Cocaine Addiction: Race, Cocaine, and Corruption in a Small Texas Town

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Starred Review. Those familiar with the travesty of justice that led to multiple bogus drug arrests in the small Texas town of Tulia only from newspaper accounts will be outraged anew at this eye-opening narrative that bears comparison to such courtroom and litigation classics as A Civil Action. This devastating indictment of the toll taken by the war on drugs, viewed through the prism of one small community, is a masterpiece of true crime writing. Award-winning reporter Blakeslee broke the story for the Texas Observer in 2000 and has produced a definitive account, deftly weaving the history of the growth and decline of Tulia with the stories of those caught up in the racist frame by narcotics officer Tom Coleman.

The defendants, their families and their attorneys come across as three-dimensional individuals, consistently engaging the reader despite the wealth of details and the intricacies of the appellate process. Vanita Gupta, the young defense lawyer fresh from law school who made the NAACP Legal Defense Fund take notice with her dedication, is especially memorable. As with Errol Morris's film exposing corrupt Texas law-enforcement, The Thin Blue Line, this haunting work will leave many wondering how many other Tulias there are out there.

From The Washington Post
Iconoclastic lawyers who challenge the deeply entrenched, local powers-that-be relish the rare occasions when they prevail. For Jeff Blackburn, an Amarillo, Tex., attorney who is one of the heroes of Nate Blakeslee's thoroughly reported and superbly written new book, such an opportunity came late one night in 2003. Recalcitrant prosecutors had finally agreed to drop fraudulent drug charges brought against some three dozen defendants, most of whom were black. As Blackburn exultantly left the county courthouse, he headed for a nearby centennial monument whose self-congratulatory inscription (lauding the county's principles) he loathed. As Blakeslee recounts, Blackburn "unzipped his pants and began urinating on it" until the headlights of an approaching car brought an abrupt end to his private victory celebration.

Those false drug prosecutions were the handiwork of Tom Coleman, an undercover white narcotics officer who claimed to have made more than 100 purchases of powdered cocaine during an 18-month period in 1998-99 from about 40 different residents of Tulia, a small and relatively poor town in the north Texas panhandle. Blakeslee describes Coleman as "a scruffy, long-haired, unsavory-looking character . . . in a black leather jacket who called himself T.J. Dawson and claimed to be a construction contractor living ten miles up the interstate." Coleman worked for a regional anti-drug task force based in Amarillo, which had hired him largely because of his late father's stellar law-enforcement record.

Coleman's undercover work in Tulia went almost wholly unsupervised by Swisher County Sheriff Larry Stewart and local District Attorney Terry McEachern, as well as by the task force. Early one morning in July 1999, though, local law enforcement mobilized all its troops to execute the surprise arrests of Coleman's dozens of suspects. None of the defendants was found in possession of any drugs, but many of them had briefly shared drugs -- or used drugs -- with Coleman. "I smoked rock with that man," former high school sports star Donnie Smith exclaimed to the men in his holding pen. Four or five others admitted they had too.

"You niggers quit sellin' them drugs," Coleman yelled at the incarcerated suspects that day, as they later recounted the episode to Blakeslee. Racial animus was not the only serious problem marring the prosecutions. Local attorneys were appointed to represent defendants who could not afford private counsel, but Texas's slapdash system of indigent defense often resulted in "completely ineffective" lawyers offering only pro forma representation. Several of the Tulia defendants were quickly convicted and imprisoned in just such a fashion before Donnie Smith's highly experienced attorney, Tom Hamilton (himself a former district attorney), bluntly challenged McEachern. See All Editorial Reviews

Cocaine: The Making of a Global Drug

Editorial Reviews

Review

"Andean Cocaine is an important intellectual achievement. Gootenberg uses a fluent narrative and a new and sophisticated interpretation to discuss the link between local and global events and to explain the roles played by unequal actors and institutions. A first-class book."— Marcos Cueto, Instituto de Estudios Peruanos, Lima, Peru


Product Description

Illuminating a hidden and fascinating chapter in the history of globalization, Paul Gootenberg chronicles the rise of one of the most spectacular and now illegal Latin American exports: cocaine.

