Cocaine: An Unauthorized Biography

Everything you never knew about the cocaine industry. Fascinating read!

Well done Dominic.You must speak very good Spanish and have very cool nerves.A great read and well researched.

This is a really interesting book loaded with great basic information. Cocaine, like so many other narcotics has such a convoluted history. This book makes sense of it all. It is also written to be easily read, and thoroughly interesting if you like nonfiction written in a modern style.Dominic Streatfield puts himself front and center in the book, and I found his humor and candor very easy to read and funny. Some may not appreciate the informality, but I thought it was great.I teach college courses and i will use information from this book in my classes. It is not a textbook, but it could be, as least some of the chapters, and I mean that in a good way. If you ever had a lay person's misunderstanding about the differences between crack and cocaine, this is the book to read.I originally bought this book at a dollar store years ago, read it through, and gave it to a relative. I wanted to recall some of the information from it so I bought a second copy, lost that one traveling and bought a third one. i want this book in my library.

This is a very thorough and entertaining analysis of Cocaine, from before Spanish conquest up to today. The author clearly put an amazing amount of research into the book and conveys the information well. I take off one star because I do think the book got bogged down in minutiae about 2/3 of the way through, and I found myself occasionally getting bored and skipping some pages to try to remain focused. The author also introduced so many people it was difficult to keep track. Overall, I would still highly recommend this book, very informative and enjoyable to read.

Very long and incredibly detailed. Consequently it drags a bit from time to time, but all-in-all it's a fascinating read.I was particularly shocked and surprised by the revelation that Sigmund Freud and his ilk consumed prodigious amounts of cocaine, even to the point of psychotic behavior and failing health, while formulating their theories. I wish I had been able to read the book before college. An absolute must-read for anyone who even dimly suspects that Freud was a quack, and that his theories of psychiatry are a crock. It is inconceivable to me that so-called "intelligent and highly educated" individuals could be unaware that the Father of Modern Psychiatry was a delusional addict, and that the rest of us should venerate them as Doctors. The mental gymnastics that would be required to resolve the obvious and odious falsehoods that underpin the foundation of modern psychiatry with the practice of the craft go a long ways towards explaining the popular caricature of "shrinks" as odd and "out-there" weirdoes.Rant over. A very informative and interesting book. Highly recommended.