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Pills, Powder, and Smoke: inside the bloody war on drugs Kindle Edition

4.2 4.2 out of 5 stars 42 ratings

Like the never-ending war on terror, the drugs war is a multi-billion-dollar industry that won’t go down without a fight. Pills, Powder, and Smoke explains why.

The war on drugs has been official American policy since the 1970s, with the UK, Europe, and much of the world following suit. It is at best a failed policy, according to bestselling author Antony Loewenstein. Its direct results have included mass incarceration in the US, extreme violence in different parts of the world, the backing of dictatorships, and surging drug addiction globally. And now the Trump administration is unleashing diplomatic and military forces against any softening of the conflict.

Pills, Powder, and Smoke investigates the individuals, officials, activists, victims, DEA agents, and traffickers caught up in this deadly war. Travelling through the UK, the US, Australia, Honduras, the Philippines, and Guinea-Bissau, Loewenstein uncovers the secrets of the drug war, why it’s so hard to end, and who is really profiting from it.

In reporting on the frontlines across the globe — from the streets of London’s King’s Cross to the killing fields of Central America to major cocaine transit routes in West Africa — Loewenstein reveals how the war on drugs has become the most deadly war in modern times. Designed and inspired by Washington, its agenda has nothing to do with ending drug use or addiction, but is all about controlling markets, territories, and people. Instead, Loewenstein argues, the legalisation and regulation of all drugs would be a much more realistic and humane approach. The evidence presented in this book will persuade many readers that he’s right.

Editorial Reviews

Review

“Many people assume that as the war on drugs has failed and because a few countries have liberated cannabis as a recreational drug as well as a medicine, the “drug problem” is solved. This new book powerfully demolishes any such complacency that might have developed in the west. Drug wars represent a major, ongoing world-wide disaster. This book is a must-read for anyone pursuing a rational policy debate about drugs.”
Dr. David Nutt, author of Drugs without the Hot Air (UIT Press), and The Neurobiology of Addiction (OUP).

“Antony Loewenstein is an amazing journalist and this is an amazing book. Anyone who cares about the war on drugs―one of the biggest catastrophes in the world―should read this superb book right away.”
Johann Hari, author of Chasing the Scream and Lost Connections

“In this vivid, partisan piece of reportage, Australian journalist Loewenstein (Disaster Capitalism) depicts the catastrophic human consequences of the U.S.-led war on drugs and advocates for the legalization of all illicit substances. Loewenstein argues that America’s prohibitionist policy serves not to counter abuse or impede trafficking, but rather to create corrupt “narco states” that are complicit with the federal government’s foreign policy goals...Readers inclined to take a skeptical view of the drug war...will welcome Loewenstein’s advocacy.”
Publishers Weekly

“A critique of the war on drugs, which, by the author’s account, is mostly a war on the poor and dispossessed…The author examines several fronts in a war fought by Western governments, especially the U.S., on harder drugs that “are consumed nightly in such major cities as London, Sydney, New York, and Paris”…A sometimes overwrought but pressing survey calling into question a war that would seem to benefit only its combatants.”
Kirkus Reviews

Praise for Disaster Capitalism:

“Chilling study, based on careful and courageous reporting, and illuminated with perceptive analysis, helps us understand all too well the saying that man is a wolf to man.”
Noam Chomsky

“A journey into a world of mutated economics and corrupt politics that we ignore at our peril.”
John Pilger

“I am very grateful that Antony Loewenstein has brought his meticulous reporting to this subject, and the result is a keenly observed and timely investigation into rampant resource plunder, privatised detention centres, and an array of other forms of corporate rapacity on four continents. This book will serve as a potent weapon for shock resistors around the world.”
Naomi Klein, author of This Changes Everything and The Shock Doctrine

About the Author

Antony Loewenstein is an independent journalist, bestselling author, filmmaker, and co-founder of Declassified Australia. He’s written for The Guardian, The New York Times, The New York Review of Books, and many others. His latest book is The Palestine Laboratory: how Israel exports the technology of occupation around the world which won the 2023 Walkley Book Award. His other books include Pills, Powder and Smoke, Disaster Capitalism, and My Israel Question. His documentary films include Disaster Capitalism, and the Al Jazeera English films West Africa’s Opioid Crisis and Under the Cover of Covid. He was based in East Jerusalem 2016–2020.

Product details

  • ASIN ‏ : ‎ B07QJZRRXM
  • Publisher ‏ : ‎ Scribe (August 21, 2019)
  • Publication date ‏ : ‎ August 21, 2019
  • Language ‏ : ‎ English
  • File size ‏ : ‎ 598 KB
  • Text-to-Speech ‏ : ‎ Enabled
  • Screen Reader ‏ : ‎ Supported
  • Enhanced typesetting ‏ : ‎ Enabled
  • X-Ray ‏ : ‎ Not Enabled
  • Word Wise ‏ : ‎ Enabled
  • Print length ‏ : ‎ 315 pages
  • Customer Reviews:
    4.2 4.2 out of 5 stars 42 ratings

About the author

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Antony Loewenstein
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Antony Loewenstein is an independent journalist, best-selling author, filmmaker and co-founder of Declassified Australia. He's written for The Guardian, The New York Times, The New York Review of Books and many others. His books include The Palestine Laboratory, Pills, Powder and Smoke, Disaster Capitalism and My Israel Question. His documentary films include Disaster Capitalism and the Al Jazeera English films West Africa's Opioid Crisis and Under the Cover of Covid. He was based in East Jerusalem 2016-2020. His website is: https://antonyloewenstein.com

