Author manages to present inner mechanism of drug-production-and-smuggling criminal underworld using economic terms in a way that surprised me very much - very clean, concise and understandable manner. What surprises me is that official policy of the governments worldwide in general does not try to devise tactics of fighting the crime through economic means but decide to fight it through brute force. I guess that for a person wielding the hammer every problem looks like a nail.

Nothing mentioned in the book is new if one has read any other book on organized crime but it is a rare book that describes the situation in a higly readable and understandable way. Problem is that current (brute force) approach seems to be very profitable for other participants (weapon manufacturers and more than prospering security industry to name the few) and usable as leverage in inter-state relations. There is no profit, immediate victories or glamour in social projects and developments that are the only true instruments to achieve victory in controlling the illegal drug market. While direct action has its place and role, be it military or police,these are supportive activities. State policy (and in general state policies) must not be based solely on these - they are to be used as means to achieve the goal, ways to dismantle crime in areas that are highly contestable and where state has lost influence. But social policy and plans are the true means to root out the crime and cannot be substituted by anything else.

Unfortunately until governments decide they should change their approach and plan to achieve long-term goals (instead of concentrating on short-term, administration single cycle time-span, goals) it is not possible to fight the crime effectively.

Higly recommended. ( )

Меняйся, или проиграешь. Лучшие бизнес-практики не знают границ и охотно подхватываются менеджерами из других областей, необязательно смежных. Том Уэйнрайт, редактор британского The Economist, решил окунуться в параллельный мир наркокартелей и узнать, как он реагирует на новые вызовы, стандартные для любой фирмы: управление персоналом, новые законодательные инициативы правительства, поиск надежных поставщиков и борьба с конкурентами.

Успехи у дельцов действительно нешуточные: эффективность выработки кокаина из сырья возросла на 60% по сравнению с тем, что вообще считалось реальным недавно. Еще бы — в поисках новых решений и пестицидов cocoleros, как добропорядочные техасские фермеры, посещают сельскохозяйственные выставки и выписывают специализированные журналы. Интернет позволяет, с одной стороны, вести бизнес в Британии с оборотом $100 млн силами всего трех человек, а с другой — увеличивать продажи за счет обратной связи удовлетворенных покупателей, оставляющих отзывы на сайтах (которые, впрочем, быстро сносятся полицией).

А как убрать конкурента, не особо вспотев? В Мексике лучше не выходить из дома в 17:45. Почему? Потому что, устроив перестрелку на чужой территории в это время (и оставив пару тел), мафиози привлекают туда массу СМИ аккурат к шестичасовому выпуску новостей и пометке «Срочно» на экране. Общественность негодует, полиция по звонку из мэрии мчится в квадрат как ошпаренная и кладет всех местных. PR-зубры, учитесь!

Специфический франчайзинг и офшоринг, убытки от легализации наркотиков в США и стратегии их преодоления (например, диверсификация), а также что наркобароны почерпнули у Walmart — в общем, прелюбопытное чтение. Суть книги, однако, не в том, чтобы воспеть предприимчивость и проактивность криминала, а в том, чтобы указать, как наносить удары по его бизнес-модели, которая сегодня правоохранительными органами понимается не вполне адекватно. Ведь стоимость выращивания кустов коки по сравнению с розничной ценой готового продукта сравнима со стоимостью холста и красок в модном произведении искусства, поэтому атаки на крестьян в Андах большого результата не приносят, а вот продуманная работа со спросом — да.

Here's a spoiler: the takeaway from Wainwright is that prohibition doesn't work. But unlike the resident pothead, his thesis is based on analysis that exposes drug war policy as often wasteful or even counterproductive.