Gootenberg traces cocaine's history from its origins as a medical commodity in the nineteenth century to its repression during the early twentieth century and its dramatic reemergence as an illicit good after World War II. Connecting the story of the drug's transformations is a host of people, products, and processes: Sigmund Freud, Coca-Cola, and Pablo Escobar all make appearances, exemplifying the global influences that have shaped the history of cocaine. But Gootenberg decenters the familiar story to uncover the roles played by hitherto obscure but vital Andean actors as well--for example, the Peruvian pharmacist who developed the techniques for refining cocaine on an industrial scale and the creators of the original drug-smuggling networks that decades later would be taken over by Colombian traffickers. See All Editorial Reviews

Cocaine Politics: Drugs, Armies, and the CIA in Central America, Updated edition

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

This important, explosive report forcefully argues that the "war on drugs" is largely a sham, as the U.S. government is one of the world's largest drug pushers. The authors unearth close links between the CIA and Latin American drug networks which provide U.S. covert operations with financing, political leverage and intelligence. CIA-protected Panamian ruler Manuel Noriega supplied drugs, pilots and banking services to Honduran and Costa Rican cocaine smugglers who were partners in Reagan's support program for Nicaragua's Contras. Together, Honduran and Costa Rican traffickers supplied one-third of the cocaine smuggled into the U.S. in the 1980s, according to the authors. The Bush administration showers hundreds of millions of dollars on Latin American military elites in Guatemala, Colombia, etc. to enlist them in the "war on drugs."

In so doing, charge the authors, the U.S. risks empowering the very forces that protect drug-pushing crime syndicates. The U.S. also gave covert aid to Afghan guerrillas who smuggled drugs in concert with Pakistan's military--an operation that produced half of the heroin consumed in the U.S. during the 1980s. Scott, a professor at UC-Berkeley, and San Francisco Chronicle economics editor Marshall call for immediate political action to end Washington's complicity. Their heavily documented book deserves a wide audience.
Copyright 1991 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Library Journal
Coauthor Marshall's recent Drug Wars ( LJ 2/15/91) shows how Washington overlooks or supports drug trafficking as part of its efforts to thwart Third World communism around the world. This new book explores in detail the tangled connection between the Nicaraguan Contras, U.S. support for them, and drugs. Marshall and Scott argue that the United States might actually have furthered the flow of cocaine from Central America to the States by colluding with anti-Sandinista forces. Government intimidation of witnesses, a complacent Congress, and timid media have served to keep this a quiet story. Extensive interviews, government records, and secondary sources (enough, in fact, to produce over 60 pages of cited sources), are used to document in great detail how the war on communism took precedence over the war on drugs. An authoritiative account of a crucial but underpublicized issue.
- Cathy Seitz Whit aker, Univ. of Pittsburgh Lib.
Copyright 1991 Reed Business Information, Inc. See All Editorial Reviews

Cocaine: An Unauthorized Biography

Editorial Reviews

Cocaine, writes filmmaker Dominic Streatfeild, "is not some evil spawn of Satan but simply a commodity." Like other commodities, cocaine has a history. When the Spanish conquistadors came to South America and observed that Indians who chewed the leaves of Erythroxylon coca could, it seemed, march over the tallest mountain or through the densest forest for days on end, they knew they were onto something. The newcomers took to growing coca themselves, and in time their product found an audience outside the continent, with users such as Sigmund Freud, Ernest Shackleton (who "took Forced March cocaine tablets to Antarctica in 1909 for the energy boost they gave"), Duke Ellington, and, eventually, half of Hollywood to testify to its powers.

Streatfeild's appropriately rapid narrative takes in such key moments and players as "the year of cocaine" 1969, when the film Easy Rider reintroduced the drug to American popular culture, and George Jung, whose exploits are chronicled in Ted Demme's film Blow, to create a portrait of the drug that ranges over centuries. Though he supports legalization, Streatfeild acknowledges the evil and corruption surrounding the trade. Drawing lessons from history, he also suggests the possibility that "cocaine will fizzle out in the year 2015 the way it did in the early twentieth century." At the close of this absorbing book, he adds, "It deserves to." --Gregory McNamee --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Publishers Weekly

Boil off Streatfeild's informal tone a mix of self-deprecation and gonzo-journalist swagger and what's left is a fascinating and richly detailed story of the world's most notorious drug and an illicit $92-billion-a-year industry. Streatfeild, a British documentary film producer, visits its every outpost, from Bronx crack houses and Amazonian coca plantations to Bolivian prisons and the compounds of South American drug lords. He launches the story with a history of the coca leaf and its prominent place in both ancient and contemporary consciousness, tackling race, poverty, class, violence, mythology and xenophobia as seen through the prism of cocaine. There are countless strands to the story, and Streatfeild follows every one: the rise of the Colombian cartels, government collusion with traffickers, the crack phenomenon, media hype, the U.S. war on drugs and the legalization debate. The author lights up the myriad figures who feature in cocaine's history: Columbus, Freud, Pablo Escobar, Manuel Noriega, George Jung, even Richard Pryor and the late basketball star Len Bias. He picks the brains of botanists and economists, lawmen and guerrillas, addicts and kingpins, and travels extensively throughout the Americas. The main drawback: Streatfeild's insistence that the reader be privy to superfluous research details such as fizzled leads, false starts, wrong turns and boring authors. In the end, though, Streatfeild delivers a straight tale about a world where nothing is as it seems.Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information, Inc. See All Editorial Reviews

