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We Sell Drugs: The Alchemy of US Empire (Volume 39)
This history of US-led international drug control provides new perspectives on the economic, ideological, and political foundations of a Cold War American empire. US officials assumed the helm of international drug control after World War II at a moment of unprecedented geopolitical influence embodied in the growing economic clout of its pharmaceutical industry.
We Sell Drugs is a study grounded in the transnational geography and political economy of the coca-leaf and coca-derived commodities market stretching from Peru and Bolivia into the United States. More than a narrow biography of one famous plant and its equally famous derivative products―Coca-Cola and cocaine―this book situates these commodities within the larger landscape of drug production and consumption. Examining efforts to control the circuits through which coca traveled, Suzanna Reiss provides a geographic and legal basis for considering the historical construction of designations of legality and illegality.
The book also argues that the legal status of any given drug is largely premised on who grew, manufactured, distributed, and consumed it and not on the qualities of the drug itself. Drug control is a powerful tool for ordering international trade, national economies, and society’s habits and daily lives.
In a historical landscape animated by struggles over political economy, national autonomy, hegemony, and racial equality, We Sell Drugs insists on the socio-historical underpinnings of designations of legality to explore how drug control became a major weapon in asserting control of domestic and international affairs.
We Sell Drugs is a study grounded in the transnational geography and political economy of the coca-leaf and coca-derived commodities market stretching from Peru and Bolivia into the United States. More than a narrow biography of one famous plant and its equally famous derivative products―Coca-Cola and cocaine―this book situates these commodities within the larger landscape of drug production and consumption. Examining efforts to control the circuits through which coca traveled, Suzanna Reiss provides a geographic and legal basis for considering the historical construction of designations of legality and illegality.
The book also argues that the legal status of any given drug is largely premised on who grew, manufactured, distributed, and consumed it and not on the qualities of the drug itself. Drug control is a powerful tool for ordering international trade, national economies, and society’s habits and daily lives.
In a historical landscape animated by struggles over political economy, national autonomy, hegemony, and racial equality, We Sell Drugs insists on the socio-historical underpinnings of designations of legality to explore how drug control became a major weapon in asserting control of domestic and international affairs.
328 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 2014
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March 6, 2021The Cover and the title are alarming, you can tell there are going to be problems in this book. I had learned about the book from a podcast interview, so I wanted to give it a read based on the ideas, which I think are much better than the alarming title and cover.
Riess is trying to set the record straight about drugs (both illicit and pharmaceuticals) within an international and historical context. The political rhetoric within the culture wars about "controlled substances" lacks a full global insight. Through the book, Reiss Covers the post world war II period to before the cultural changes in the mid - 1960s. Leading up to World War 2, The United States was able to control drug supplies in South America and push out German companies. After World War 2, as the Cold War got going, the United States tightened their hold on the cocaine trade and made it a part of their imperial system. Although the US public often thinks of Colombia for cocaine production, Reiss makes clear, the majority is produced in Peru and Bolivia, where the United States has control over it. To make an arcane comparison, it reminds me of the Han Dynasty's monopolies on salt and iron held by the central authority. That empire used those particular resource (salt and metals) to maintaine their hegemony within their empire and had economic implications. In the same way, one could see the American grand strategy during the Cold War as they sought to control and regulate cocaine and opium. Reiss also details how these substances were used in the pharmaceutical industry.
The drug monopoly creates winners and losers along its chain. The book seems to ask Americans to take a more honest look at how drugs are a part of a much larger relationship with Latin America. , For half a century the US has arbitrated the control and enforcement of cocaine. Keeping all higher level work located in the United States and primary production left to Peru and Bolivia.
It also covers different hysterias and conspiracies that feared these drugs reaching young people was a Communist plot. From Nixon's War on Drugs, an obscured narrative diverts the conversation about the power structures surrounding cocaine and has ushered in laws that have imprisoned a generation of black and brown people. The book does seem like it repeats itself a lot, but it is very careful about establishing all the connections between culture, economic and legal aspects of cocaine in this time period.
It was worth my time to read it. It taught me some particular steps along understanding drugs within the international and criminal justice perspective. Some might find it a little dense.
Riess is trying to set the record straight about drugs (both illicit and pharmaceuticals) within an international and historical context. The political rhetoric within the culture wars about "controlled substances" lacks a full global insight. Through the book, Reiss Covers the post world war II period to before the cultural changes in the mid - 1960s. Leading up to World War 2, The United States was able to control drug supplies in South America and push out German companies. After World War 2, as the Cold War got going, the United States tightened their hold on the cocaine trade and made it a part of their imperial system. Although the US public often thinks of Colombia for cocaine production, Reiss makes clear, the majority is produced in Peru and Bolivia, where the United States has control over it. To make an arcane comparison, it reminds me of the Han Dynasty's monopolies on salt and iron held by the central authority. That empire used those particular resource (salt and metals) to maintaine their hegemony within their empire and had economic implications. In the same way, one could see the American grand strategy during the Cold War as they sought to control and regulate cocaine and opium. Reiss also details how these substances were used in the pharmaceutical industry.
The drug monopoly creates winners and losers along its chain. The book seems to ask Americans to take a more honest look at how drugs are a part of a much larger relationship with Latin America. , For half a century the US has arbitrated the control and enforcement of cocaine. Keeping all higher level work located in the United States and primary production left to Peru and Bolivia.
It also covers different hysterias and conspiracies that feared these drugs reaching young people was a Communist plot. From Nixon's War on Drugs, an obscured narrative diverts the conversation about the power structures surrounding cocaine and has ushered in laws that have imprisoned a generation of black and brown people. The book does seem like it repeats itself a lot, but it is very careful about establishing all the connections between culture, economic and legal aspects of cocaine in this time period.
It was worth my time to read it. It taught me some particular steps along understanding drugs within the international and criminal justice perspective. Some might find it a little dense.
September 24, 2022
This book reminds me of “The Cigarette.” It’s not as boring and dense, but it’s along similar lines. The info is good, it’s just tedious getting there.
Clearly there is much more going on with drug legislation than “drugs are bad.” The author goes into how the U.S. shaped the drug market to set itself up economically.
Clearly there is much more going on with drug legislation than “drugs are bad.” The author goes into how the U.S. shaped the drug market to set itself up economically.
May 5, 2019
A provocative contextualization of the War on Drugs into a political economy and US imperialism framework
August 2, 2022
Very well written history of US involvement in international drug policy, and associated events.
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews