For the first time, the startling full story of the disastrous war on drugs -- propelled by human stories, insight into addiction, and international reporting.

"How does a budding cartel boss succeed (and survive) in the $300 billion illegal drug business? By learning from the best, of course. From creating brand value to fine-tuning customer service, the folks running cartels have been attentive students of the strategy and tactics used by corporations such as Walmart, McDonald's, and Coca-Cola. And what can government learn to combat this scourge? By analyzing the cartels as companies, law enforcers might...

"In a ranch south of Texas, the man known as The Executioner dumps five hundred body parts in metal barrels. In Brazil's biggest city, a mysterious prisoner orders hit-men to gun down forty-one police officers and prison guards in two days. In southern Mexico, a meth maker is venerated as a saint while enforcing Old Testament justice on his enemies. A new kind of criminal kingpin has arisen: part CEO, part terrorist, and part rock star, unleashing...

"In November 2012, voters in Colorado and Washington passed landmark measures to legalize the production and sale of cannabis for social use-a first not only in the United States but also the world. Medical cannabis is now legal in eighteen states and Washington, D.C., and more than one million Americans have turned to it in place of conventional pharmaceuticals. Yet the federal government refuses to acknowledge these broader societal shifts and continues...

Bennett was director of the National Drug Control policy under President George H.W. Bush. He offers strong societal and scientific arguments against the legalization of marijuana, in a call-to-action for the 46 states that know better than to support full legalization. Bennett and White provides a voice of reason for millions who have jumped on the legalization bandwagon because they haven't had access to the facts.

Legal Highs are without doubt the biggest drug scourge to blight the world since recreational drugs first hit the streets more than 100 years ago. Their growing menace opens up a new front in the drug war, shifting the battle line from the Colombian jungles, Moroccan valleys, Afghan hills and the Winnebagos of New Mexico to specially constructed laboratories on the outskirts of Shanghai and other cities across the globe. But who are the shadowy characters...