Amazon.com's Best of 2001
Readers of Black Hawk Down know Mark Bowden can tell an exciting story about as well as any writer at work today. Killing Pablo is further proof. It describes the rise and fall of Pablo Escobar, a notorious Colombian drug lord who became one of the narcotic trade's first billionaires. Pablo--Bowden refers to him by his first name throughout the book--started out as a petty thief and wound up running a massive smuggling empire. At his height in the 1980s, he owned fleets of boats and planes, plus 19 separate residences in Medellin, each with its own helipad. Violence marked everything he did: "He wasn't an entrepreneur, and he wasn't even an especially talented businessman. He was just ruthless." He bought off police, politicians, and judges throughout his country, and killed many others who wouldn't cooperate. The Colombian government tried to capture him, but without much luck; he evaded them time after time. "Now and then the police achieved enough surprise to catch him, literally, with his pants down. In [1988], about one thousand national police raided one of his mansions," writes Bowden. "Pablo fled in his underwear, avoiding the police cordon on foot." He got away, again, but his days were numbered. He was making powerful enemies in both Colombia and the United States. The final straw probably came when Pablo's men murdered a popular politician and, three months later, planted a bomb on a plane, killing 110 people, including two Americans.
The bulk of Killing Pablo describes what happened when the U.S. government put its resources behind the hunt for Pablo. Bowden describes the search in gripping detail, from the massive electronic-surveillance effort to bureaucratic infighting between rival U.S. agencies. This is an outstanding work of reportorial journalism, too: in the epilogue, Bowden drops tantalizing hints that it was an American--not a Colombian--who delivered the killing shot to Pablo in 1993. Readers looking for a real-life thriller--or any kind of thriller, for that matter--won't do much better than Killing Pablo.
Book Description
A tour de force of investigative journalism-this is the story of the violent rise and fall of Pablo Escobar, the head of the Colombian Medellin cocaine cartel. Escobar's criminal empire held a nation of thirty million hostage in a reign of terror that would only end with his death. In an intense, up-close account, award-winning journalist Mark Bowden exposes details never before revealed about the U.S.-led covert sixteen-month manhunt. With unprecedented access to important players-including Colombian president César Gaviria and the incorruptible head of the special police unit that pursued Escobar, Colonel Hugo Martinez-as well as top-secret documents and transcripts of Escobar's intercepted phone conversations, Bowden has produced a gripping narrative that is a stark portrayal of rough justice in the real world.
"The story of how the U.S. Army Intelligence and Delta Force commandos helped Colombian police track down and kill Pablo Escobar is a compelling, almost Shakespearean tale." (Los Angeles Times)
"Absolutely riveting. . . . Mark Bowden has a way of making modern nonfiction read like the best of novels." (The Denver Post)
Customer Reviews:
Too long.......2007-08-25
Mark Bowden wrote Black Hawk Down, as everybody knows. I was looking forward to any book by Mr. Bowden, but this one is too much. If there was ever a guy who needed to be killed it was Pablo Escobar. However, reading the endless corruption and stupidity of Columbians was depressing, and furthered my low opinions of them. There is hardly a living soul in this sorry country who is not vile or evil. Anyway, the book runs on too long and I finally just turned to the page where he was finally shot, almost by accident.
A decent true-life thriller, but that's all........2007-08-21
If you want a vivid portrait of Pablo Escobar, his personality, and his methods, this book does the job. Halfway through the volume, though, it just becomes another thriller, the story of a chase that could have taken place anywhere on earth (with of course lots of detail on surveillance gizmos, military hardware, and the colorful individuals involved--a bit like Tom Clancy). But there is virtually no backbround, nothing that helps explain why Colombia became such a huge supplier of drugs. (If it hadn't been Pablo, it would've been some other guy.) Moreover, Bowden takes for granted the notion that the cause of the drug problems is the evil men in Colombia, while never considering the fact of enormous drug demand in the U.S. Without the vast gringo appetite for drugs, there would have been no Pablo. Supply and demand is a two-way street!
On another note, Bowden's referring to the Contras in Nicaragua as "pro-democracy" forces is questionable. Those people were terrorists who killed some 50,000 people.
Runs Too Long.......2007-07-16
Black Hawk Down is one of my favorite books. From page 2 onward, there's not one dull moment. I wish the same could be said for Killing Pablo. This book really drags and at about the halfway point you're wishing that they'd cut to the chase already and kill the SOB.
