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Book Cover
E-book
Author Maguire, Peter (Peter H.), author.

Title Thai stick : surfers, scammers, and the untold story of the marijuana trade / Peter Maguire and Mike Ritter
Published New York : Columbia University Press, 2014

Copies

Description 1 online resource (xxxiii, 236 pages) : illustrations, maps
Contents Foreword -- Introduction -- Surfers, scammers, and the counterculture -- The Hippie trail -- Kuta beach -- Thai sticks -- Pattaya Beach ground zero -- The sea of grass -- The gold rush -- Pirates and perils -- Multitons and mother ships -- The Dea gains ground -- Conclusion -- Notes -- Bibliography -- Index
Summary "Located on the left bank of the Chao Phya River, Thailand's capital, Krungthep, known as Bangkok to Westerners and "the City of Angels" to Thais, has been home to smugglers and adventurers since the late eighteenth century. During the 1970s, it became a modern Casablanca to a new generation of treasure seekers, from surfers looking to finance their endless summers to wide-eyed hippie true believers and lethal marauders left over from the Vietnam War. Moving a shipment of Thai sticks from northeast Thailand farms to American consumers meant navigating one of the most complex smuggling channels in the history of the drug trade. Many forget that until the mid-1970s, the vast majority of marijuana consumed in the United States was imported, and there was little to no domestic production. Peter Maguire and Mike Ritter are the first historians to document this underground industry, the only record of its existence rooted in the fading memories of its elusive participants. Drawing on hundreds of interviews with smugglers and law enforcement agents, the authors recount the buy, delivery, voyage home, and product offload. They capture the eccentric personalities of the men and women who transformed the Thai marijuana trade from a GI cottage industry into a professionalized business moving the world's most lucrative commodities, unraveling a rare history from the smugglers' perspective."-- Publisher's description
Bibliography Includes bibliographical references and index
Notes Print version record
Subject Marijuana industry -- Thailand
Drug traffic -- Thailand -- History
Smugglers -- Thailand -- Biography
BUSINESS & ECONOMICS -- Infrastructure.
SOCIAL SCIENCE -- General.
HISTORY -- United States -- 20th Century.
Drug traffic
Marijuana industry
Smugglers
Thailand
Genre/Form Biographies
History
Biographies.
Biographies.
Form Electronic book
Author Ritter, Mike, author.
ISBN 0231535562
9780231535564
9781306312943
1306312949