the Contras HAD all of that drug money, they wouldn't have needed so much US funding. The cartels ended their association with contra armies by 1982. Bottom line: Castillo's book is not about drugs; it's a shameful attempt to rewrite history in favor of America's red enemies.

The foreward, written by Michael Levine, encourages the reader to cancel all appointments for the next several hours as the reader will not be able to put this book down. Levine wasn't kidding. This book is about the life of Cele Castillo. It begins with Cele's childhood under the rule of a military father. Cele ends up being drafted for the Vietnam war and his experiences in Vietnam are so amazingly vivid that it's impossible to put this book down. The drug use in Vietnam was so rampant that this is where Cele learns that narcotics were much more of a threat to America than Communism as he vows to fight the illegal drug industry if he ever makes it out of Vietnam in one piece. Cele survives the jungle, the snipers, and even his first helicopter crash. He's hired by the DEA and assigned to work in New York. He works hard, risking his life many times to bust drug dealers and ends up working in Central America. As if a second helicopter crash and being the guy responsible for upsetting powerful drug lords weren't risky enough, Cele stumbles upon the CIA and Oliver North's involvement in the illegal drug industry & illegal gun running during the Iran-Contra scandal, which also involved Bush Sr. & the Reagan administration. North & his crew were selling over-priced weapons to Iran as well as selling tons of cocaine to American cities as they used all of those profits to buy massive amount of weapons that they flew in to the Contras. As the cash and weapons were flown into the Contras, cocaine was brought back to America under the protection of the US military and CIA. The airplanes & airplane hangars were all CIA and NSA owned, and the pilots (Barry Seal & others) were contracted by the CIA. The corruption and involvement of our own CIA in the illegal drug industry wasn't enough to make Cele give up, he kept fighting to make a dent in the illegal drug industry. He was warned to stay away from the operations of Oliver North and the CIA but he pressed on anyway. That's when his career suffered as an internal investigation was launched against him. As if death threats and surviving a plane crash (his 3rd crash) weren't enough, trumped-up charges were used against him to end his career at the DEA. Cele risked his life countless times, got tons of cocaine off the streets of America & traded his marriage for dedication to his career. Senator John Kerry's investigation went nowhere, Bush Sr. pardoned North's crew as they only got a slap on the wrist (probation) while the DEA rewarded Cele by ending his career.

I live in El Salvador and know many of the people involved. Down here this is all highly common knowledge to the point that it is not even a conspiracy. I have personally spoken with many of the people who were on the side of the CIA and contras, and who benefitted from this, who sit and laugh about it over beers and talk about how gullible Americans are for believing that only foreign governments are corrupt. I also am friends with a CIA "consultant" during the war, an American ex-marine (this was before Blackwater made this sort of thing common) who was contracted to train the contras in the jungle. He was friends with Oliver North, and has photos of the two of them all over his house. He said that he personally escorted and helped pilot boatloads of crack and cocaine from Puerto Cabezas, Nicargua to Houston, TX and New Orleans, and the govt, coastguard, etc. was instructed to look the other way. This guy went to jail for Iran Contra for 2 years and was pardoned, and even though he fully admits to all of the activities and shenanigans, and took the fall for it, he thinks that Oliver North is a the greatest American we have. Yet even he concedes that Americans and the media are gullible idiots for everything that they got away with. Others have mentioned that there was no incentive becuase the US was funding the operation- this is BS- the whole reason for Iran Contra, as well as the drugs, ws because congress was cutting off funding and heavily restricting the funding that they did get. The guy who said otherwise on this board is either lying or has no idea what he is talking about. There are still a lot of spooks down in this part of the world, although its mellowed out since 9/11 since the govt. has other priorities...

Excellent book. Not only is this book based on a life of a top DEA agent, but it's also written very well! It's not dry nor tedious, it's a pleasure to read! And the information contained here is a goldmine.

This book is a 'must-read' for every single hard-working Patriotic American who is ready to Wake Up.

review by www.truthring.org

In the third line of this book, the author says that the Erythroxylum shrub "produces a small, bright-red, 'dupe'-type fruit." It's drupe, Dominic, not dupe. DRUPE.

