Blow
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Among the numerous people who gave aid and comfort out on the Cape, thanks to Tim White, managing editor of the Cape Cod Times; to Johnny Scott and Bird, pliers of the fisher’s trade; to Jeanne Flamburis; to Steven and Cathy Faucher, George’s good neighbors in times of need, and, for her graciousness and her acts of kindness, to Marilyn Anderson, who cared for George over the course of two and a half years, until her tragic death on February 10, 1992.
For their assistance in other ways, my special thanks to Nell Porter Brown, reporter for the Troy Record, who provided valuable research help; to her husband, Andrew Brown, M.D., for patiently explaining the physiological effects of cocaine use; to Alexandra Porter and to Adelaide Porter, for their critical reading of the manuscript; and to Schellie Hagan, fact checker; John Mabie, of the legal department of HarperCollins; Rick Turner, in Sales at HarperCollins; Margaret Wimberger, the book’s copyeditor; and Keonaona Peterson, its production editor.
The book would have been difficult to write had not other journalists and scholars gone down the cocaine road before and illuminated the way. Of particular help in understanding the broad reach of the Medellín cartel were the encyclopedic work done by Guy Gugliotta and Jeff Leen in Kings of Cocaine, and by Paul Eddy, Hugo Sabogal, and Sara Walden in The Cocaine Wars. Among other useful works were Deep Cover by DEA Special Agent Michael Levine, Turning the Tide by Sidney Kirkpatrick and Peter Abrahams, Desperadoes by Elaine Shannon, The Fruit Palace by Charles Nicholl, Snowblind by Robert Sabbag, and Drugs and Human Behavior by Tibor Palfai and Henry Jankiewicz of Syracuse University.
I owe a lasting debt to my agent, Sarah Lazin, for engendering the project and for being wise in many ways, start to finish, and to my editor, Wendy Wolf, who numerous times over saved me from falling prey to embarrassing sins of commission and omission alike.
And, of course, to my wife, Sara Jane, but for whom nothing anywhere would ever seem possible.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Bruce Porter, a former newspaper reporter and editor of Newsweek, teaches at the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism. He has also written for The New York Times Magazine, The Washington Post, Rolling Stone, Playboy, and Connoisseur, among other publications.
BLOW. Copyright © 1993 by Bruce Porter. All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written permission except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles or reviews. For information, address St. Martin’s Press, 175 Fifth Avenue, New York, N.Y. 10010.
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First published in the United States by HarperCollins Publishers, Inc.
eISBN 9781466876248
First eBook edition: October 2014