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Cocaine: An Unauthorised Biography
From South American coca in the fifth century BC, to Queen Victoria's endorsement of cocaine wine and Freud's use of cocaine in his discoveries, to the discovery of "crack" in 1983, cocaine has played a very important political, economic and social role. In the US, in one year alone, cocaine-related business costs the best part of $125 cocaine as a commodity has an economic importance that far outweighs its intrinsic value. And now there's a new strand to this story - the possible discovery of a vaccine. Is this the end of the line for cocaine? In "Cocaine", Dominic Streatfeild sets out to discover not the history of organized drug crime, but the story of the drug itself. His research takes him from the arcane reaches of the British Library to the isolation cells of America's most secure prisons; from the crack houses of New York to the jungles of Bolivia and Colombia.
508 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 2001
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 115 reviews
December 29, 2008
So far:
First of all--a note on the book's tone, which is familiar, cutesy, silly, very British. A bit *too* silly, it is also endearing, & can get the reader through a lot of initially dry but important material such as Inca history, Spanish colonial mines & the forced labor system of mita imposed on the native South Americans, patent medicines, & the way cocaine interweaves through all these stories. I also enjoyed how he depicted the process of research for the book itself, making it the humorous, sometimes futile process it so often is & making the reader aware that this analysis wasn't out there written in stone but existed as invisible connections never made before between all sorts of old texts in the British library, for example.
Streatfield naively doesn't question criminalization, & does bring in some fairly tainted stuff like the infamous "cocaine rat" experiments (hint: they worked that way b/c the animals' landscapes were bare of any other normal stimulus, & the rats' lives were traumatized and barren. When placed in normal social contexts with a complex environment to explore & interact with, rats and other animals do *not* choose Drugs Over Life, but instead seem to settle on a moderate daily dose of whatever it is, even decreasing their intake if the solution given to them becomes more potent.) But that doesn't mean this book isn't chock full of yummy, relevant research & Streatfield does undermine drug hysteria no matter what his views are.
**
Finished the book--scratch that, he does go into decrim as one of the few viable responses to cocaine as a political issue, but only really in the very last chapter of his nearly 500 page book. I guess the "cocaine is bad for you, mmmmk? " tone of the book fooled me--I wished he'd just said that it's part of a vast pharmacopia that humankind has been using for centuries & that it can be useful in strict moderation--you know, some harm reduction smarts, recognizing that it's not the drug itself but set, setting, and situation. He does rail against demonization of the drug, & drug war horror myths about it, as well as show a deep sympathy to poor South American coca growers whose economic needs are ignored or responded to in incredibly unrealistic ways---or the way they & their environment are sabotaged by the US spreading a fungus that kills coca plants--& EVERYTHING ELSE--on their soil. & he also makes an all important distinction between coca and cocaine--one is a *mild* stimulant that's been integrated into South American culture for thousands of years, while the other, much more intense, is a modern development. Most studies of cocaine don't go into coca, its precursor, & that's a huge failing that Streatfield wisely avoids. I was fascinated at the beginning of the book when he tries coca chewing himself--amazing intro gimmick.
The last thing that really bothered me is how uncritical he was about the addiction/dopamine studies of Dr. Nora Volkow (Trotsky's granddaughter, by the way, as Susan Cheever, another uncritical audience for these addiction studies, tell us in her silly sex addiction book), especially the animal studies, not seeking out any opposing theories, and not putting in the disclaimer that the study of neurotransmitters is still in its infancy.
But besides these faults, the book was incredibly informative, & though silly, quite fun to read.
First of all--a note on the book's tone, which is familiar, cutesy, silly, very British. A bit *too* silly, it is also endearing, & can get the reader through a lot of initially dry but important material such as Inca history, Spanish colonial mines & the forced labor system of mita imposed on the native South Americans, patent medicines, & the way cocaine interweaves through all these stories. I also enjoyed how he depicted the process of research for the book itself, making it the humorous, sometimes futile process it so often is & making the reader aware that this analysis wasn't out there written in stone but existed as invisible connections never made before between all sorts of old texts in the British library, for example.
Streatfield naively doesn't question criminalization, & does bring in some fairly tainted stuff like the infamous "cocaine rat" experiments (hint: they worked that way b/c the animals' landscapes were bare of any other normal stimulus, & the rats' lives were traumatized and barren. When placed in normal social contexts with a complex environment to explore & interact with, rats and other animals do *not* choose Drugs Over Life, but instead seem to settle on a moderate daily dose of whatever it is, even decreasing their intake if the solution given to them becomes more potent.) But that doesn't mean this book isn't chock full of yummy, relevant research & Streatfield does undermine drug hysteria no matter what his views are.
**
Finished the book--scratch that, he does go into decrim as one of the few viable responses to cocaine as a political issue, but only really in the very last chapter of his nearly 500 page book. I guess the "cocaine is bad for you, mmmmk? " tone of the book fooled me--I wished he'd just said that it's part of a vast pharmacopia that humankind has been using for centuries & that it can be useful in strict moderation--you know, some harm reduction smarts, recognizing that it's not the drug itself but set, setting, and situation. He does rail against demonization of the drug, & drug war horror myths about it, as well as show a deep sympathy to poor South American coca growers whose economic needs are ignored or responded to in incredibly unrealistic ways---or the way they & their environment are sabotaged by the US spreading a fungus that kills coca plants--& EVERYTHING ELSE--on their soil. & he also makes an all important distinction between coca and cocaine--one is a *mild* stimulant that's been integrated into South American culture for thousands of years, while the other, much more intense, is a modern development. Most studies of cocaine don't go into coca, its precursor, & that's a huge failing that Streatfield wisely avoids. I was fascinated at the beginning of the book when he tries coca chewing himself--amazing intro gimmick.
