In The Candy Machine Tom Feiling travels the trade routes from Colombia via Miami, Kingston and Tijuana to London and New York. He meets Medellin hitmen, US kingpins, Brazilian traffickers and talks to soldiers and narcotics officers who fight the gangs and cartels. He traces cocaine’s progress from legal ‘pick-me-up’ to luxury product to global commodity, looks at legalization programmes in countries like Switzerland, and shows how America’s anti-drugs crusade is actually increasing demand.

Cutting through the myths about the white market, this is the story of cocaine as it’s never been told before.