A gripping account of one of the greatest out-laws and the country he lived in .......2007-04-28
Despite the apparent flaws the previous reader and reviewer points out, this is still a well researched book and these flaws do not take away from this thrilling and appalling story of Pablo Escobar. What I really liked was the description not only of Escobar but also of the country he grew up in and that let him live such a violent life and have such a horrific career. A very good read!
finding Pablo.......2007-02-22
Killing Pablo was alot easier then finding Pablo...go behind the scenes of the drug war as Pablo is hunted down with all the latest eletronic gadgetry and eventually located..Mark Bowden writes a compelling, page turner...Pablo Escobar rises to the top of the drug cartel much like Scarface only this is a true story just as compelling..
Book Description
The American Disease is a classic study of the development of drug laws in the United States. Supporting the theory that Americans' attitudes toward drugs have followed a cyclic pattern of tolerance and restraint, author David F. Musto examines the relationz between public outcry and the creation of prohibitive drug laws from the end of the Civil War up to the present. Originally published in 1973, and then in an expanded edition in 1987, this third edition contains a new chapter and preface that both address the renewed debate on policy and drug legislation from the end of the Reagan administration to the current Clinton administration. Here, Musto thoroughly investigates how our nation has dealt with such issues as the controversies over prevention programs and mandatory minimum sentencing, the catastrophe of the crack epidemic, the fear of a heroin revival, and the continued debate over the legalization of marijuana.
Customer Reviews:
Musto is the man.......2003-12-02
This book is incredible. Musto is the man. I would know. He's my professor. The book is incredibly interesting, especially if you are unfamiliar with the history of drugs, and it is absolutely packed with info. I can't say enough about how insanely intelligent this man is and that he is by far the top expert in the field.
Basic for Understanding Drug Problems in the USA.......2001-07-31
This is the book on the history of drug policy in the USA. Musto details the whole history of the regulation of addictive from the beginning of the 20th century to the years of the Clinton administration. There is particular emphasis on Federal drug policy. Musto shows well how drug policy has oscillated between relative tolerance and stringent efforts to crackdown on the use of potentially addictive drugs. Musto is particularly good at demonstrating how apparently extrinsic factors influenced strongly Federal response to narcotic regulation. Fears of Federal regulation by physicians, aspects of Progressive era reformist zeal, even foreign policy considerations are shown to be important influences on Federal drug policy. While this is not a social history of drug use, Musto is careful to show how attempts at regulation were often influenced by misperceptions of the extent of drug abuse. There are some surprising aspects to Musto's story. Federal regulation of narcotics, backed by important Supreme Court decisions, was an early example of expansive Federal power superceding state and local regulation. One of Musto's most interesting observations is the considerable extent to which racist fears of Chinese immigrants, Mexican migrants, and African-Americans influenced early efforts to control narcotics tightly. Readers will find this book very informative with a strong sense of deja vu; contemporary debates about drug policy are similar in many ways to debates occurring early in the 20th century. This fact illustrates the difficuly developing sensible and effective policies towards drugs with addictive potential.
him.......2000-01-18
i didn't actually read the book, but david musto is a cool dud
Book Description
Written by a leading researcher and writer in the field of alcohol and drug studies, this book presents a series of perspectives and reflections on the worlds of drug taking and drug seeking. This highly readable book takes a candid look at the world of drug and alcohol use, abuse and control. The author presents both sides of major issues, the history and patterns of abuse, and coverage of the major drugs (e.g. heroin, cocaine, crack, marijuana, amphetamines, hallucinogens, and club drugs). For anyone with an interest in drug history, abuse, and policies.
Amazon.com
Drug Crazy is a scathing indictment of America's decades-long "war on drugs," an expensive and hypocritical folly which has essentially benefited only two classes of people: professional anti-drug advocates and drug lords.
Did you know that a presidential commission determined that marijuana is neither an addicitve substance nor a "stepping stone" to harder drugs ... only to have President Nixon shelve the embarrassing final report and continue the government's policy of inflated drug addiction statistics? Did you know that several medical experts agree that "cold turkey" methods of withdrawal are essentially ineffective and recommend simply prescribing drugs to addicts ... and that communities in which this has been done report lower crime rates and reduced unemployment among addicts as a result?
