For the past 25 years, I've been a more or less constant cocaine user. Never obsessively, and always with the desire to write sooner or later about this experience, which seems merely idle and harmful, but which necessarily has some meaning beyond the ephemeral pleasure it offers, and certainly with an awareness of the risks involved in its uncontrolled use.
This book is an act of consistency with the activism (not militancy) I've carried out around the necessary decriminalization of marijuana and other recreational drugs like cocaine, confirming time and again the absurdity of their prohibition and the infinitely greater harm it entails. Over these more than 30 years, we have reaffirmed the right of every adult to decide their consumption without government intervention. Essentially, I believe that the harm caused by drug prohibition affects us all equally as citizens, whether we are users or not. An important challenge for this book has been to gather the testimonies of artists, writers, scientists, and activists who acknowledge their use in an open-minded and responsible manner, while accepting the risk of doing something prohibited as well as the harm it can cause.
In this cocaine-addicted journey, I recount my experiences with the dealers, the pushers, the "good guys" in this story, who, far from fulfilling the stereotype of the drug-dealing mobster, are often better people than their clientele and also victims of the absurd prohibition. (Carlos Martínez Rentería)