“For every complex problem there is an easy answer, and it is wrong.” – H.L.Mencken
There is a cancer spreading its deadly tentacles across the globe. A cancer that kills slowly and without prejudice to race, color, creed or economic status. A 
cancer that targets the young and destroys their future, and ours. A cancer fueled by greed and driven by a few shadowy groups with enormous economic power. That cancer is illegal drugs, particularly cocaine and heroin. And it destroys insidiously through the process of instant pleasure leading to long-term addiction. And cocaine and heroin addiction is hard to cure.
As a result, many governments have declared a war on illegal drugs. The U.S. federal and state governments will spend over $50 billion dollars in 2012 on the War on Drugs. And arrests for drug violations this year are expected to greatly exceed the 2.5 million. And deaths from the use illegal drugs, combined with an ever increasing use of prescription drugs and alcohol now outnumber traffic fatalities in the US.
But we are losing this war. Drug use is growing at an unprecedented rate in nearly every developed country in the world. In the US alone the last 5 years has seen a 50% increase in cocaine usage and over a 100% increase in heroin use. Even though we spend billions on the war against illegal drugs, it is estimated that around 400 tons of pure heroin is produced globally, but we only seize about 15%, leaving 340 tons on the streets.
There’s big money in illegal drugs.
Why are these numbers so huge? Simple, there’s big money in illegal drugs. The global annual revenue from illegal drug sales is currently $400 billion dollars,
and growing. And it’s all in cash! The more potent the drugs the stronger the addiction and thus the greater the need for more drugs. A perfect self-reinforcing cycle. And with drugs comes an increase in crime and gangs, another threat to our children’s future.
In studying this evil trend and thinking about what looks like a hopeless situation, I came across some work that is being done in certain scientific circles on the search for an antidote for addiction. According to the research an antidote is still a long way off, but it may be possible one day to have an effective antidote against drug addiction. In other words, a way to eliminate the addiction and in many cases the craving for “the next fix”!
At first I was elated. This could be the miracle we need. A permanent solution!
But the more I thought about the economics of the global drug industry, both legal and illegal, and the astronomical sums of money, the more I became concerned. Those who currently profit from the illegal sale of drugs are not going to retire and get a real job. There is too much money at stake. No, while many around the world would welcome such a discovery, other very powerful groups would stop at nothing to destroy such a formula.
And so was born the idea for my third thriller novel, Business As Usual, about the discovery of an antidote for drug addiction and the two major global organizations who don’t want it to hit the market: the powerful Drug Cartels who control the production and distribution of cocaine, crack and heroin, and the Global Pharmaceutical Industry (Big Pharma) who currently distribute and control the supply of all the drugs currently being used in treatment and rehabilitation centers. Greed makes strange bedfellows.
This is purely a work of fiction, yet many of the statistics about the global drug trade and the situations in this novel are accurate and much of the story is built on existing facts. It is a book with a message and hopefully a wake-up call for those of us who are parents.
I firmly believe Business As Usual will be an entertaining work that you will enjoy reading as a thriller novel. I also hope that it will increase your awareness and understanding of the growing menace that is threatening our children and our future.
Business As Usual will be published this coming week as an eBook, available on Amazon Kindle US and UK, as well as other eBook platforms.
I would enjoy hearing your thoughts and reactions to this novel, or any of my other thriller novels (Almost Perfect and Game Changer). Please feel free to write to me directly at: john@johnrchildress.com.
Tight Lines . . .
John R Childress
john@johnrchildress.com
Filed under: Human Psychology, John R Childress, John's Novels, Psychology Tagged: Cancer, cocaine, current-events, drug abuse, Drug Cartels, drug gangs, global pharmaceutical industry, global war on drugs, Greed, heroin, heroin addiction, politics, thriller novels, traffic deaths, US drug abuse
