Bizarro : the surreal saga of America's secret war on synthetic drugs and the Florida kingpins it captured / Jordan S. Rubin.

Oakland, California : University of California Press, [2023]

1 online resource (267 pages) : illustrations

"How did Burton Ritchie and DEA Special Agent Claude Cosey wind up in federal prison, convicted as drug kingpins, after being indicted years later in three states and taken to trial three times? The answer lies in the weirdest chapter of the War on Drugs, a synthetic saga that's unfolding to this day. It all stems from a little-known Reagan-era law called the Analogue Act. The 1986 law bans substances that are "substantially similar" to controlled ones. But what does "substantially similar" mean? The law's amorphous standard has left people guessing about what's legal. Unlike the traditional war against heroin, cocaine, and other well-known drugs, when it comes to new synthetics, the government doesn't announce which ones it thinks are illegal before bringing charges. Making matters stranger, still, the DEA's own scientists haven't always agreed on what to ban. Indeed, a senior research chemist with the agency thought the spice Burton and Ben sold was legal"-- Provided by publisher.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Description based on online resource; title from digital title page (viewed on April 05, 2023).

Print version: Rubin, Jordan S., 1986- Bizarro Oakland, California : University of California Press, [2023]

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English

9780520387966 electronic book
0520387961 electronic book
9780520387959 hardcover

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