Webs
Of Smoke: Smugglers, Warlords, Spies, and
the History of the International Drug Trade
by Kathryn Meyer, Terry
M. Parssinen
The drug industry is major worldwide conglomerate
of intertwined business interests. The information in this book is integral
to an accurate understanding of what is going on today under the names
of "big business", "finance" and "monopolistic capitalism". Too often the
interests of "business" supersede the interests of the public. This is
true in many aspects of the pharmaceutical industry including psychiatry,
cancer, AIDs and more. It was also true when the East India Company developed
the first widespread militaristic monopoly on the opium production of India
and forcefully exported it for many years, at incredible profits, to China.
The power and expansion of Great Britain could not have occurred without
the incredible profits earned off the the suffering of the addicted opium
population of China. The fact that a major world power funded and directed
drug production and use, under force, should be understood not as a unique
and rare instance of historical international business immorality, but
as a par-for-the-course attitude of modern mega-corporate capitalism. Upper-crust,
"decent", and "honourable" folks spent much time and energy ensuring an
entire country was addicted to opium. The CIA has protected and assisted
cocaine and heroin production for many years. There IS something going
on here, and it is not what the media would have us believe.
From The Publisher
Tracing the rise of the modern
traffic in narcotics, this pioneering history offers a unique account of
the evolution in narcotics trafficking as drugs went from legal commodity
to illicit substance. To flourish in the new order, traffickers needed
political connections, and political connections were readily made in China's
chaotic environment of civil war and imperial rivalry. In a word, drug
traffickers flourished because they were useful to various parties: warlords,
organized criminals, Chiang Kaishek's Guomindang, Mao's communists, spies,
and Japanese adventurers. The authors tell the interlocking stories of
the many extraordinary personalities - sinister and otherwise - involved
in narcotics trafficking. Drawing on a rich store of U.S., British, European,
Japanese, and Chinese archives, this unique study will be invaluable for
all readers interested in the drug trade and contemporary East Asian history.
Reviews
From Washington Post
Compact, well-documented....
Provide[s] persuasive drugs has never worked well and that new approaches
must be tried.
Quotes
"A most original interpretation
of international drug trafficking based on extensive research in western
and Asian sources... Highly recommended -- a bold contribution." —David
Cortwright
|