The last thing that really bothered me is how uncritical he was about the addiction/dopamine studies of Dr. Nora Volkow (Trotsky's granddaughter, by the way, as Susan Cheever, another uncritical audience for these addiction studies, tell us in her silly sex addiction book), especially the animal studies, not seeking out any opposing theories, and not putting in the disclaimer that the study of neurotransmitters is still in its infancy.
But besides these faults, the book was incredibly informative, & though silly, quite fun to read.
October 29, 2008
Excellent book. Streatfield has done his homework and really gives you the full picture. He gives you the coca plants history all the way back to the Incas and explains how enmeshed it is in South American culture. He then explains the difference between coca and it's refined cousins cocaine and eventually crack. Streatfield sets the scene for the cocaine battle between South America and US drug enforcement agencies and explains why we will never eradicate this drug. He offers different opinions on how to curtail it's use and harvest.
I have always had an issue with the US coming into another country and demanding they end a major economy. In fact unrefined coca in it's natural form has many health benefits and is highly nutritious. True, cocaine is a terrible drug to get involved with. In it's processed forms, it is highly addictive and is detrimental to ones health in large doses. However, coca plants grow very easily, even in nutrient poor soil. The coca farmers Streatfield interviews all say the same thing, growing coca has feed their families and provided an income for them. Asking a family to stop producing something that provides their sole income is a ridiculous proposal. I can see a parallel between cocaine and let's say McDonald's. Both are highly processed materials that have serious health effects on a regular user. America exports McDonald's and all it's health problems to other countries every year, and we make a ton of income off this export. You could argue McDonald's is propelling the obesity epidemic into a global issue. True McDonald's isn't the sole factor in obesity, however, cocaine is not the sole factor on the global drug market. Or for that matter we could look at another product the US grows, distributes and profits from, tobacco. Highly addictive, terrible health effects, it is also highly profitable to the US. I would argue that if any other country attempted to force the US to eradicate this plant we would be outraged and screaming to the heavens. Lobbyist and politicians would begin the sad song of tobacco providing our poor farmers a livable income. Well, that's true for the coca farmers. The UN has tried several replacement crops in hopes farmers would cultivate those instead. Unfortunately so far, no other crop has provided the farmers with a livable wage. We aren't giving these farmers any alternative. We can't ask someone to give up something that is feeding their family. I think Streatfield put it best when he states that South America is being punished in the "war on drugs" because the US is unable to enforce it's own drug laws. In my opinion the US has no right to expect citizens of other countries stop growing a plant they have grown for centuries, is part of their culture and heritage, provides a sustainable living all because we are unable to control it's use in our own country.
I have always had an issue with the US coming into another country and demanding they end a major economy. In fact unrefined coca in it's natural form has many health benefits and is highly nutritious. True, cocaine is a terrible drug to get involved with. In it's processed forms, it is highly addictive and is detrimental to ones health in large doses. However, coca plants grow very easily, even in nutrient poor soil. The coca farmers Streatfield interviews all say the same thing, growing coca has feed their families and provided an income for them. Asking a family to stop producing something that provides their sole income is a ridiculous proposal. I can see a parallel between cocaine and let's say McDonald's. Both are highly processed materials that have serious health effects on a regular user. America exports McDonald's and all it's health problems to other countries every year, and we make a ton of income off this export. You could argue McDonald's is propelling the obesity epidemic into a global issue. True McDonald's isn't the sole factor in obesity, however, cocaine is not the sole factor on the global drug market. Or for that matter we could look at another product the US grows, distributes and profits from, tobacco. Highly addictive, terrible health effects, it is also highly profitable to the US. I would argue that if any other country attempted to force the US to eradicate this plant we would be outraged and screaming to the heavens. Lobbyist and politicians would begin the sad song of tobacco providing our poor farmers a livable income. Well, that's true for the coca farmers. The UN has tried several replacement crops in hopes farmers would cultivate those instead. Unfortunately so far, no other crop has provided the farmers with a livable wage. We aren't giving these farmers any alternative. We can't ask someone to give up something that is feeding their family. I think Streatfield put it best when he states that South America is being punished in the "war on drugs" because the US is unable to enforce it's own drug laws. In my opinion the US has no right to expect citizens of other countries stop growing a plant they have grown for centuries, is part of their culture and heritage, provides a sustainable living all because we are unable to control it's use in our own country.
March 2, 2017
Well researched, well written. Strikes the ideal non-fiction balance between being engaging and being informative. Starting in the coca plants ancient history, Streatfeild takes you on a tour that passes through it's discovery by the West, the creation of the drug cocaine, the epidemic of cocaine use when it was considered a medicine, the subsequent push to criminalize and decrease use, the creation of an enormous illicit trade, the creation of crack cocaine, and through the "war on drugs" to take a deeper look at the main South American countries that grow the majority of the world's coca. Along the way, he introduces you to the many colorful characters who have played a role in the cocaine saga including Sigmund Freud, Dennis Hopper, Rick Ross and Pablo Escobar to name a few of the more household names.
The only area it skimps is the "neuroscience" side of things and I think that is appropriate. There are more than enough review papers online where you can get your fill of neurophysiology.
I was particularly impressed by the humor, warmth and balance that Streatfeild writes with. He is able to hold a remarkably neutral position for the majority of the book, and the curiosity and amusement in his tone becomes infectious and makes the book hard to put down. Do yourself a favor and pick it up! It really is amazing how this drug has woven itself into the history of the world in the last 200 years. Read the book and decide for yourself what that says about us as a species.
The only area it skimps is the "neuroscience" side of things and I think that is appropriate. There are more than enough review papers online where you can get your fill of neurophysiology.