Cocaine Addiction: How a Small-Town Boy Made $100 Million with the Medellin Cocaine Cartel and Lost It All

Editorial Reviews

From Kirkus Reviews

The up-your-nose, in-your-face life of George Jung, the high-school football star from small-town USA who became the American linchpin of the Colombian cocaine connection. Relying on extensive interviews with Jung and other key figures, Porter (Journalism/Brooklyn College) recounts a sleigh- ride-to-hell story of how 60's hippie innocence turned into 80's megadepravity. Porter dwells too long on Jung's unexceptional childhood (poor grades, risk-taking, shaky family life) but picks up steam when his subject comes of age--as a likable, handsome, well-muscled hedonist--and takes off for California and a haze of sunbathing, sex, pot, and LSD. Soon enough, Jung becomes chief marijuana importer to a number of prestigious East Coast colleges. Likening himself to Butch Cassidy, he moves his operation to Mexico and makes a mint until a series of busts stops him--temporarily.

In prison, Jung befriends a young Carlos Lehder and links up with the Medell¡n coke cartel. The money bandied about is staggering: The Colombian suppliers gross $35 billion a year, and Jung buys a house just to stash his cash (lining floors and walls with $100 bills): ``Money, Learjets, fast cars, wild women, houses with maids,'' is how he recalls it later. Inevitably, the roller-coaster hits the steep downward slope: paranoia, as Jung snorts mountains of coke; a heart attack in his mid-30s; a car-bomb attack by Lehder, by now a business enemy; scary trips to Colombia, during one of which Jung watched coke czar Pablo Escobar execute a police informer; a flurry of arrests and escapes; finally, the Big Bust. But, as always, Jung comes out unscathed, turning state's witness (with Escobar's approval) to sing against Lehder. Set scot-free in exchange for his testimony, Jung now works in a legit delivery service, transporting fish up and down Cape Cod. How a happy hippie blew it on blow--finely researched, told with pizzazz. (Illustrations) -- Copyright ©1993, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title. See All Editorial Reviews

The Cocaine Kids: The Inside Story Of A Teenage Drug Ring

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers

WeeklyA teenage-populated cocaine distribution ring in New York City's Spanish Harlem is probed by the author, a sociologist, who for almost five years observed its routines. "Williams proffers no quick solution to the drug crisis, but rather an illumination, in their own words, of damaged urban youth," remarked PW , calling this "a sobering picture of the dangerous, lucrative trade." Copyright 1990 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Library Journal

From 1982 to 1986, sociologist Williams followed the activities of a teenage cocaine ring in New York's Spanish Harlem. He tells their story in their own street language (and conveniently provides a glossary). The "kids" tell how cocaine is adulterated, packaged, and sold; how the chain of distribution works; and even detail the etiquette of drug selling and usage. They also give the stories of their lives, and Williams follows up with what has happened to them since 1986. Williams is very nonjudgmental, which is the book's main fault; by showing the drug trade primarily as a way for teenagers to attain status and money, and soft-pedaling the violence and harm involved, he makes the activities of the "kids" seem as normal as those of any teenagers with part - time jobs. For larger crime and sociology collections.
- Sally G. Waters, Stetson Law Lib., St. Petersburg, Fla.
Copyright 1989 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title. See All Editorial Review

Dark Alliance: The CIA, the Contras, and the Crack Cocaine Explosion

Editorial Reviews

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. Webb's research is impeccable--names, dates, places, and dollar amounts gather and mount with every page, eventually building a towering wall of evidence in support of his theories. After the original series of articles ran in the Mercury-News in late 1996, both Webb and his paper were so severely criticized by political commentators, government officials, and other members of the press that his own newspaper decided it best not to stand behind the series, in effect apologizing for the assertions and disavowing his work. Webb quit the paper in disgust in November 1997. His book serves as both a complex memoir of the time of the Contras and an indictment of the current state of America's press; Dark Alliance is as necessary and valuable as it is horrifying and grim. --Tjames Madison --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title. See All Editorial Review