Drug Wars and Coffeehouses: The Political Economy of the International Drug Trade Paperback – Illustrated, December 12, 2005

I had to buy this book for a class. Not very interesting to me, but that's just personal preference. A bit boring to read but it has in depth-information on the subject matter.

I appreciated the care given to my package. Thank you very much.

Decent read

Good source for psychoactive drug history. Easy ready went well with my accelerated Economics war on drugs course. I can now explain in detail what is the war in drugs.

Book was water stained and molded. Unhealthy and unfit to be distributed to customers.

Excellent Book

I read this book for a class taught by the author on the politics of the international drug trade. Though the class itself got boring (partially because debunking drug war mythology is rather frustrating), the book never ceased to enlighten. It's written in a manner that is clearly made for use in an academic setting (study questions at the end of each section), but it would be an excellent read for anyone who is just orienting themselves to the issue. David Mares addresses the issue in a way that's easy for people to understand: he starts by examining the intentions of the war on drugs and the reasoning behind drug warriors' logic. Then, he clearly identifies how the war on drugs has failed to reach its goals and tirelessly breaks down the logic of the drug warriors. He uses government statistics, studies, and other data in a manner that's extremely readable and ends the book with three case studies: U.S., Sweden, and Holland.I was interested in drug policy before taking his class, but his book gave me more grounding in the basic concepts of the issue. On top of that, he's an awesome guy who will be the faculty advisor for Students for Sensible Drug Policy on our campus.

Mares takes us into a dispassionate and analytic dissection of the narcotics industry. He studies consumption, production and distribution. The latter two are viewed much as one might look at any other industry. For some countries like Afghanistan, there is little other viable economic alternative to opium growing. Which has led to it being one of the major underpinnings of the entire country. And making eradication very difficult for the foreseeable future.An important related topic is money laundering, something also very germane because of terrorism. The money laundering is a crucial part of the entire drug trade, enabling large scale traffickers to extract and inoculate their earnings.Various legislative measures in the US are described, along with assessments of their effectiveness. Typically, not very is the answer. Other countries' strategies are compared, somewhat favourably, with the US. Notably Sweden and Holland.