I was particularly impressed by the humor, warmth and balance that Streatfeild writes with. He is able to hold a remarkably neutral position for the majority of the book, and the curiosity and amusement in his tone becomes infectious and makes the book hard to put down. Do yourself a favor and pick it up! It really is amazing how this drug has woven itself into the history of the world in the last 200 years. Read the book and decide for yourself what that says about us as a species.
January 6, 2025
This book is a must read for everyone! It’s astoundingly current and progressive in its understanding of the world and society! It’s 24 years old, but it reads like cutting edge journalism now. Can’t suggest it enough!!
November 13, 2023
Cocaine: An Unauthorized Biography by Dominic Streatfeild explores the history of cocaine starting with the chewing of coca leaves by the natives of South America. Coca's history, use, misuse, and abuse is a fascinating tale of how humans can take something good and corrupt it with just a little effort. The effects of imperialism on the coca plant and its transition into cocaine and the various forms of cocaine are scary and yet somehow felt unavoidable. I was torn between what I thought I knew and what the facts and evidence show in regards to the coca plant, cocaine use, and cocaine trafficking based on Streatfeild's research. The intersection of political aspirations and cocaine is incredibly disheartening leaving one to wonder just how much those in power drove or at least ignored cocaine trafficking for political benefit. As I reached the latter part of the book, the realization kept coming to me that criminalizing cocaine and other drugs created the prices that made trafficking so tempting to so many. Criminalizing the use of drugs rather than seeing it as a medical issue has created so many problems for so many places all around the world. Using drug trafficking as a control mechanism over countries dooms those countries to poverty and dependence on other countries. While Streatfeild never explicitly lays out a plan to decriminalize drugs, it was easy to imagine how a shift in perspective about the use of the coca plant could lead to viable economies for those countries where coca is easy (and in some places the only real option) to grow to trade with other countries through the interviews he shared. Cocaine showed me how easy it is to fall into a fear trap and how easily those fear traps can be released with a little information. Streatfeild demonstrates how various governments and the media worked together, sometimes wittingly sometimes unwittingly, to scare people into thinking the drug problem was much more pervasive and deadly than it actually was and to point fingers at populations that were easy to punch down at rather than addressing the real issues that lead to drug use in the first place. Cocaine is a fascinating, if sometimes tedious, look into how a harmless plant became the big, bad evil because of human interference.
February 6, 2024
This book provides so much insight into the 17th through 19th century concerning the development of the Western Countries, and people's of Latin America and the Caribbean. How the Age of Pirates and Resistance to Slavery or Colonization contributed to ethnic diversity we see of the Americas is so very noteworthy from this Book, but the most important is how Coca evolved from being an Entheogen to the Bane of all ethnic groups once it was criminalized. A hint into how Coca went from being a miracle anesthetic to the vice of it's medical practitioners also suggests some liability of the United States government. This would long precede the Nixon and Reagan Administration's documented flooding of American Cities by CIA and FBI with the powder, and would actually suggest that today's addicts may have been yesterday's victims of medical malpractice or mislabeled food items. This book is one that inadvertently brings a branch of Evolutionary Anthropology into focus: that of Ethnopharmacology. Not only because of the history of propaganda against marginalized ethnic groups that led to it's eventual prohibition, but also how Columbians, Dominicans, Bahamians, Jamaicans, Haitians and other South American and Caribbean Amerindians may have used or are still using the Coca to fight for their freedom to this day. This book tells the legacy of my People, and why the power of growing outlawed plants to resist enslavement and colonization will never end.
April 10, 2024
Dense. A lot. Perhaps too much. Because the book aims to be so comprehensive, it feels like it skims some history. If you've watched Narcos (the TV series on Netflix) the take on Escobar can feel a bit superficial.
But hey, we had all of those pages on Freud to cover, so we don't have time to dive deep into Escobar. Fair. But the book can start to feel a little bit rushed, even as it drowns you in details.
It is a fun read. Mind you, it was published in 2001, so a lot of it feels out of date. Where are we now? Time for an update?
The author can write. I'll give him that. I read all 500 pages. And if I got bored, I knew we'd eventually move on to another topic.
In the end, he makes an argument for legalization. And I couldn't help but agree. I've traveled to Bogota and Bolivia. I love both countries. I've chewed coca leaves. And coca is not cocaine. It would be amazing of leaves were available for chewing on Canada. Or coca candy. Or coca drinks.
But because the leaf is forever associated with the powder, it seems unlikely that will ever happen. Which seems insane. But hey, drugs are bad and just say no. (The leaf isn't cocaine! Are you even listening? No? I didn't think so.)
I read this book because a friend recommended it. Is it worth reading? Maybe. I can't help but think there are more current books out there, probably. But this was a fun read.
But hey, we had all of those pages on Freud to cover, so we don't have time to dive deep into Escobar. Fair. But the book can start to feel a little bit rushed, even as it drowns you in details.
It is a fun read. Mind you, it was published in 2001, so a lot of it feels out of date. Where are we now? Time for an update?
The author can write. I'll give him that. I read all 500 pages. And if I got bored, I knew we'd eventually move on to another topic.
In the end, he makes an argument for legalization. And I couldn't help but agree. I've traveled to Bogota and Bolivia. I love both countries. I've chewed coca leaves. And coca is not cocaine. It would be amazing of leaves were available for chewing on Canada. Or coca candy. Or coca drinks.
But because the leaf is forever associated with the powder, it seems unlikely that will ever happen. Which seems insane. But hey, drugs are bad and just say no. (The leaf isn't cocaine! Are you even listening? No? I didn't think so.)
I read this book because a friend recommended it. Is it worth reading? Maybe. I can't help but think there are more current books out there, probably. But this was a fun read.
October 25, 2017
Maybe 4.5 stars.
