Cocaine: An Unauthorised Biography

by Dominic Streatfeild (Author)

• Used

  Hardcover
  2001

  $22.07

  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 billion: 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.

• Used

  Paperback
  2002

  $3.36

  Cocaine has started wars, prompted invasions, embarrassed politicians, toppled governments, filled prisons, created billionaires, fuelled parties, bankrupted countries and taken thousands of lives. All because of a small, unremarkable-looking shrub. Dominic Streatfeild's highly-praised and comprehensive study examines the history of the world's most popular, most problematic drug, from its origins with the Incas, to early enthusiasts including Freud, and the multi-million pound industry it is today. His journey takes him from the darkest corners of the British Library to the isolation cells of America's most secure prisons, from the crack houses of New York to the deepest jungles of South America, as he meets the economists, scientists, law enforcers, historians and traffickers who are involved in policing - and running - the cocaine trade.

• New

  Paperback
  2002

  $18.37

  Cocaine has started wars, prompted invasions, embarrassed politicians, toppled governments, filled prisons, created billionaires, fuelled parties, bankrupted countries and taken thousands of lives. All because of a small, unremarkable-looking shrub. Dominic Streatfeild's highly-praised and comprehensive study examines the history of the world's most popular, most problematic drug, from its origins with the Incas, to early enthusiasts including Freud, and the multi-million pound industry it is today. His journey takes him from the darkest corners of the British Library to the isolation cells of America's most secure prisons, from the crack houses of New York to the deepest jungles of South America, as he meets the economists, scientists, law enforcers, historians and traffickers who are involved in policing - and running - the cocaine trade.