Dopeworld: Adventures in the Global Drug Trade

by Niko Vorobyov

Overview

In this irreverent ode to gonzo journalism, one writer travels the globe to explore the use of recreational drugs in cultures around the world.
After I got out of jail, I was determined to find out more about how the issue of drugs not only landed me there, but has shaped the entire world: wars, scandals, coups, revolutions. I read every book, watched every documentary. I saved up to buy plane tickets. I went to Colombia, Mexico, Russia, Italy, Japan and the Afghan border—all in all, fifteen countries across five continents.
Call me Narco Polo.
Just as Anthony Bourdain's No Reservations did for the world of food, Dopeworld is an intoxicating journey into the world of drugs. From the cocaine farms in South America to the streets of Manila, Dopeworld traces the emergence of psychoactive substances and our intimate relationship with them. As a former drug dealer turned subversive scholar, with unparalleled access to drug lords, cartel leaders, street dealers and government officials, journalist Niko Vorobyov attempts to shine a light on the dark underbelly of the drug world.
At once a bold piece of journalism and a hugely entertaining travelogue, Dopeworld is a brilliant and enlightening journey across the world, revealing how drug use is at the heart of our history, our lives, and our future.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781250270023
Publisher:	St. Martin's Press
Publication date:	06/04/2024
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	413
File size:	5 MB

About the Author

NIKO VOROBYOV was born in Leningrad, Russia, before moving to Great Britain. From 2013-2014 he served a two-and-a-half year sentence for Possession with Intent to Supply. Upon his release, he graduated from University College London and began working at a Russian news outlet, Russia Today, before putting together his media, academic, and under-the-counter expertise to write a book.

Table of Contents

Prelude xv

Part 1 Rise and Fall

1 From Russia with Drugs 3

2 A Brief History of Molly 6

3 LDN 14

4 Busted 29

5 CrIsis 33

6 I Cannot Self-Terminate 45

Part 2 Everything Gets Banned

7 A Trip Through the Ages 51

8 Shanghai'd 60

9 Dry Season 69

10 Keep Off the Grass 81

11 Chemical Warfare 88

12 Hail Satan 99

Part 3 Cosa Nostra

13 Havana Nights 111

14 The Pizza Connection 115

15 Corleone 122

16 New Blood 130

Part 4 Land of the Free

17 The Three Musketeers 137

18 Ready Rock 145

19 Incarceration Nation 159

20 #BlackLivesMatter 166

21 Interlude: Planes, Chains and Automobiles 177

Part 5 Gangster's Paradise

22 Plata o plomo 187

23 The Boys from Sinaloa 204

24 The Wall 216

25 Dinner at El Chapo's 223

26 Interlude: Shottingham 236

Part 6 Freaks and Fiends?

27 Nisha 245

28 Jack and Torin 253

29 Treasure Hunting 259

Part 7 The New Guard

30 Just Say Nyet! 275

31 The Golden Crescent 294

32 Killers and Karaoke 310

33 Cocaine Cariocas 330

Part 8 A Better Tomorrow

34 Old World, New Rules 345

35 Free the Weed! 356

36 The Panic in Needle Park 369

Epilogue 387

End Credits 393

Sources 395

Editorial Reviews

Praise for Dopeworld:

"[A] terrific debut…Vorobyov makes a persuasive case for the legalization of drugs...It could well become a classic.” —Publishers Weekly (starred)

“An entertaining excursion into the narcotics trade by a one-time practitioner…A revealing treatise that provides ample ammunition for the legalize-it crowd.” —Kirkus Reviews

"Fast-paced, in-your-face, sprawling...Equal parts criminal memoir, history lesson, and travelog, [Dopeworld] will appeal to readers seeking an immersive and intimate look at the drug trade." –Library Journal

"Dopeworld hooked me from page one on out—as engrossing and informative as it is fun to read. A winner!" - Bruce Porter, bestselling author of Blow: How a Small-Town Boy Made $100 Million with the Medellin Cocaine Cartel and Lost It All and Snatched: From Drug Queen to Informer to Hostage

"A free-rolling and frank depiction of the global narcotics scene. Fascinating." —The Spectator (UK)

"An obsessive, immersive account of all aspects of the drug culture—its ways, its rules, its rituals, its rhythms, its language." —Irish Examiner (UK)

From the Publisher

2020-06-26
An entertaining excursion into the narcotics trade by a one-time practitioner.

Born in the former Soviet Union, Vorobyov landed as a child in “a small boring town in the British countryside that doubles as a film set whenever the BBC want to do a costume drama.” Bored out of his skull, he dabbled in various penny-ante criminal enterprises such as selling pirated DVDs “until everyone discovered the Internet,” which led him to his next gig: selling cocaine and other drugs to his fellow college students, who proved a willing, lucrative market. “Drugs are an easy, low-risk source of tax-free profit,” he writes. “You can scream how it’s wrong all you want, but name another business where you can quadruple your investment over a weekend.” The drug trade in Britain came under the control of various ethnic groups, most notably—and violently—Albanian gangsters. As for the author, he got caught and did a little time but remains defiant in his defense of the enterprise: “I hate it when people say drug dealers don’t work for a living,” he writes. “Your baggies don’t just weigh themselves and fly over to your people’s houses.” Still, weighing the odds and considering how people behind bars turn into their own worst enemies and have a terrible habit of killing themselves, Vorobyov decided to try a different tack: “While I was in jail, I’d figured that I might as well become one of those prison intellectual types: the subversive scholar.” That scholarship meant reading, traveling the globe (“call me Narco Polo”), and chronicling such diverse matters as a drug’s effects on the brain’s dopamine levels, the trade’s contribution to the international economy, and a “war on drugs” that is really a genocide of ethnic minorities in slow motion. His conclusion: One day, that war will end, whereupon he’ll open a cannabis shop named for the judge who sentenced him.

A revealing treatise that provides ample ammunition for the legalize-it crowd.

Kirkus Reviews