We start with exploring coca the plant, journey through the early medical uses of the plant, which include being one of the first topical anesthetics- particularly important for eye surgery in which the patients needed to move their eyes when the doctor told them, so they had to be awake. This was seriously painful to read. Of course, early on, folks thought of it as a wonder drug.
It talks us through the cycles of cocaine's popularity and of course, the crack epidemic. It spends a lot of time on propaganda and drug hysteria-misinformation spread about drugs, citing common themes of racism, exaggerations of the impacts of drugs and "won't somebody think of the children!!" Reading some of the old messages and claims were hilarious.
He talks about coca being given to slaves (particularly the Inca in South America) and sharecroppers so they could work for hours/days without needing food or drink.
He goes to the early days of crack and interviews drug lords etc. He talks about the violence associated with the cartels and the corruption in all countries involved.
Over all, there's some really interesting stuff in here. A lot of it. But it's written in an entertaining fashion.
We start with exploring coca the plant, journey through the early medical uses of the plant, which include being one of the first topical anesthetics- particularly important for eye surgery in which the patients needed to move their eyes when the doctor told them, so they had to be awake. This was seriously painful to read. Of course, early on, folks thought of it as a wonder drug.
It talks us through the cycles of cocaine's popularity and of course, the crack epidemic. It spends a lot of time on propaganda and drug hysteria-misinformation spread about drugs, citing common themes of racism, exaggerations of the impacts of drugs and "won't somebody think of the children!!" Reading some of the old messages and claims were hilarious.
He talks about coca being given to slaves (particularly the Inca in South America) and sharecroppers so they could work for hours/days without needing food or drink.
He goes to the early days of crack and interviews drug lords etc. He talks about the violence associated with the cartels and the corruption in all countries involved.
Over all, there's some really interesting stuff in here. A lot of it. But it's written in an entertaining fashion.
February 10, 2017
"Drug use was unAmerican, goddammit. You wouldn't catch Abraham Lincoln smoking crack."
What can I say about this book? Informative, engaging, cheekily written, and thought-provoking. While I think Streatfield occasionally ventures into tinfoil hat territory, he backs up his arguments, so they don't seem AS tin-foil hatty. From the ancient Incas to 1980s Columbia, if cocaine use happened anywhere, Streatfield covers it - and goes the extra mile (in my opinion) in spending time about the very real chemical effects of cocaine on the brain. He ends the book with a hypothesis - would making cocaine legal cut down on all of the profit traditionally associated with the drug? I found myself violently rejecting the notion - and then questioning why I did so. To me, anything that you read, encounter, etc., that makes you take a step back from what you may have previously thought to consider a different possibility (even if it ultimately means rejecting said possibility) is like....the heart of why I read. I can't recall talking this much about a book in a while, and honestly, it's ripe for discussion. So good job, Streatfield. You've given me feelings about cocaine.
What can I say about this book? Informative, engaging, cheekily written, and thought-provoking. While I think Streatfield occasionally ventures into tinfoil hat territory, he backs up his arguments, so they don't seem AS tin-foil hatty. From the ancient Incas to 1980s Columbia, if cocaine use happened anywhere, Streatfield covers it - and goes the extra mile (in my opinion) in spending time about the very real chemical effects of cocaine on the brain. He ends the book with a hypothesis - would making cocaine legal cut down on all of the profit traditionally associated with the drug? I found myself violently rejecting the notion - and then questioning why I did so. To me, anything that you read, encounter, etc., that makes you take a step back from what you may have previously thought to consider a different possibility (even if it ultimately means rejecting said possibility) is like....the heart of why I read. I can't recall talking this much about a book in a while, and honestly, it's ripe for discussion. So good job, Streatfield. You've given me feelings about cocaine.
May 14, 2024
Informative, comprehensive, and consistently entertaining, which are all very winning qualities for a 500+ pages book about cocaine, however my one point of criticism is quite significant: by opting for the kind of colloquial writing style of someone speaking to you inbetween rounds at the pub, Streatfeild exposes a whole range of prejudices that he was probably not even aware of hoarding. And, not to imply that you can't out yourself as a twat when your writing remains couched in academic jargon, but a more formal register might have stopped the author's unfunny asides about the dubious legality of Latinx migrants or Pride parades from being quite as galling as they now read a mere two decades after publication. I mean, there's literally a point where he enumerates the kind of wild excesses cocaine consumption supposedly leads to, and one of the examples he picks is having sex with another man, couched between examples of bestiality and prostituting one's children.
February 14, 2018
Fascinating story, well-written, with just the right amount of British humour (see what I did there?). Probably the only fault I have is how old it is. I'd love to know the current status of cocaine; I suspect that there is little powder cocaine around in the US and it is mostly crack. Some people might find the beginning chapters a little dry - coca leaves have been chewed in South America for centuries, generally for the "lift" it provides, in terms of energy and ability to concentrate and work. Streatfeild, apparently, interviewed drug kingpins, DEA agents, politicians, dealers...a well-researched, informative book.
January 27, 2020
Books on drug culture seem to have become somewhat redundant in recent years with the rise of documentaries on Netflix, so perhaps the reason that I found Streatfeild's history of cocaine so fascinating was because it was like watching a Vice documentary, only in book form.
This hefty 500 page+ tomb appeared rather daunting from the outset but thanks to Streatfeild's friendly and always engaging tone throughout, I found myself instantly sucked into the crazy world of cocaine - the gangs, the politics, the abuses, the addictions, and everything else in between. It's riveting from start to finish and packed full of well-researched info that never gets boring.
This hefty 500 page+ tomb appeared rather daunting from the outset but thanks to Streatfeild's friendly and always engaging tone throughout, I found myself instantly sucked into the crazy world of cocaine - the gangs, the politics, the abuses, the addictions, and everything else in between. It's riveting from start to finish and packed full of well-researched info that never gets boring.
