Pipe Dream Blues: Racism and the War on Drugs [Paperback]

Clarence Lusane (Author), Rev. Jesse Jackson (Foreword)

Editorial Reviews

From Library Journal

With all the books currently available about the government's war on drugs, what is left to say? Try this: drug trafficking and manufacturing are done worldwide by persons who profit by the labor of poor and Third World workers, who are usually the ones caught and punished; black neighborhoods and users are the most conspicuous targets of law enforcement, yet they are given the least amount of help to deal with the violence and other social ills that drugs cause (and that in turn cause more drug usage). Addressing the political and racial angles, Lusane has put a new spin on the drug issue; his contention that the war on drugs is a racial battle is supported by a huge amount of research and historical background. He concludes with specific recommendation such as more treatment centers and new police methods, and with a call for political and economic power, which he shows to be the most vital weapons to win this war. This is a different approach, comprehensive and convincing, to a very hot topic; most highly recommended for all libraries.
- Sally G. Waters, Stetson Law Lib., St. Petersburg, Fla.
Copyright 1992 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Product Details

• Paperback: 298 pages
• Publisher: South End Press; Trade edition (July 1, 1999)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0896084108
• ISBN-13: 978-0896084100
• Product Dimensions: 8.5 x 5.5 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 12.8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #155,443 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #5 in Books > Politics & Social Sciences > Crime & Criminals  > War on Drugs

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4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Disturbing, July 30, 2003

By 

Earl Hazell (New York) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)   

This review is from: Pipe Dream Blues: Racism and the War on Drugs (Paperback)

"Down the decades the CIA has approached perfection in one particular art, which we might term the 'uncover-up.' This is a process whereby, with all due delay, the Agency first denies with passion, then concedes in profoundly muffled tones, charges leveled against it. Such charges have included the Agency's recruitment of Nazi scientists and SS officials; experiments on unwitting American citizens; efforts to assassinate Fidel Castro; alliances with opium lords in Burma, Thailand and Laos; an assassination program in Vietnam; complicity in the toppling of Salvador Allende in Chile; the arming of opium traffickers and religious fanatics in Afghanistan; the training of murderous police in Guatemala and El Salvador; and involvement in drugs-and-arms shuttles between Latin America and the US.... Charges are raised against the CIA. The Agency leaks its denials to favored journalists, who hasten to inform the public that after intense self-examination, the Agency has discovered that it has clean hands. Then, when the hubbub has died down, the Agency issues a report in which, after patient excavation the resolute reader discovers that, yes, the CIA did indeed do more or less exactly what it had been accused of."

Alexander Cockburn and
Jefferey St. Clair
WHITEOUT: THE CIA, DRUGS AND THE PRESS
From Chapter 15: "The Uncover-up"

"In July 1995, San Jose Mercury-News reporter Gary Webb found the Big One--the blockbuster story every journalist secretly dreams about--without even looking for it. A simple phone call concerning an unexceptional pending drug trial turned into a massive conspiracy involving the Nicaraguan Contra rebels, L.A. and Bay Area crack cocaine dealers, and the Central Intelligence Agency. For several years during the 1980s, Webb discovered, Contra elements shuttled thousands of tons of cocaine into the United States, with the profits going toward the funding of Contra rebels attempting a counterrevolution in their Nicaraguan homeland. Even more chilling, Webb quickly realized, was that the massive drug-dealing operation had the implicit approval--and occasional outright support--of the CIA, the very organization entrusted to prevent illegal drugs from being brought into the United States...Within the pages of DARK ALLIANCE, Webb produces a massive amount of evidence that suggests that such a scenario did take place, and more disturbing evidence that the powers that be that allowed such an alliance are still determined to ruthlessly guard their secrets."

Amazon.com review
DARK ALLIANCE
by Gary Webb


PIPE DREAM BLUES, by Clarence Lusane goes far beyond documenting the role of the CIA in the drug problem in the inner cities and--more and more everyday--the suburbs of America. In much the same way great investigative journalism borders on the nobility of a sermon, Lusane surpasses both simple storytelling and chillingly accurate social criticism to create the kind of unavoidable paradigm shifts in one's thinking that can cause you to lose quite a bit of sleep, before reading the morning paper with an all-new critical eye. Paradigm shifts about literally everything that could be associated with drugs in the United States grace the pages of this book, from the actual nature of both addictive and illegal drugs (guess what? the one's that aren't illegal are the most damaging to human health and the entire country); to the haunting spectre, frightening architecture and ever-useful weapon of racism; to the moral vaccuum created by our crime-ridden capital Washington, D.C. having no representation in the federal government (and the consequences of it that the entire country must deal with); to the inherent structure of capitalism, its present day/21st century connection to the moral cancer of slavery through the 17th to the 19th centuries--and the segregation of the 20th--and its effect on the human soul in its entirety. Barely a stone of modern American culture is left unturned in this book, which should be the bible of every mayor, police commissioner, FBI agent and social activist in this country.

This is a book that will make you wonder why the obvious truths of the non-existent American drug war are being ignored after they are revealed--and then instinctively realize why: invisible people are profiting from it.

Lusane is an extraordinary journalist, proving again that investigative journalism is becoming a lost art--lost in the tidal wave of politics run by corporations, not nations. If you are the type of person who can't get enough of a show like COPS, prepare to (hopefully) never be able to watch it again after reading little more than the Introduction of this brilliantly crafted expose of the primitive underbelly of the American psyche, hiding behind *law* and *order*. Read this for the sake of our children--of all races.