The Candy Machine
  • Published: 16 September 2009
  • ISBN: 9780141034461
  • Imprint: Penguin Press
  • Format: Paperback
  • Pages: 368
  • RRP: $24.99

The Candy Machine

Formats & editions
EBook
6 Aug 2009
Paperback
16 Sep 2009
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The story of cocaine as it's never been told before

Cocaine is big business and getting bigger. Governments spend millions on an unwinnable war against it, yet it's now the drug of choice in the West. How did the cocaine economy get so huge? Who keeps it running behind the scenes?

In The Candy Machine Tom Feiling travels the trade routes from Colombia via Miami, Kingston and Tijuana to London and New York. He meets Medillin hitmen, US kingpins, Brazilian traffickers, and talks to soldiers and narcotics officers who fight the gangs and cartels. He traces cocaine's progress from legal 'pick-me-up' to luxury product to global commodity, looks at legalization programmes in countries such as Switzerland, and shows how America's anti-drugs crusade is actually increasing demand.

Cutting through the myths about the white market, this is the story of cocaine as it's never been told before.
  • Published: 16 September 2009
  • ISBN: 9780141034461
  • Imprint: Penguin Press
  • Format: Paperback
  • Pages: 368
  • RRP: $24.99
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About the author

Tom Feiling

Tom Feiling is an award-winning documentary film-maker. He spent a year living and working in Colombia before making Resistencia: Hip-Hop in Colombia, which won numerous awards at film festivals around the world, and was broadcast in four countries. In 2003 he became Campaigns Director for the TUC's Justice for Colombia campaign, which organizes for human rights in Colombia. This is his first book.

Also by Tom Feiling

Short Walks from Bogotá
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Praise for The Candy Machine

The Candy Machine is highly addictive

Metro

It is hard to decide if Tom Feiling's future lies as a QC or the new Paul Theroux. He has written a vivid, argumentative, arresting book

The Sunday Telegraph

I've read a few documentary accounts of the rise of cocaine, and this might be the best of them. It's clear, sharp and solid. Very well told

Evening Standard

An important study of the cultivation, usage and suppression of cocaine

FT

A cracking read . . . Strong stuff, beautifully argued

Literary Review
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