Whether he's writing about the American government's strong-arm tactics toward critics of its drug policy or the reduction of countries like Colombia and Mexico to anarchic killing zones by powerful cartels, Mike Gray's analysis has an immediacy and a clarity worth noting. The passage of "medical marijuana" bills in California and Arizona (where the bill passed by a nearly 2-to-1 majority) indicates that people are getting fed up with the government's Prohibition-style tactics toward drugs. Drug Crazy just might speed that process along.
Book Description
Over the last fifteen years, American taxpayers have spent over $300 billion to wage the war on drugs--three times what it cost to put a man on the moon. In Drug Crazy, journalist Mike Gray offers a scathing indictment of this financial fiasco, chronicling a series of expensive and hypocritical follies that have benefited only two groups: professional anti-drug advocates and drug lords.
The facts are alarming. More than twenty-five years ago, a presidential committee determined that marijuana is neither an addictive substance nor a "stepping stone" to harder drugs, but the embarrassing final report was shelved by a government already heavily invested in "the war against drugs". Many medical experts recommend simply prescribing drugs to addicts, and communities that have done this report a lower crime rate and reduced unemployment among drug users.
In a riveting account of how we got to this impasse-- discriminatory policies, demonization of users, grandstanding among both lawmakers and lawbreakers -- conventional wisdom is turned on its head. Rather than a planned assault on the scourge of addiction, the drug war has happened almost by accident and has been continually exploited by political opportunists.
A gripping account of the violence, corruption, and chaos characterizing the drug war since its inception, Mike Gray's incisive narrative launches a frontal attack on America's drug orthodoxy. His overview of the battlefield makes it clear that this urgent debate must begin now.
Customer Reviews:
Dealing with Our Addiction.......2007-01-14
When it became clear that the medicines called opiates were highly addictive and caused health problems, they were dealt with as nicotine and alcohol are dealt with today. There were honest and realistic public service messages warning of the dangers of opiates, and there was medical help that greatly limited the damage they did to the individual and which had a chance of eliminating his or her addiction. These methods worked, and where they are applied they work today. Then in the second decade of the twentieth century the country took a nose-dive into authoritarian attitudes and corruption, and people got the strange idea that you could eliminate a practice you didn't like simply by passing a law against it. Alcohol, and the opiates were completely banned, as was marijuana which was now designated a "drug" because of its association with minority groups. Alcohol use, which had always hovered between widespread and universal, had been declining but now became more common than ever before. Worse, the alcoholic drinks that were taken became much harder and not being regulated they might contain enough alcohol to be dangerous. Worse still, an untold number of criminals were created, crime of all kinds increased radically, organized crime came to control whole districts and corruption reached heights never seen before. "Public service messages" regarding what were now illegal "drugs" became simple expressions of hatred having very little to do with the "drugs" they were about, and everyone actually familiar with those "drugs" knew it. Medical treatment by doctors who were actually trying to help their paitents was declared illegal, and a number of doctors went to prison. The lives of opiate addicts had usually been no worse than the lives of nicotine addicts, but now those lives became impossible. Addicts could no longer hold jobs raise children or do anything else but concentrate on their addiction. Current "rehabilitation" for opiate addicts is an expression of hatred for those addicts and makes no attempt to help them. It mostly consists of telling them they are evil it they don't break their habits, and for those addicted to opiates or nicotine, breaking the habit altogether is usually not possible. Opiate use had always been an insignificant phenomenon nationwide, and in the early part of the century when it was being dealt with intelligently, it was declining. But then the hate laws were passed, and now a measurable percentage of the population is addicted and condemed to ruined, useless lives, organized crime is more powerful now than at any time in history, and whole countries like Columbia are completely dominated by corruption-- as are large sections of others like the United States and Mexico. None of this needed to happen. The things we call "drugs" were handled intelligently at the beginning of the twentieth century or were never a problem in the first place. If realistic laws were passed, the worst of the damage would be fixed very quickly since it is directly caused by bad laws. The rest of the damage would take a decade to undo, but if we begin treating the opiates as we treat nicotine and alcohol we will gradually undo it.
I think that is a pretty good thumbnail of what Mike Grey had to say, and he is completely right. Everyone in the country should read this book. Our real addiction is to hatred.
best review of the drug war I've seen.......2006-12-27
This is one of the best books I've read on the drug war to date (and I've read a bunch). The book carefully went through the origins, history, and effects of the drug war in a captivating and easy to follow manner. When finished, the reader will be left with an iron-clad indictment of the drug war which has covered all angles. This really is one of the most comprehensive and well written books on the drug war, and I highly recommend it.
Drug War: The History and Politics of Failure.......2006-10-10
Author Mike Gray tackles the failed drug war in this book and effectively shows how the present war has many similarities to alcohol prohibition in early part of the twentieth century. Gray begins his discussion of the subject of drugs by taking the reader back to 1925, in the city of Chicago, during the height of the nightmare of prohibition. Gangs ruled the streets. The air was filled with the smell of cheap booze and the sound of gunfire. Police were defenseless to the total chaos going on all around them. They simply could not stop the manufacture and consumption of alcohol. There was too much money to be made by selling this "forbidden fruit". There was no possible way that this "war" on alcohol could ever be won.
Does this sound familiar? It should, because the same thing is going on right now. The government's failed attempt to eliminate alcohol is now being attempted a second time with the war on drugs. These laws are discussed in the book with a history lesson on the various court rulings and congressional decisions that led to the present prohibitions on drugs. These laws have some of their roots in the U.S. Congress. According to the book, marijuana itself became illegal as the result of a lie told to congress by Fred Vinson, a man who would later become the U.S. Chief Justice of the Supreme Court. Vinson was sitting in a congressional hearing one day, just before congress was about to vote on whether or not marijuana should be made illegal. The American Medical Association knew of the benefits of marijuana in medical treatments, and was strongly against such a law. But when Vinson was questioned by congress, he lied and said that the AMA backed the proposed law 100 percent to make marijuana illegal. This was enough to help push the law through congress. Vinson's lie, coupled with the onslaught of government propaganda against marijuana, marked the beginning of America's second nightmare with prohibition.
The lying and deception by government cooled off a bit during the 1940 to 1960 period. But then, the lying and deception continued when President Nixon decided to revive the anti- drug crusade, in part to cover- up his own problems with Vietnam and Watergate. George Bush then escalated the damage even more by scaring the public into backing his anti- drug package and his "get tough" policies against drug dealers and drug users. Gray talks about these and other political maneuvers; why they happened and the true motives behind these so- called "moral" crusaders.
The present- day situation looks pretty bleak. Gray points out that the United States is now the largest jailer in the world with roughly half of all prisoners being non- violent drug offenders. We have also corrupted our police officers, with many of them actively taking part in the drug trade; cutting special deals, accepting bribes, etc, because of the allure of easy money. Respect for law enforcement is low, and violent criminals have been allowed early release to make way for non- violent drug offenders, thanks to mandatory minimum sentences.
This book is an easily manageable length: about 198 pages and fairly easy to read. There are a total of eleven chapters and two appendices. Appendix "A" details the changes in the U.S. murder rate, showing how it peaked during alcohol prohibition and during the present- day drug prohibition. It also shows graphs depicting the U.S. prison population and the Federal Drug budget. And to give the book some balance, Appendix "B" contains a listing of activist organizations, both pro- drug war and anti- drug war, along with a brief description of each and their respective websites.
As Mike Gray points out, the War on Drugs is one of America's greatest failures. Gray never specifically condemns the war. He wrote this book as a means to educate the reader on the motives behind drug prohibition and the reasons that politicians continue to fight a losing battle when they know that the war is not winnable. Gray never resorts to name calling or any form of moral persuasion. He really doesn't need to. He lets the facts speak for themselves, illustrating the endless problems created by a war of prohibition and why it is so important to stop this insanity once and for all.
An Excellent Comprehensive History -Not to Mention Futility of-The War On Drugs.......2006-07-31
This is the 1 book I've come across so far that gives a good, linear history of America's War on Drugs. It begins by comparing mid-90s Chicago with the Windy City of 1925; and all the attendent corruption, violence and hypocricy that comes along with prohibition. It then proceeds to pre-1914 (the year of the Harrison Tax Act) America, and discusses drug uses, patterns of abuse and addiction rates and profiles of the era of legalized drug use, and 1 prohibitionist's lament that "This Constitution thing keeps getting in the way." The thrust of the chapter is that drug abuse and addiction were rare and rarely harmful prior to their being made illegal.