Fascinating reading. Hard to put down. After three readings I still find it absorbing. Historically comprehensive. Biochemically accurate and well researched. Politically telling. The personal touch as he shares his journey of discovery.

Dominic Streatfield's "Cocaine" is illuminating and entertaining, even if it sometimes stalls. The book is, refreshingly, not a polemic, though it is obvious that Streatfield is in favor of legalization. This book is as much a powerful work of sociology, which gazes into the souls-won, lost and in limbo, affected by the drug. Appropriately, it is an indictment of the drug, as any book worth its weight must be, but the indictment is based on facts and shows the shallow tendency of American and European media to sensationalize and misinform the public about the drug. Definitely worth reading and considerably readable, Cocaine is a book that like its subject matter deserves a close examination.

This book is a great read. It begins with the history of the South American natives chewing coca to sustain their high-altitude lives, and takes the reader all the way to George Jung (of the movie Blow) and Ricky Ross, the first ghetto entrepreneur of the product pop culture calls "crack."

For anyone looking to know the whole story behind this powerful and culturally infecting substance, this is a great way to educate and entertain yourself. I read it almost cover-to-cover in three days.

Coaine its History and Uses... is exactly that.

Ashley traces cocaine to the coca plant of the Andes and details its history up until the present time. Well present time upon publication which was 1975 so the text is a little dated, but that is not his fault.

In a preface Ashley has the respect for his readers to explain his journalistic biases. This as far as I am concerned is excellent as there is definitely bias shown in the writing. He is almost a reincarnation of Freud, who as Ashley describes partook of cocaine himself as well as prescribing it to others. What I mean is that he seems very pro-cocaine in moderation and denies evidence of its addictive properties.

This is a very interesting text on the drug and I learnt a lot from reading it, this really does deserve more than three stars however my own bias factors into the writing of this review. In certain hands this could be read almost as an endorsement of cocaine and since I believe it is an addictive narcotic despite Ashley's claims, I would add a caveat to any reader to take his reasearch and it is very well researched with numerous sources sited in the endnotes with a grain of salt and don't believe everything you read.

And do not use this book to do lines off of it is only meant to be read.

This is one man's story of his battle with cocaine, and I found the facts to be fascinating. He is a from a strict traditional, Mormon, background, which he completely rejects. Having few, if any, guidelines for his life, and having a deep, deep drive for prestige, power, and wealth, he finds cocaine to be his perfect companion. He does a masterful job of describing how it gave him tremendous self-confidence when he had none. He graduated from Yale law school, and was a top speech writer for Robert Kennedy in his Calif. campaign, but after the assassination, the author was despondent, his marriage broke up, and he didn't know where to turn: so he turned to white powder. It got him everything, or so he thought. He explains how he would stay up all night thinking up eliborate financial investment schemes, and how he managed to deceive those closest to him, absconding with a tremendous amount of money. However, I would have liked him to elaborate more on why he thinks he got hooked (he also describes turning to booze for relief). Besides his background, he doesn't get into the relationship with his parents much, etc. In addition, this book could have been much better written. It is heavy with repetitive facts, and the section on his reaction to Kennedy's assasination was crying out for more emotion, more drama. Although, one highlight in the book for me was his second wife, a French woman. She first comes across as a golddigger, but when the author hits bottom (and he hits it hard; the two of them end up in a ramshackle apartment sleeping on air mattresses for beds), she not only sticks with him, but helps him get his life back together more than anyone else, prescribing yoga, meditation, and a growing spirituality. A fascinating look at how the chic, upwardly mobile, get hooked on cocaine.

This book includes most basic information on absinthe and does provide an interesting look into the drinks effects on writers and painters of the time. It goes quite in depth on a few figures and glances over many others. Overall it is worth your time and money, and I think you will find its wealth of information interesting at the least.

