Awesome book! It is mostly made up of a lot of factual data about the economics of the drugs business (such as prices of drugs at different points in the retail chain) and great anecdotes about drug deals gone wrong, or funny or insightful comments from important people on one or the other side of the law. The author has done amazing research, from digging up excellent quotes from government reports or hearing transcripts, to actually visiting coca plantations in South America and talking to heads of state.

The conclusions of the book show a believable way forward for making the most of the drugs situation in the long term. It strikes a chord with the wave of legalization and focuses on dismantling criminal empires.

My minor gripes with the book would be issues that I take with basically all non-fiction. There is no story. The chapters are unrelated to each other and focus on different aspects of the question. As such, some are really exciting while others are boring. There is some amount of repetition: a chapter may start with an introduction to an idea, go on to data and anecdotes that underpin the idea, then end with a conclusion re-emphasizing the idea. Not sure it was necessary to repeat the idea three times. It's not too bad though, and I guess if you find a boring page, just turn it over and the next page will probably describe another bloody feud between rival cartels!