The remaining chapters are devoted to the subsequent prohibition of Weed and, since Nixon's declaration of a war on drugs in 1970, the govt's increasingly draconian and extra-constitutional measures to ratchet up the stakes in a failed war. This book was written before 9/11, and up until that seminal event America's anti-drug measures had largely become the focus of our foreign policy in much of the world. Our interdiction efforts in Latin America was-and is-resulting in a series of failed states we've bullied into becoming our anti-drug clients. Does anybody really believe that Mexican cities like Juarez and Nuevo Laredo would be the cartel dominated lawless free-fire zones they are today if it weren't for our drug laws? And the irony is these criminal cartels-which would fold the day after drugs were legalized-are simply supplying the same demand that Al Capone did back in the roaring '20s.
History speaks for itself........we lost this war.......2005-02-03
Great Book
i don't want to sit here and repeat the praises from the other reviews, but i just got done reading this joint and i thought i'd put my 2 cents in.
This book isn't an encyclopedia of statistics & reports on the Drug War like some books i've seen on the subject......it's easy-to-read and pretty short (about 200 pages), which is good because we need everybody in America to understand EXACTLY what's going on here without puttin' them to sleep......Mike Gray gives the average reader enough hard evidence and statistics to shut up any prohibitionists out there determined that stricter sentences & harder laws will make this problem "go away"......sorry, but it ain't happenin'
personally, the only parts of the book that i could do without is the first chapters telling stories about the hood and the dope dealings in Chicago by the GD's, and the last few chapters with stories of people who could benefit from Medical Marijuana but can't get it due to our current laws........to me they were old news and kind of boring, but i can definatly see why they're there.....to somebody disconnected from the battlefield in the hood, or somebody who is unfamiliar with the medical uses of weed and the people who could use that, i can see how those chapters would put a human face on the distant problems that they don't actually HAVE to deal with on a day to day basis
Most people can't see the forest for the trees, and what Mike Gray does with this book is take a HUGE problem that is usually looked at as smaller, isolated issues (the rise in drug use among kids, packed prisons, uneven racial statistics) and basically put it in "The Big Picture"........from the Racist Propaganda & false statistics that started the "War", to the Drug Wars in south america fueled by america's appetite for the product
Even if your already familiar with the situation, this is an interesting read.......it's crazy to me to think that i'm a 19 year old kid, from the hood, with no college education, reading some books i bought from down the street, but it seems like the people up in Washington (supposedly the best & brightest we have to offer to lead our country) don't have any reason or ambition to want to reform the biggest failure in American history
Knowledge is Power
Book Description
Wheeling and Dealing is a vivid account of the world inhabited by "wholesale" illicit drug traffickers. Based on six years of participant observation, fieldwork, and extensive interviews in an elite Southern California community of dealers, the book gives a rare glimpse into the decadent yet fascinating "subculture of drug trafficking and unending partying, mixed with occasional cloak-and-dagger subterfuge."
This second edition brings the story up to date by revealing the fate of several of Adler's key informants. By tracing their lives over a fifteen-year span, Adler offers a unique longitudinal perspective on deviant careers and the reintegration of dealers into conventional society. She also analyzes the unintended consequences of the federal government's war on drugs, tying it to the increasing violence and organizational sophistication of drug traffickers and the rise of international cartels.
Customer Reviews:
Wheeling and Dealing.......2004-11-22
I thought the book to be very beneficial for a person just wandering what it is all about this book was not a ah lets go out and write a book and comsume some drugs along the way this was a study in the sociology of these people.
reads like a text book.......2004-06-06
Not a story, reads like a school book, with the author backing up her research with "shout-outs", such as (Blake 1967). Boring read, pass this up. Read "snow blind" by robert sabbag, best book ever on the subject.
LIVIN' LIFE IN THE FAST LANE.......1999-01-31
For all the questions you've ever had about high level drug smuggling but were deathly afraid to ask anybody...this book is for you! Adler chronicles how smugglers and dealers first entered the drug world, and how they rose to the top, and I do mean top rung of the drug dealing/smuggling community. An excellent study that doesn't read like academia.
