"If you made a chart of substance use in the 19th century, two things would chart -- the growth of the use of opiates and the growth of the use of coffee. It seems that the need for drugs grows as we congregate in cities and live by timetables. That's an incredibly recent human phenomena, and it is incredibly hard on human beings."
A major part of the book is devoted to the malign influence of drug cartel money on the Mexican political system. "The country is dependent on the cash flow coming from drugs. No Mexican president can really suppress that, or would even want to seriously try. The problem is, because of the way the society is organized, because of the elite in Mexico City, there's no benefit from that money.
"There will, however, never be another Carrillo, because the elite will never allow someone to get that powerful again. The elite, which is inherently racist, didn't see him coming because they couldn't imagine this brown boy from Sinaloa could get that rich or powerful. I think Carrillo died because he became a threat to the state."
This book, Bowden claims, is his farewell to the drug war. "No one wins in the drug world. The place destroys everyone -- the narcs, the dealers. There are too many bodies stashed in secret burial grounds along the border. There's too much money in it. I can't stay in this anymore."
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