May 13, 2020
THIS! This book is one of the most thoroughly researched and interesting I have ever read on any subject. Dominic Streatfield delves into his work with the zeal of an archeologist searching for El Dorado. The detail of his research comes to life in his absolutely entertaining and enthralling prose. He exceeds expectations by taking an already fascinating subject like cocaine and making it even more interesting. With colorful interviews and anecdotes, some that stretch belief but are definitely examples of magical realism, he shows what can become reality because of the influence a drug like cocaine has on the world.
August 26, 2017
A very interesting story, part journey of a man, part research into the drug's origin. The stories he told about how he came about with the knowledge he shares is often more interesting than the drug itself. You might need to do a bit of cocaine to get through the drier parts but overall educating and amusing.
February 1, 2020
Very British, had a few audible laughs while reading this. I took the first half of the book with a grain of salt as the writer mentions, but doesn’t seem to double down on, the fact that some of it is largely speculative but can be considered plausible by some supporting events/documents. Would love to see a follow up on how the trade has changed in the last twenty years.
February 7, 2023
Overall pretty interesting, drags a bit between the Quechua Coca Trade and the 70s cocaine boom, but overall a balanced and insightful read with a fairly entertaining style.
At parts, the "I'm taking you with me through my research process" is a bit excessive, but hey, man did have quite the journey.
At parts, the "I'm taking you with me through my research process" is a bit excessive, but hey, man did have quite the journey.
August 25, 2025
Extensively researched, detailed. Despite the immense amount of detail, Streatfield displays his writing prowess with an overarching ability to keep the reader engaged. This book is witty, educational, funny, hair raising and for the majority of the time totally unbelievable except everything is true. One of the best books I’ve read in a while.
October 8, 2023
Amazing story telling, great research and very informative.
March 2, 2024
Very informative. Solid history.
March 11, 2024
前半段探尋歷史的部分比較吸引我，後面跟政治的糾葛，看著過於傳奇。
December 30, 2020
A well-researched, well-written book.
August 25, 2015
An incredibly well researched and hilarious book, in a way only a Brit could write about such a serious topic. Filled with self deprecating humour and total unease with himself, Dominic Streatfeild courageously interviews some famously "bad" dudes. What is the most striking is that they do just seem like regular guys who saw a way to make an insane amount of money all while succumbing to megalomania.
Obviously we all know that the Coca leaves have been chewed for thousands of years for a pick me up-like a double espresso. I didn't know the complex chemistry-you must add an alkali such as lime to extract the alkaline-much the way I believe baking soda is used to make crack. But once Europeans discovered this "drug" they saw a way to exploitation. Starting with Spanish who enslaved millions over the course of several centuries in mining pits-most of whom didn't survive one year. They kept the indigenous working hard by giving them lots of coca and became the largest drug dealer on the continent by planting more potent forms of the plant on giant Spanish run plantations. Much the way the English helped the Asians get hooked on Opium and then became the only cartel to supply it. Being the ultra capitalists that they are, the Brits found a way to outproduce the south americans-Bolivia was making a decent amount of money from coca-by growing it in their other colonies after acquiring some cuttings, same with quninine and rubber. The Americans would later become just as evil.
There is too much to go into further here but the connection with Freud and several other famous people is explained as well as a giant German pharmaceutical company's role (only two in the world for much for much of the time with the other in Detroit).
Then we get to the fun stuff of 19th and 20th century cocaine with the story of Coca Cola taking center stage with all the other elixirs. It still uses the coca leaf as a flavouring without the alkali transforming it to cocaine.
There is also a nice chapter on the role people thought cocaine could play in weaning morphine addicts off opiates. (Freud had a big role to play)
After falling into disfavour in the states, the US decided to fight its first war on drugs by popularizing the myth that cocaine is so dangerous it makes white women sleep with black men and makes black men uncontrollable. This struck a cord specifically in the south right in the middle of the period of frequent lynchings and post reconstruction-pre world war one. The imprisonment of an insane proportion of the country followed.
The most interesting part of the cocaine story is how the US created its own drug problem. It involved anticommunist cubans who fled from castro into the arms of the US government. They got free military training-known as Brigade 2506. Almost all of the cocaine coming into the country in the 60's and 70's was brought by the cubans, most of the smugglers were Bay of Pigs operatives (70%). They were of course also implicated in the Iran contra deal, which the CIA and military at the very least turned a blind eye to gigantic shipments of cocaine coming into US military bases on US military planes-then sold to wholesale dealers in L.A. who figured out how to turn it into crack.
The rest of the story is well known with columbian cartels being fought by the US DEA-with almost all the cocaine still making it into the country and with the US refusing to deal with the demand problem at home. They always found it easier to dump harmful exfoliants, anti-coca plant diseases on poor, small scale coca farmers who literally can't make money planting anything else.
Obviously we all know that the Coca leaves have been chewed for thousands of years for a pick me up-like a double espresso. I didn't know the complex chemistry-you must add an alkali such as lime to extract the alkaline-much the way I believe baking soda is used to make crack. But once Europeans discovered this "drug" they saw a way to exploitation. Starting with Spanish who enslaved millions over the course of several centuries in mining pits-most of whom didn't survive one year. They kept the indigenous working hard by giving them lots of coca and became the largest drug dealer on the continent by planting more potent forms of the plant on giant Spanish run plantations. Much the way the English helped the Asians get hooked on Opium and then became the only cartel to supply it. Being the ultra capitalists that they are, the Brits found a way to outproduce the south americans-Bolivia was making a decent amount of money from coca-by growing it in their other colonies after acquiring some cuttings, same with quninine and rubber. The Americans would later become just as evil.
There is too much to go into further here but the connection with Freud and several other famous people is explained as well as a giant German pharmaceutical company's role (only two in the world for much for much of the time with the other in Detroit).