Book Description
Between 1960 and 1980 various administrations attempted to deal with a rising tide of illicit drug use that was unprecedented in U.S. history. This valuable book provides a close look at the politics and bureaucracy of drug control policy during those years, showing how they changed during the presidencies of Johnson, Nixon, Ford, and Carter and how much current federal drug-control policies owe to those earlier efforts. David F. Musto, M.D., and Pamela Korsmeyer base their analysis on a unique collection of 5,000 pages of White House documents from the period, all of which are included on a searchable CD-ROM that accompanies the book. These documents reveal the intense debates that took place over drug policy. They show, for example, that staffers and cabinet officers who were charged with narcotics policy were often influenced by the cultural currents of their times, and when the public reacted in an extreme fashion to rising drug use, officials were disinclined to adopt modified policies that might have been more realistic. Musto and Korsmeyer's investigation into the decision-making processes that shaped past drug control efforts in the United States provides essential background as creative approaches to the drug problem are sought for the future.
Book Description
Over the past half-century, Colombia has been plagued by violence—its people caught in the middle of a civil conflict raging between the army, leftist guerrillas, right-wing paramilitaries, narco-traffickers, and U.S. anti-drug warriors. Killing Peace: Colombia's Conflict and the Failure of U.S. Intervention provides a timely and much-needed overview of the war that is ravaging Colombia including its root causes in the country's gross social and economic inequalities.
Though rarely in the headlines, Colombia is not only by far the largest recipient of U.S. military aid in the Western Hemisphere, it is also the worst human rights catastrophe. The rampaging process of economic globalization is further brutalizing the war-weary Colombian people.
Drawing from on-the-ground reporting as well as historical sources, Killing Peace addresses all aspects of the Colombian conflict, particularly the dangerous and expanding involvement of the United States as part of its drug war—and now the "war on terrorism."
Customer Reviews:
A good introduction...worth buying.......2005-02-25
Killing Peace is a good introduction to the forty year civil war in Colombia. (Arguably the civil war began in the 1940s. The 1960s represent the date the rebel forces FARC emerged.) Leech provides objective descriptions of the history of the conflict, the social forces and striking class divisions generating it, how the USA's imperialist interests and interventions aggravate it, the civil war's principal players and fighting forces, the widespread human rights abuses that debase the conflict, the criminal activities employed to finance it, and the many failed military and peace approaches to resolve it.
I particularly appreciated Leech's analysis of the rise and role of the right-wing paramilitaries in Colombia, the staggering degree of homelessness and poverty created by the USA's "fumigation" program, and the USA's use of (what should be frankly coined) corporate mercenaries in the war. Although FARC is the largest fighting rebel force in Colombia, I wish Leech would have provided more information about the ELN. But, in this respect, Killing Peace is like most works on the Colombian civil war.
My chief issue with the book, and others like it, is that it tends to analyze the prospects for resolving the conflict in terms of some equitable and just accommodation among the principal players (except for the paramilitaries). But that's precisely the problem with this civil war: given the nature and extent of their human rights violations (including assassination, mass murder, terror, kidnapping, extortion, drug trafficking, etc.), it is doubtful the principal players are capable of fashioning and maintaining an equitable and just settlement.
The book doesn't satisfactorily look at other options. For example, the prospects for a resolution coming from the various social movements within Colombia as well as how other Latin American regional powers and interests could be brought to bear on the conflict. Perhaps that hope is too thin for Leech, but it could very well be the only one available.
one night book!.......2002-08-08
This is a good book for someone who wants to get a glance of Colombian Conflict. Leech tells a brief but accurate story about Colombia - US relationships. First he gives a good introduction to the conflict and then he goes into the interests behind Plan Colombia and the War on drugs.
Interesting summary, sometimes scary. For instance, it was amazing to see the "Pablo Escobar era" summarized in few paragraphs. Those of us who lived in Medellin during that time experienced it quite different.
Killing Peace is a good introduction to Colombia or a good tool to organize the thoughts of those that know more or that simply lived it.
A Grassroots View of the Violence in Colombia.......2002-06-08
"Killing Peace" is an outstanding book. Garry Leech provides a front row seat to the surreal violence in Colombia. Moreover, he explains why a just and enduring peace is so difficult to attain. The author is a superb journalist who documents how the flames of peace have been doused and the drums of war have been amplified. Recommended.
short, clear intro to an important and confusing conflict.......2002-06-07
Leech has done the confused observer of Colombia's tragedy a great service with this short, pocket-sized introduction to the reality behind the sporadic news reports on Latin America's most violent, dysfunctional country. The book provides a clear and concise history of modern Colombia with particular emphasis on the causes of the armed conflict that has raged there for decades. Leech examines Colombia's civil war and how it differs from yet is intertwined with the drug war, while avoiding the common pitfall of completely muddling the two topics.