Drug lords adapt is probably a better subtitle. There's nothing particularly novel revealed by Wainright's research if you have a passing understanding of the politics of drug enforcement. But what he does well is tie the operating norms of violent cartels with the incentives created by the very institutions that seek to control them. Violence is the the criminal enterprise's recourse in the absence of enforceable contracts. When you combine that operating reality with a demand curve that's only growing and a hydra-like supply line, is it any wonder why cartels thrive against policies that only escalate the drug war? ( )

I enjoyed the focus of the book on thinking about this phenomenon from an economic perspective. The chapters follow a kind of template: pick some facet of the drug trade and compare it to the corresponding situation in a licit business, introduce some related economic concept, and brain-storm possible courses of action based on that reasoning. I especially appreciate this last part on proposing alternatives, who knows if they are good, but they definitely were thought-provoking. Perhaps some counter-arguments coming from the same type of economic reasoning would have made the book more enriching,

I also like the global view it provides, both of the North-South drug trade in the Americas and also of emergent trends such as synthetic drugs in New Zealand, internet markets, legalization, rising middle classes in traditionally lower-income countries, etc, and what this may mean in the future for existing organizations and governments.

One really big takeaway is that the truisms of nipping things in the bud or addressing problems at the 'source' seem to fail miserably here. The final chapter provides some basic economic arguments why the dominant supply-side approaches are misguided even just financially (you could also make other arguments, but that's not what this book is about). Some of the alternatives proposed involve overcoming deeply entrenched taboos and reactions. ( )

Lance bought this for me for Christmas 2021 and I read it that spring. Enjoyed learning about the similarities of how a drug cartel does business compared to a normal industry. Author's basic thesis is that by learning how to run a drug cartel, we can learn how to stop these dangerous criminal organizations. Also learned how much the politics of restricting certain drugs in various countries actually enhances the drug cartel's business. Author clearly argues that if certain drugs were legal and controlled by the government the criminal aspect of this industry would be severely impacted and potentially these dangerous organizations would no longer exist. Read this prior to watching the show Narcos and going to Yuma, AZ for WTI 2-22 to help give context to the show and the geography of the area.

Overall, a decent overview and introduction to both economics (international trade focused) and the drug industry, as well as overviews of issues specific to the drug industry (regulations, alternative things to smuggle, domestic politics within certain countries).

There's not much new information in this if you're at all familiar with the issue. However, well presented and clear, and there are a lot of people who aren't familiar with the economic, trade, or legal issues. ( )

Different aspects of the world's illegal drug industry looked at from an economist's standpoint....

... from an economic journalist's standpoint, which is shallow, interesting, full of little anecdotes, incomplete, broad-ranging and, and ultimately unsatisfying.

A good book to read on a plane, interesting but not very challenging. A book-length magazine article, as many other reviews have said. ( )

Its a shame this book is not more in the national discussion about drugs because it is very well-written and brings a lot of interesting points to the discussion. Wainwright was a reporter for The Economist and was asked to write a column about business in Mexico and he came up with an early prototype for this book. The book takes an in-depth look at the world of illegal drugs and asks why have previous drug control measures not worked. Lots of interesting examples and some counterintuitive case studies definitely made me re-think certain aspects of the drug trade. Although this is a non-fiction book it moves along quite nicely and does not get too bogged down like some books of this kinda can. ( )

I was given this book in exchange for a review as part of Goodread's FirstReads program.

First off - let me say this is a very interesting conversation starter book - just from reading the name of it "How to Run a Drug Cartel" (in big words on the cover) I've gotten many comments from co-workers seeing me reading this at work.

It is a very interesting, entertaining, and educating look at drug cartels (not just in Mexico/central-South America), how they run, operate, and how they make/lose money - all from an economics standpoint. The book isn't pro-this or anti-that, it just gives details, facts, and talks about how drug cartels make their money, how they spend their money, how they operate economically, where they target, why they target, etc. It goes into thorough detail about cannabis, coca, poppy, a little bit into meth, and even into the new synthetic drugs (especially in New Zealand).

The biggest takeaway from the book is that we need to stop fighting drugs at the source, and instead go after it from the prevention/education aspect. Its just not feasible financially and intelligently to try and burn coca and cannabis fields or attack drug cartels and cause all-out-wars in streets when we can stop consumption.

Another big reduction to the drug cartels is legalizing cannabis. For recreational and medicinal. And this seems to be obvious - but the government doesn't think so (yet). Taxation and legalization of cannabis removes it from drug cartels, places it with better safety precautions, supports legitimate businesses rather than shady drug cartels/dealers, and creates a [very large] revenue stream for the local governments. It seems like a complete no-brainer. ( )