Customer reviews

4.2 out of 5 stars
42 global ratings

Top reviews from the United States

Reviewed in the United States on April 26, 2020
Brilliant account of the war on drugs and all it's achieved and failed to achieve. Highly recommended.
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Reviewed in the United States on November 12, 2019
Fascinating book about the failed war on drugs.
Reviewed in the United States on February 9, 2020
Kudos to Antony Loewenstein, author of PILLS, POWDER, AND SMOKE. He has produced a well-researched and well-written book about the history of the "War on Drugs" which has been going on for nearly 50 years, mostly under the direction of the US Government. The reader thinks of other wars (think WWII or Vietnam) which went on for way too long, but no other war seems to have lasted as long as the "War on Drugs." Why is this? In his book, Loewenstein explores the questions behind this failed battle. Is it possible (of course it is) that many individuals do not want an end to the "War on Drugs" because - why? Either they enjoy drugs and want to be able to consume them or else they sell drugs and want to be able to make a living. A fondness for drugs and a passion for money ensures that the "War on Drugs" will never end. Who started it, anyway? Loewenstein's book shows that many countries in the world fight a so-called "War on Drugs" due to pressure from the US Government. If they are not being pressured, they are being swayed. Certain countries think that they will wait and see what the US does, and then they will follow suit. Other countries hope the US will offer them some form of aid and, if forthcoming, they might agree to participate in the "War on Drugs" not so much because they want to, but because they need whatever bribes and perks come from agreeing to it. Loewenstein writes a primarily political book, although, in a way, it is also a travelogue, as he travels the world to try to better understand where the "War on Drugs" is being fought and who is fighting it. Along the way, he explores who benefits, who agrees, who the victims are, and what has - and hasn't - changed in the past 50 years.

One fact is very apparent: the "War on Drugs" has not worked. The world has a huge appetite for drugs, and that is not going away anytime soon. Loewenstein gets across the point that many people use drugs recreationally and are not addicts. There is also the issue of the addicted and what has become of them lately in view of the lethal and illegal flow of fentanyl into the street drug supply, resulting in many unnecessary overdoses. So what do we do here? How do we treat a so-called "problem" when thousands like to use drugs recreationally? And how do we keep the street drugs clean and free of synthetic opioids so addicts are not dying everyday? Let's face it: heroin has been around for a long, long time. Yes, people occasionally overdose, but nothing like what we have seen recently when many strong and poisonous additives turned up in the street drugs.

Loewentein highlights the country of Portugal which decriminalized all drugs in 2001. Nearly 20 years later, Portugal looked like it made the right the decision. So, why hasn't the rest of the world followed? Most likely because the world tends to follow the examples set by the US, and the US, around the time Portugal decided to decriminalize drugs and treat drug taking as a health issue as opposed to a legal/criminal issue, the US decided to go in the opposite direction and imprison more individuals.For what? Sometimes for selling drugs, yes, but more likely, just for having them in their possession or for using small amounts. The US has more than 2.3 million people imprisoned, and a large percentage of them are there for drug-related offenses. For-profit prisons have fueled the incarceration rate, and, unfortunately, people of color are jailed at a much higher percentage than whites. When one steps back and looks at the entire, messy picture, one sees greed, prejudice, and a total lack of compassion/understanding/empathy for anyone living in poverty.

Loewenstein shows us how the "War on Drugs" has affected the country of Honduras. And, if crime in the country has forced some residents to flee for a better life elsewhere, they have sadly been turned away at Trump's border under new and tougher immigration policies. We learn about how drug smuggling has affected the small country of Guinea-Bissau in Africa. Many readers may not have even heard of the country, and fewer have thought about how lives there might be affected by recreational drug demands in Europe. We read about the terrifying reign of Duterte in the Philippines where both drug users and sellers are killed by police, and all with the blessing of the country's out-of-control president, Duterte. Loewenstein, an Australian, writes long chapters on the US, Australia, and Great Britain, but also considers smaller countries and how the "War on Drugs" affects them and what they do about it, if anything.

Loewenstein's book is serious reading. He is a journalist, and this is journalism not to be taken lightly. The overall feeling one gets when reading the book is not hopeful, however. Whereas one would think that all countries would be coming together to take a look at what works (Portugal's decriminalization, for instance), that does not seem to be happening. In the US, the Trump administration has made no move to legalize marijuana on the federal level despite many US states having passed laws which make it legal for both recreational and medical purposes in their state. Loewenstein makes a case for the stupidity of the endless "War on Drugs," but nothing that he writes indicates that anything is going to change soon. At times the book feels as long as the "War." Loewenstein concentrates on the history of drugs (going back to the very early 1900s when heroin, cocaine, and cannabis were all legal - mostly available from the local pharmacy - and also in small amounts in such items as cough syrup, sodas, and chewing gum), and he takes us right up to current-day policies in a variety of countries. It is doubtful that one will finish reading this book feeling optimistic, however. If we would like our governments to try something new (decriminalization, legalization, safe injection sites, expanded drug rehabilitation programs, better education and less involvement from law enforcement) then we need to become activists as there is no sign that the "War on Drugs" is going to end in our lifetime.

A recommended book to read as an accompaniment to Loewenstein's would be Johann Hari's CHASING THE SCREAM which addresses the futility of the drug war in a more upbeat and urgent way than PILLS, POWDER, AND SMOKE. Both authors are trying to get across that the world needs to change its views on how and why it battles drugs, what needs to change, and who can change it. But Hari's book leaves one feeling not as down as Loewenstein's, despite Loewenstein's honest look at the "War on Drugs" today.
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Reviewed in the United States on December 3, 2019
Excellent reporting as always

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