Let me begin by stating that I have not read this book. But the title informs me that I do not need to. Modern science has demonstrated that the dreaded "absinthism" that was the ruin of so many in at the turn of the 20th century was the stuff of (green) fairytales, while absinthe itself was merely an intoxicating, alcoholic drink. Let me be clear: when absinthe is distilled correctly, there is absolutely no reason for it to cause hallucinations. The chemicals simply aren't there. What absinthe can do is create a "lucid" experience of intoxication; that is, because it includes both alcohol and herbal stimulants, it can engender an alcoholic buzz while allowing you to remain more mentally alert than you would if you were drinking, say, vodka. That said, you should by no means consider this a good reason to try drinking absinthe and driving, or drinking absinthe and determining how attractive the girl you just met is, or drinking absinthe and writing an essay for school. But taken in moderation, it is simply a lovely alcoholic beverage that is now legal again in the U.S. because we now know it isn't really any more dangerous than any other alcoholic beverage. So, no, absinthe was by no means the cocaine of the nineteenth-century. In fact, in the closing years of the 19th century, cocaine became the cocaine of the 19th century, only that it was recommended by MDs to dispatch headaches and toothaches.

The characters were not likeable and I wanted them to have an OVERDOSE and die a horible painfull death!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I thought that in this book there was too much swaring and it was very depressing. I think that it was very unrealistic because you couldn't drop the cocane that fast.

Parents need to know that this book contains obscene and sexually explicit language. Comments on the back cover compare this book to Robinson Crusoe and Gary Paulsen's Hatchet. This is hardly the case.

The story "Wannabe" by Shelly Stoehr is about a girl in the real life of New York City. She works at a bar called "Gattos". She has a younger brother who also does nothing but gets in trouble and two un-loving parents that just yells and beats them. She has a friend named Erica and a boyfriend named Joey Valentino.Her boss is named Mario and her co-worker is named Paulie. Catherine is kind of a different character in the story than in other characters in the stories you would find. She gets in trouble alot, smokes, does other drugs, and cusses. This is an emotionally powerful novel that describes with great intensity a trap adolescent behavior and beliefs.

I have read "Crosses" and "Tomorrow Wendy, A Love Story" by Shelley Stoerh and loved them both, so when I bought "Wannabe" i expected it to be just as good if not better. Boy, was I in for a surprise. The book has no plot whatsoever and it is obviously coming from someone who has no experience with what the book is about. I do not recomment it to ANYONE! Shelley Stoehr is normally a great author, but "Wannabe" is one of the worst books I've ever read!

I found this book to be very helpful, but the chapters were shorter than I would have liked. Also, most of this information can be found on the web. Probably easier and no doubt cheaper to just surf around for a while.

I know a thing or two about cocaine, seeing as how I am related to several addicts. This book is dangerous, because it presents the view that cocaine is great, not addictive, and that very few people will ever abuse it. These days, we know that approximately one in 10 people who ever try cocaine become addicted to it. I am all for responsible drug use, but assuming that most people can use a drug like cocaine (daily, no less!) and be okay is a dangerously outdated concept. We realized in the 80's with the introduction of crack that cocaine is extremely addictive, even without strong physical withdrawl. Many, many lives have been torn apart by this drug, mine included, and there is a recklessness in assuming most people can just handle it.

However, if you would just like a trip down memory lane in the way we used to view drug use, this may be the book for you.

This consists of papers from a conference hosted in 1991. It doesn't feel dated however.

This book offers examples. Before needle exchanges took place in the US, they were shown to work in Australia and other countries. One author said drug users need to organize like the gay male community has. At first, this sounded naive, but the author stated that it has happened in the Netherlands. This book mentions solutions that work: using bleach on syringes, having drug addicts teach each other about avoiding STDs, etc. This book implies that drug addicts have learned to clean their needles, but that hasn't helped them to have safer sex. I wish I could have learned more about cocaine generally: how to spot a user, how to know if someone has re-started, how to encourage them to quit drug use because they may contract the virus.

I won't call this book homophobic, but it's a bit heterosexist. Several authors state that, "cocaine users could spread HIV to their children and wives." There is little discussion of the many MSM who also use drugs. What about the fact that they may be spreading the virus to non-drug-using male lovers? The book never mentions that some straight-identified drug users engage in same-sex prostitution to score drugs. Thus, though they do not identify as "gay," they may get the virus through same-sex sexual activities.