When Truth Catches Up With Fiction . . .

Setting the context:  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.

Several years ago I wrote a thriller novel, my fourth, about global drug addiction and the criminal organisations behind this evil menace. (The title is Business As Usual and it is available as an eBook on Amazon Kindle US and UK.)

At the time, my premise was pretty far-fetched and I even debated writing the story at all.  Basically it is about a small biotech entrepreneur in the UK who invents an antidote for drug addiction, especially heroin and cocaine.  Think for a moment of the ramifications, both good and bad.

Millions whose lives are ruined, and whose families are shattered, could now be free of the grip of these powerfully addictive drugs and have a hope of rebuilding their lives.  Drug crime would drop and the billion dollar global trafficking industry would collapse.  All good new as far as I was concerned.

But then, there is the dark side of such an invention.  The forces behind the drug trade, the massive and well-funded cartels in South America, the Middle East, and Asia would not go down without a fight.  Billions of dollars of income is at stake and these are not the type of people who just willingly give up.  They would fight back with a vengeance to protect their lucrative lifestyle.

And then there are the global pharmaceutical companies, mega-corporations also with billions invested in drugs for rehabilitation and maintenance programs for addicts.  The exorbitant profit margins on these products and programs are too great to just give up. How would they react?  Perhaps not as forthrightly as one might expect.

So the novel revolves around an antidote for drug addiction and two forces, the drug cartels and “Big Pharma” who join forces to keep the discovery off the market.  It’s a fast paced thriller that rockets from London to the Caribbean to an explosive conclusion on the Hawaiian island of Maui. It also features a female villain who runs an elite Nanny Service for executive families, but the nannies are specially trained in business espionage and pass on insider trading secrets they hear on the job to make massive profits in the stock market.  It gets complicated!

Definitely fiction bordering on fantasy?  Not quite.

Last evening I read an article.  Here’s the title: Vaccine Halts Heroin Addiction In Rats.

I nearly fell of my chair!  The article is exactly what I wrote about.  And it even goes on to say that human trials are currently under way.  Truth catches up with fiction!

What I find amazing about all this is how fast the world is moving and how somewhere, someone is working on solving the problems we are faced with as a global society. That’s the good news for me and the hopefulness that keeps me going against news reports that are often quite depressing.

But what is the other side doing!

Hope you enjoy Business As Usual!  And it’s only $2.99 on Kindle.  You can find my other thriller novels at http://novels.johnrchildress.com

Tight Lines . . .

John R Childress

john@johnrchildress.com