The book also traces the gradual U.S. entry into the fray of the Colombia's conflict, from early forays into combatting marijuana production to the current strategy that closely resembles Reagan-era strategies in El Salvador, albeit with the additional complication of Colombia being a leading cocaine and heroin supplier. Leech's answer to the uncomfortable question, "Is the drug war working?" is an emphatic "No." He explains how the U.S. drug war is failing on all of its own terms, while at the same time detailing the disastrous human toll of increased U.S. aid to the undisciplined and extremely compromised Colombian military. The role of the various guerrilla and paramilitary groups is explained, and there are also interesting new insights into the relations between the Colombian army and the rightist paramilitaries.
This book should be of particular use to those who seek to quickly learn more about the country and conflict that are fast becoming one of the primary U.S. foreign policy concerns. Its brevity and breadth should prove especially appropriate for high school and college classes focusing on current events, foreign policy, Latin American affairs, and history. A good, short read on a truly important topic.
KILLING PEACE is a quick, concise must-read.......2002-06-05
To my mind, the expanding civil war in Colombia is the biggest story in the Western Hemisphere -- but no one seems to be paying much attention to it. Good thing, then, that we have Garry Leech, a talented reporter and writer whose book explains it all, from the start of the trouble over fifty years ago to the U.S.'s involvement today with more and more money, guns, and soldiers. If George Bush gets his way, Colombia is going to be the next bloody battle in the "war on terrorism." Americans need to get wise to what's going on before we sink any deeper into Colombia and a world of hurt and regret. Step one: Read this book!
Book Description
`The Strength of the Wolf' is the first complete history of the Federal Bureau of Narcotics (FBN), which existed from 1930 until its wrenching termination in 1968. The most successful federal law enforcement agency ever, the FBN was populated by some of the most amazing characters in American history, many of whom the author interviewed for this book. Working as undercover agents and with mercenary informers around the globe, these freewheeling "case making" agents penetrated the Mafia and the French connection, breaking all the rules in the process, and uncovering the Establishment's ties to organized crime. Targeted by the FBI and the CIA, the case-makers were, ironically, victims of their own fabulous success in hunting down society's predators. An incredible, never-before-told story, `The Strength of the Wolf' provides a new, exciting, and revealing look at an important chapter in American history.
Customer Reviews:
Critical historical context for the War on Drugs.......2007-03-20
Given how much money this country spends to fight drug dealers and to lock up drug dealers & users both, I am amazed how little I hear people question the War on Drugs.
This book provides the historical framework critical to understand this, with the War on Drugs beginning as an attempt to provide what equates to trade protection to the pharmaceutical companies (who competed with the real thing of the day, opium/heroin), and how later racism led to marijuana users being targeted as well (Black Americans in Harlem and Latinos in the SW and California), and of course the violence fueled by the cocaine/crack trade made it a national buzzword.
It is a crime that this assault on our own citizens continues today - one would think that after the dismal failure of Prohibition that we would have learned our lesson.
Hopefully this book can start raising a consciousness to question it, at the very least more public debate (without the hysteria) is long overdue.
Important but little known history.......2004-07-29
Based on exhaustive research and interviews, this detailed and extensively footnoted history of the Federal Bureau of Narcotics is both a fine reference work for scholars, and an eye-opening, exciting narrative for the general reader. The book itself is the highest quality, made to last for generations, and includes a section of rare photographs, and an appendix consisting of a rogue's gallery from the FBN's files. The FBN, headed by Harry J. Anslinger, was the precursor agency to today's DEA. The War on Drugs that has been waged for years now, with a price is no object mentality, is now being reconsidered by more and more people as either an ill-considered mistake, or perhaps even as a Big Government/Big Brother monkey on the public's fiscal back. The War has surely not stopped the supply of drugs, and if you have ever thought that it was never intended to, but wondered why that was so, The Strength of The Wolf, will provide some answers. There are many books about drug enforcement (or lack thereof) in the recent past, but this work is unique in that it looks at what might be called the dawn of drug enforcement.