Then we get to the fun stuff of 19th and 20th century cocaine with the story of Coca Cola taking center stage with all the other elixirs. It still uses the coca leaf as a flavouring without the alkali transforming it to cocaine.
There is also a nice chapter on the role people thought cocaine could play in weaning morphine addicts off opiates. (Freud had a big role to play)
After falling into disfavour in the states, the US decided to fight its first war on drugs by popularizing the myth that cocaine is so dangerous it makes white women sleep with black men and makes black men uncontrollable. This struck a cord specifically in the south right in the middle of the period of frequent lynchings and post reconstruction-pre world war one. The imprisonment of an insane proportion of the country followed.
The most interesting part of the cocaine story is how the US created its own drug problem. It involved anticommunist cubans who fled from castro into the arms of the US government. They got free military training-known as Brigade 2506. Almost all of the cocaine coming into the country in the 60's and 70's was brought by the cubans, most of the smugglers were Bay of Pigs operatives (70%). They were of course also implicated in the Iran contra deal, which the CIA and military at the very least turned a blind eye to gigantic shipments of cocaine coming into US military bases on US military planes-then sold to wholesale dealers in L.A. who figured out how to turn it into crack.
The rest of the story is well known with columbian cartels being fought by the US DEA-with almost all the cocaine still making it into the country and with the US refusing to deal with the demand problem at home. They always found it easier to dump harmful exfoliants, anti-coca plant diseases on poor, small scale coca farmers who literally can't make money planting anything else.
November 29, 2007
Dominic Streatfeild does a masterful job of tying together several thousand years of history into 500 pages. This was an ambitious (and dangerous) project, and along every step of the way, you feel as if you're walking alongside him. It's a fascinating book, and a cautionary tale about the dangerous road we're heading down. A must-read.
Throughout, Streatfeild writes with a wit and rhythm that defied my expectations. 500 pages about a single drug is a lot, and when 150 pages doesn't even touch the modern era, you might expect to be bored. Yet he manages to make everything so damn interesting, you might think you've been dosed.
The first couple hundred pages is nothing but what you might consider "back story": a history of the coca leaf, its use in the mountainous regions of South America, the perceptions of coca during colonization, all the way through its emergence as a "wonder drug" in the early 20th century. (And for anyone who wants to know just how crazy this stuff made Sigmund Freud, there are a couple chapters devoted to that.)
I found one of the most engrossing sections was on early attempts at cocaine prohibition. The drug crusaders were an odd bunch (saccharin was their next target after cocaine) with dubious ethics and a complete inability to understand the basic science behind the drugs they railed against. It's an interesting parallel to how our modern drug policies get made.
The latter half of the book is where Streatfeild's prowess as an investigative journalist comes to the fore. He digs deep into the modern history of cocaine smuggling, unearthing records and uncovering the connections that turned cocaine into America's super-drug. Anyone who's seen Blow might find the section about George Jung and Carlos Lehder repetitive, but even there I found the author breathed new life into the story.
Beyond George Jung, there is the sordid history of macroeconomic competition between different countries (Peru, Bolivia, Colombia, the Bahamas, Mexico) for supremacy in supplying illicit cocaine to the US. This turns into a violent, almost inhuman narrative on government corruption, organized crime, and savage reprisals. And Streatfeild is there: he smuggles himself into rebel territory in Colombia, visits a coca market in Bolivia, traipses around in the rainforest interviewing coca farmers, the whole time without insurance.
In the end, Cocaine turns into a sad humanitarian tale. Streatfeild interviews, sometimes at significant peril, the rural coca farmers who ultimately pay the price of our anti-drug enforcement efforts. He digs into America's involvement in passing draconian "guilty-until-proven-innocent" laws in Colombia, examines the economics of growing coca versus any other crop, and visits farmers whose fields were destroyed by a genetically-engineered fungus that was dropped from a US crop-dusting plane. It's heart-breaking to hear how many indigent farmers are snapped up by drug enforcement, while the traffickers continue to make money.
I won't keep going; if you're not interested by now, this book isn't for you. But if you've read up to here, you're probably as interested as I was in learning how our country got itself so messed up with this drug. It's all in here. From start to finish, Dominic Streatfeild finds a way to extract history and data that nobody else seems to have (or wants to talk about), and ties it all together with style and common sense.
Go get it now.
Throughout, Streatfeild writes with a wit and rhythm that defied my expectations. 500 pages about a single drug is a lot, and when 150 pages doesn't even touch the modern era, you might expect to be bored. Yet he manages to make everything so damn interesting, you might think you've been dosed.
The first couple hundred pages is nothing but what you might consider "back story": a history of the coca leaf, its use in the mountainous regions of South America, the perceptions of coca during colonization, all the way through its emergence as a "wonder drug" in the early 20th century. (And for anyone who wants to know just how crazy this stuff made Sigmund Freud, there are a couple chapters devoted to that.)
I found one of the most engrossing sections was on early attempts at cocaine prohibition. The drug crusaders were an odd bunch (saccharin was their next target after cocaine) with dubious ethics and a complete inability to understand the basic science behind the drugs they railed against. It's an interesting parallel to how our modern drug policies get made.
The latter half of the book is where Streatfeild's prowess as an investigative journalist comes to the fore. He digs deep into the modern history of cocaine smuggling, unearthing records and uncovering the connections that turned cocaine into America's super-drug. Anyone who's seen Blow might find the section about George Jung and Carlos Lehder repetitive, but even there I found the author breathed new life into the story.
