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Ricardo Cortés
Ricardo Cortés

234 Followers

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Nov 22, 2021

AN ARRESTING GAZE

Controlling Bodies in Public Space — Begn 1976, New York Penal Law Section 240.37 criminalized loitering in a public place by anyone whom the police determined present for the purpose of prostitution. “Purpose” is not defined in New York’s Penal Law, thus the reason for one’s presence was ultimately decided by the opinions of arresting officers…

Sex Work

4 min read

AN ARRESTING GAZE
AN ARRESTING GAZE
Sex Work

4 min read


Sep 15, 2021

A Tray of Plywood All the Way Down

3 min read

A Tray of Plywood All the Way Down
A Tray of Plywood All the Way Down

3 min read


May 2, 2021

Please Stop Trying to Cancel “Marijuana”

Before brushing into a zeitgeist of parenthood when I illustrated a not-for-bedtime-story, Go the Fuck to Sleep, I wrote and illustrated a children’s book that was, for some, even more controversial. In 2005, I published It’s Just a Plant — A Children’s Story About Marijuana, a tool for parents to…

Marijuana

8 min read

Please Stop Trying to Cancel “Marijuana”
Please Stop Trying to Cancel “Marijuana”
Marijuana

8 min read


Jun 20, 2016

I Wasn’t the First Person to Find the NJ Cocaine Factory

Part Three: “Less Publicity of Articles About Coca Leaves and Narcotic Drugs Will Be Better For The Public” see Part 1: The Cocainemaker, Reefer Madness, and the Vice-President of The Coca-Cola Company and Part 2: How Coca-Cola Changed the World for Coca Among other things, my book A Secret History…

Coca Cola

7 min read

I Wasn’t The First To Find The NJ Cocaine Factory
I Wasn’t The First To Find The NJ Cocaine Factory
Coca Cola

7 min read


Jun 20, 2016

How Coca-Cola Changed the World for Coca

Part Two: A Double Standard for the Single Convention Treaty In March 2009, Bolivian president Evo Morales stood before the United Nations, a coca leaf in hand, citing a history of use of the plant for purposes social, spiritual, medicinal, and nutritional. The event marked the beginning of a formal…

Coca Cola

4 min read

How Coke Changed the World for Coca
How Coke Changed the World for Coca
Coca Cola

4 min read


Jun 20, 2016

The Cocainemaker, Reefer Madness, and the Vice-President of The Coca-Cola Company

Part One: How the Coca gets into Coke In 1886, a pharmacist named Dr. John Pemberton mixed extract of the green coca leaf — containing the recently discovered marvel of cocaine — with the caffeine kick of West African kola nuts, making a “Brain Workers’ Panacea” tonic called Coca-Cola.

Coca Cola

6 min read

The Cocainemaker, Reefer Madness, and the Vice-President of The Coca-Cola Company
The Cocainemaker, Reefer Madness, and the Vice-President of The Coca-Cola Company
Coca Cola

6 min read


Sep 7, 2015

Good Looking Out

Rikers Island, in Portraits On Rikers Island it is not fruitful to be angry. I’ve seen anger and frustration revealed in fits and bursts, but more often I marveled at how people accept being locked in a cage for the most precious months and years of their lives. When someone has a family and…

Prison Reform

7 min read

Good Looking Out
Good Looking Out
Prison Reform

7 min read


Jul 14, 2014

Jury Independence Illustrated

How to be a Monkey Wrench in the Machinery of the Drug War — all illustrations by the author So you’ve received a notice to report to jury duty.

Illustration

5 min read

Jury Independence Illustrated
Jury Independence Illustrated
Illustration

5 min read


May 20, 2014

Sketches of the Drug Czars

An Illustrated History of the War —

Marijuana

8 min read

Sketches of the Drug Czars
Sketches of the Drug Czars
Marijuana

8 min read


Apr 25, 2014

Matí Klarwein is Dreaming Light

“I’m going to turn into a dream and then you’ll be in real trouble” — On the morning of March 7th, 2002, Abdul Matí Klarwein passed away in his sleep, from his home in Deia, on the island of Mallorca, Spain.

Artist

6 min read

Matí Klarwein is Dreaming Light
Matí Klarwein is Dreaming Light
Artist

6 min read

Ricardo Cortés

Ricardo Cortés

234 Followers

I draw, write, & sometimes publish books. Drug wars, oceans, jails, children's books. Rmcortes.com

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