Average customer rating:
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Federal Narcotics Laws And the War on Drugs: Money Down a Rat Hole (Addictions Treatment Series) (Addictions Treatment Series)
Thomas C., Ph.D. Rowe
Manufacturer: Haworth Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
 Drug Dependency
| Recovery
| Health, Mind & Body
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General
| Administrative Law
| Law
| Subjects
| Books
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ASIN: 0789028085 |
Book Description
We're losing the "war on drugs"—but the fight isn't over yet
Federal Narcotics Laws and the War on Drugs examines our current anti-drug programs and policies, explains why they have failed, and presents a plan to fix them. Author Thomas C. Rowe, who has been educating college students on recreational drug use for nearly 30 years, exposes the truth about anti-drug programs he believes were conceived in ignorance of the drugs themselves and motivated by racial/cultural bias. This powerful book advocates a shift in federal spending to move funds away from the failed elements of the "war on drugs" toward policies with a more realistic chance to succeed—the drug courts, education, and effective treatment.
Common myths and misconceptions about drugs have produced anti-drug programs that don't work, won't work, and waste millions of dollars. Federal Narcotics Laws and the War on Drugs looks at how—and why—this has happened and what can be done to correct it. The book is divided into "How did we get into this mess?" which details the history of anti-narcotic legislation, how drug agencies evolved, and the role played by Harry Anslinger, Commissioner of the United States Bureau of Narcotics from 1930 to 1962; "What works and what doesn't work," which looks at the failure of interdiction efforts and the negative consequences that have resulted with a particular focus on the problems of prisons balanced against the drug court system; and a third section that serves as an overview of various recreational drugs, considers arguments for and against drug legalization, and offers suggestions for more effective methods than our current system allows.
Federal Narcotics Laws and the War on Drugs also examines:
the creation of the Federal Bureau of Narcotics
current regulations and structures
current federal sentencing guidelines
current state of the courts and the prison system
mandatory sentencing and what judges think
interdiction for heroin, cocaine and crack cocaine, and marijuana
early education efforts
the DARE program
drug use trends
drug treatment models
the debate over legalization Federal Narcotics Laws and the War on Drugs also includes several appendices of federal budget figures, cocaine and heroin purity and price, and federal bureau of prisons statistics. This unique book is required reading for anyone concerned about the drug problem in the United States and what is—and isn't—being done to correct it.
Book Description
To this day, the perception persists that China was a civilization defeated by imperialist Britain's most desirable trade commodity, opium—a drug that turned the Chinese into cadaverous addicts in the iron grip of dependence. Britain, in an effort to reverse the damage caused by opium addiction, launched its own version of the "war on drugs," which lasted roughly sixty years, from 1880 to World War II and the beginning of Chinese communism. But, as Narcotic Culture brilliantly shows, the real scandal in Chinese history was not the expansion of the drug trade by Britain in the early nineteenth century, but rather the failure of the British to grasp the consequences of prohibition.
In a stunning historical reversal, Frank Dikötter, Lars Laamann, and Zhou Xun tell this different story of the relationship between opium and the Chinese. They reveal that opium actually had few harmful effects on either health or longevity; in fact, it was prepared and appreciated in highly complex rituals with inbuilt constraints preventing excessive use. Opium was even used as a medicinal panacea in China before the availability of aspirin and penicillin. But as a result of the British effort to eradicate opium, the Chinese turned from the relatively benign use of that drug to heroin, morphine, cocaine, and countless other psychoactive substances. Narcotic Culture provides abundant evidence that the transition from a tolerated opium culture to a system of prohibition produced a "cure" that was far worse than the disease.
Delving into a history of drugs and their abuses, Narcotic Culture is part revisionist history of imperial and twentieth-century Britain and part sobering portrait of the dangers of prohibition.
Books:
- Leo Strauss and the Politics of Exile: The Making of a Political Philosopher (Tauber Institute for the Study of European Jewry Series)
- Many Lives, Many Masters: The True Story of a Prominent Psychiatrist, His Young Patient, and the Past-Life Therapy That Changed Both Their Lives
- Marie Antoinette: The Journey
- Mayflower: A Story of Courage, Community, and War
- Mein Kampf
- Mindfulness for Beginners
- Mother Angelica: The Remarkable Story of a Nun, Her Nerve, and a Network of Miracles
- One Day Too Long
- Pleasure Wars (Bourgeois Experience, Victoria to Freud/Peter Gay, Vol 5)
- Plutarch's Lives Volume 1 (Modern Library Classics)
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