Beyond George Jung, there is the sordid history of macroeconomic competition between different countries (Peru, Bolivia, Colombia, the Bahamas, Mexico) for supremacy in supplying illicit cocaine to the US. This turns into a violent, almost inhuman narrative on government corruption, organized crime, and savage reprisals. And Streatfeild is there: he smuggles himself into rebel territory in Colombia, visits a coca market in Bolivia, traipses around in the rainforest interviewing coca farmers, the whole time without insurance.
In the end, Cocaine turns into a sad humanitarian tale. Streatfeild interviews, sometimes at significant peril, the rural coca farmers who ultimately pay the price of our anti-drug enforcement efforts. He digs into America's involvement in passing draconian "guilty-until-proven-innocent" laws in Colombia, examines the economics of growing coca versus any other crop, and visits farmers whose fields were destroyed by a genetically-engineered fungus that was dropped from a US crop-dusting plane. It's heart-breaking to hear how many indigent farmers are snapped up by drug enforcement, while the traffickers continue to make money.
I won't keep going; if you're not interested by now, this book isn't for you. But if you've read up to here, you're probably as interested as I was in learning how our country got itself so messed up with this drug. It's all in here. From start to finish, Dominic Streatfeild finds a way to extract history and data that nobody else seems to have (or wants to talk about), and ties it all together with style and common sense.
Go get it now.
March 13, 2011
Unlike other authors who have tackled the subject of illicit drugs, Dominic Streatfield lays no subtitled spin on his subject. His approach mirrors traditional biographies, thick profiles of historical figures or movements or ideas. In Cocaine: An Unauthorized Biography, we simply learn about where cocaine came from, the people who discovered it, the people who converted it from coca leaves into powder and then (much later) smokable rocks, and the people who use it, sell it, sell it big time, and die because of it - either the violence surrounding its international trade or the addictive effects of the substance itself. Streatfield works hard to collect these stories, traveling to Columbia and Austria, conducting extensive conversations with experts in the field, who speak from university research labs, city streets and prison cells.
"Of all the interviewees I contacted in the course of researching this book - including a Nobel Laaureate and a number of extremely serious scientists - Ross came across as the brightest. By far," Streatfield says of the man credited with inventing Ready Rock, later known as "crack." He proceeds to tell us the story of how Ricky Ross grew up, his early forays into crime, and the events during and after his attempt to get a college education. It's obvious Streatfield, who pops in and out of each scene and segway as a first-person narrator chasing the story, thinks this story is unfortunate. It's also obvious that he thinks it's fascinating, and his enthusiasm and curiosity create a readable and thorough account of the drug's role throughout history.
To anyone who reads the news and endeavors to know what lies way back behind major forces shaping the substance and face of crime in America today, cocaine deserves this biography. Streatfield explains how cocaine evolved into role it plays now: from the tradition of chewing coca leaves in South and Central America; to Freud and his colleagues' risky and feverish experimentation with medical uses for the drug; to the elusive and extravagant kingpins of the 1970s and 1980s; to the modern American law enforcement war against the powder and Mr. Ross's rock, the one that will keep him in prison for the rest of his life.
However terrible the consequences of his creation, I am grateful to Streatfield for giving Ross a voice. Though "unauthorized," the book treats cocaine and the people who shaped its history quite fairly. The author's attention to detail and thoroughness bring the experience of reading it to a place both compelling and educational, and satisfy every curiosity a reader could develop about the subject. He doesn't skimp on the way the drug feels, why it holds addictive and remunerative appeal, and its widespread commercial and medical use before it became cast as a vice. And I'm quite glad to know, once and for all, what cocaine has to do with my favorite hometown cola.
"Of all the interviewees I contacted in the course of researching this book - including a Nobel Laaureate and a number of extremely serious scientists - Ross came across as the brightest. By far," Streatfield says of the man credited with inventing Ready Rock, later known as "crack." He proceeds to tell us the story of how Ricky Ross grew up, his early forays into crime, and the events during and after his attempt to get a college education. It's obvious Streatfield, who pops in and out of each scene and segway as a first-person narrator chasing the story, thinks this story is unfortunate. It's also obvious that he thinks it's fascinating, and his enthusiasm and curiosity create a readable and thorough account of the drug's role throughout history.
To anyone who reads the news and endeavors to know what lies way back behind major forces shaping the substance and face of crime in America today, cocaine deserves this biography. Streatfield explains how cocaine evolved into role it plays now: from the tradition of chewing coca leaves in South and Central America; to Freud and his colleagues' risky and feverish experimentation with medical uses for the drug; to the elusive and extravagant kingpins of the 1970s and 1980s; to the modern American law enforcement war against the powder and Mr. Ross's rock, the one that will keep him in prison for the rest of his life.
However terrible the consequences of his creation, I am grateful to Streatfield for giving Ross a voice. Though "unauthorized," the book treats cocaine and the people who shaped its history quite fairly. The author's attention to detail and thoroughness bring the experience of reading it to a place both compelling and educational, and satisfy every curiosity a reader could develop about the subject. He doesn't skimp on the way the drug feels, why it holds addictive and remunerative appeal, and its widespread commercial and medical use before it became cast as a vice. And I'm quite glad to know, once and for all, what cocaine has to do with my favorite hometown cola.
February 19, 2017
Streatfeild might be the perfect person to tell you all about cocaine, because at the outset of writing this book he knew as much about it as the average Westerner: i. e., not much. That might sound like a bad thing but it actually isn't, because Streatfeild goes into the history, culture, and economics of cocaine with no preconceived notions. He talks to everyone from Colombian politicians to DEA agents to Freud experts to Marxist guerrillas to world-famous most-wanted traffickers, and he does it all with good humor and a healthy suspicion of everyone's story. The surprisingly entertaining account starts to drag around three hundred pages, but just when you think you can't take any more minutiae about the agricultural dynamics of the Bolivian hinterland, the pace picks up again with a visit to the infamous Ochoa brothers. All in all, an informative and largely unbiased account of one of the biggest, baddest industries in the world.
