Ian Frisch

I mean, these sort of political solutions, you know, these diplomatic sort of approaches are maybe above my head in terms of complexity or approach.

But certainly you're right that it's not just who manufactures and imports this stuff.

It is where the raw materials come from.

Certainly back in the day with with

Colombian cartels, they grew their own coca plants and they, you know, processed it in the jungles and packaged it.

And, you know, they were the means of production back then.

But now it's an international problem.

So it kind of requires like a multi-pronged approach in terms of remedy.

And, you know, it is my opinion that you need overt action, you know, things that you can

put on the news, but also covert stuff you don't talk about and then political and, and diplomatic as well.

Cause that's really the, the only way you're going to be able to make a dent in, um, in production and supply.

Yeah, I know I'm a very character focused person.

I like to understand people's motivations for doing what they do, especially if it's something more extreme, like going undercover in a cartel or something like that.

But I think a through line in a lot of my journalism and book writing is is deception.

you know, how we deceive others, but also how we in some ways deceive ourselves.

So that's kind of an overarching sort of thread throughout all of my work.

But certainly in this book, the element of deception is paramount.

Well, some of my magazine journalism, you know, has been optioned by Hollywood and is kind of put in the meat grinder over there.

And, you know, they can kind of see what what gets spat out.

But for me, you know, I just love telling good stories.