March 2, 2009
microhistories are great ways to look at the world. they're kind of like the historical equivalent of taking a biopsy - choose an angle of incision, cut a paper-thin slice, and look at it under a microscope. not always helpful in understanding what's going on in the body as a whole, but if you choose the right angle it can be and regardless it's a trip to look at.
as an enthusiastic drug-taker who has always avoided blow for one reason or another, this looked like a fine book to check out. and in many ways it was - streatfeild chose a captivating subject even if you don't happen to be pharmacologically inclined, which does happen to provide insight into the world at large. plus, on the lowbrow tip, guns! and drugs! and colossal amounts of money! and international intrigue! et cetera.
my problem with the book wasn't with the subject, or the treatment and conclusions (though they were pretty plainly biased since he does about everything except admit outright he does blow semiregularly.) it was with the research methods. in the first half of the book, he goes to some pains to point out that he read as many sources as he could find on the subject, and then picked one out as definitive, complained a bit about how boring it was (and accused the author of being on coke when he was writing it), and then cribbed most of his info from it. getting into modern times and investigative reporting, his strategy seemed to be to take a halfhearted stab at finding out wnat was up, go with his preconcieved notions, and call it a day. (e.g. failing to buy semilegal drugs from a pharmacy in nogales and blaming this on finding the one honest pharmacist in town, instead of trying again somewhere else with a slightly more convincing cover story.)
my gut instinct is that most of the info in the book is correct. problem is, he relies on his gut instinct instead of sound research and reporting techniques, too.
as an enthusiastic drug-taker who has always avoided blow for one reason or another, this looked like a fine book to check out. and in many ways it was - streatfeild chose a captivating subject even if you don't happen to be pharmacologically inclined, which does happen to provide insight into the world at large. plus, on the lowbrow tip, guns! and drugs! and colossal amounts of money! and international intrigue! et cetera.
my problem with the book wasn't with the subject, or the treatment and conclusions (though they were pretty plainly biased since he does about everything except admit outright he does blow semiregularly.) it was with the research methods. in the first half of the book, he goes to some pains to point out that he read as many sources as he could find on the subject, and then picked one out as definitive, complained a bit about how boring it was (and accused the author of being on coke when he was writing it), and then cribbed most of his info from it. getting into modern times and investigative reporting, his strategy seemed to be to take a halfhearted stab at finding out wnat was up, go with his preconcieved notions, and call it a day. (e.g. failing to buy semilegal drugs from a pharmacy in nogales and blaming this on finding the one honest pharmacist in town, instead of trying again somewhere else with a slightly more convincing cover story.)
my gut instinct is that most of the info in the book is correct. problem is, he relies on his gut instinct instead of sound research and reporting techniques, too.
March 20, 2017
Breezily written tour-de-horizon reportorial history of cocaine. Anti-theoretical -- quite comprehensive in terms of the stories it tells, from the coca-chewing Andeans, to the German and Dutch chemists who distilled it, to the anti-narcotics laws and hysterias of the early 20th century, to the cultural proclivities, to the scaling up of the global supply chains, to the cruelties and inanities of the war on drugs -- but assiduously avoids making any kinds of conceptual claims.
So, for example, when Streatfield discusses the effects of cocaine on sex, he notes that some people say it improves performance, but also notes that the topical application can be nerve deadening, and eventually a major habit will replace the sexual appetite. This may all be true, but there is no reflection on what this apparently paradoxical set of effects might tell us about the nature of sexuality, about the divergences between physical capacity and psychological desire, about the nature of narcissistic sexual investments, or whatever.
The result, in short, is a proliferation of interesting detail without any large conclusion. And to the academic reader, this can become a bit embarrassing. Thus, when he goes to interview Milton Friedman, and needs to explain who Friedman is, he quotes some random fan's website, and then glosses, "Clearly, Friedman was hard-core" -- the same phrase he had used to described Freeway Rick Ross and various other legendary drug traffickers. This is too cute and too dumb by turns.
So, for example, when Streatfield discusses the effects of cocaine on sex, he notes that some people say it improves performance, but also notes that the topical application can be nerve deadening, and eventually a major habit will replace the sexual appetite. This may all be true, but there is no reflection on what this apparently paradoxical set of effects might tell us about the nature of sexuality, about the divergences between physical capacity and psychological desire, about the nature of narcissistic sexual investments, or whatever.
The result, in short, is a proliferation of interesting detail without any large conclusion. And to the academic reader, this can become a bit embarrassing. Thus, when he goes to interview Milton Friedman, and needs to explain who Friedman is, he quotes some random fan's website, and then glosses, "Clearly, Friedman was hard-core" -- the same phrase he had used to described Freeway Rick Ross and various other legendary drug traffickers. This is too cute and too dumb by turns.
June 26, 2007
The title's claim that this is an "unathorized" biography may seem audacious or precious, but it becomes quite clear that once cocaine was discovered from coca, cocaine took a life of it's own, as much as any historical figure propelling some of the most significant historical events and economic triggers in modern world history. It would be easy to assign Streatfield's claims and research as conspiracy theory writing, but his claims promote no agenda, defend nor villianize any of the players in the cocaine theater, so it really stands on brilliant and rare intimate information from the sources closest to all aspects of this drug. One thing is clear: drugs do not have a simple history and it's more embedded in the world's functionality than the reader could imagine. The biography relates the humble beginnings, the historical arc of evolution in the marketplace and prominence around the world. He achieves that connect-the-dots impact that Traffic illuminated years ago, taking care of approaching it with serious care, but still seeing a lightness that is never judgmental or depressing. Streatfield is at once charming, engaging and a brilliant analyst without being a prophet to either side of the drug war.
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