A rant about cocaine

[Abitwobblynow]

The subject of coke makes me see red and come over all old testament.

Do people who use this 'harmless, no big deal, I don't use it much' drug have any idea how it is made, and the impact THEIR PERSONAL BEHAVIOUR has on the countries where it comes from (and all the courier countries in between)?

I would like to wave a totalitarian wand and do a mass testing of the population. Then everyone who tests positive be chucked into a military transport plane and flown over to Latin America.

Then, be given wellington boots, a donkey, 4 huge sacks of coca leaves, a tarpaulin, a drum of diesel and a spade, and made to walk their spoiled selfish western arses up the slopes of the Andes to find a mountain stream.

Then, after climbing steadily uphill for a long time, to dig a swimming pool-shaped hole and line it with tarpauline. Then damn the stream. Then, pour in all the coca leaves and start treading, treading, treading with their already blistered soft feet.

then, pour in the diesel and tread some more. Feet will be raw by now. They will now be into several days of hell. Then, carefully undamn the stream and pour all that polluted shit water down the mountainside to contaminate all the environment below it, and harvest the tiny little bit of concentrate that has been panned into a carefully built corner, slightly lower than the others.

Then, to sell what they made to some murderous psychopath, for $200. Days of work and all that destruction, for $200. And not to worry about the 10000s of % profit mark up, because there is nothing they can do anyway.

Then, drag their exhausted fat asses down the mountainside, and go into the mortuaries of the towns. I think they should be given the task of sewing the heads of all the people who have been decapitated back on. And go on mortuary duty and collect the decomposed bodies and pick out with tweezers all the blow fly maggots, so the relatives can have some sort of body to work with in the funeral.

Then, go and talk to all the widows, the children who have lost their fathers, the widows of the journalists and government workers who were brave enough to stand up to the cartels who were gunned down and decapitated. They can reminisce whose head they sewed on!

Then, come back and tell the rest of us how snorting cocaine is 'no big deal' .

And these are people who preach organic, meusli and Greenpeace shoving shit up their noses!

You nasty, hateful, destructive HYPOCRITES! Look at yourselves and who you are hurting!

Cut and paste to anyone you know who is a 'casual user'

[LookingForwardToMarch]

My ex used to use it and he was definitely a twat

But a big I never knew that was how they made it!

Bastards

[QuickLookBusy]

hf128219 "But, unfortunately, it is how many countries survive"

And???

You could say the same about families being able to eat because they were slaves. Doesn't mean it is acceptable and should carry on!

Thank you for posting this OP. I've never respected anyone who thinks taking an illegal drug is acceptable. They're usually very weak people ime.

[AmberLeaf]

Yeah its all true.

Do any of your wear diamond rings?

Eat chocolate?

ETC

ETC

[Bunbaker]

"You could say the same about families being able to eat because they were slaves. Doesn't mean it is acceptable and should carry on!"

The same was said when children as young as 7 were sent down mines and that wasn't right either. After the Husker pit disaster Lord Shaftesbury was instrumental in getting the law changed to prevent such young children working down the mines. The families found other ways of supplementing their income.

[QuickLookBusy]

Em which bit isn't true Amber?

[Bunbaker]

Do any of your wear diamond rings? No

Eat chocolate? Very rarely

[AmberLeaf]

Quicklookbusy

read my post again, I didnt say it wasnt true!

[LauriesFairyonthetreeeatsCake]

Yes, non conflict

And yes, proper fair trade

And don't do coke

[wordfactory]

I have had this conversation with friends...especially the ones who then go all fair trade coffee on me!

There is no excuse for supporting this trade. The fact that people support other exploitative trades is possibly the worst excuse!

[shadylane]

I love you for posting this. I hate how everyone in london is a casual user. And yes they tend to be 'right on' in other ways. But people call me sanctimonious for these views.

[AmberLeaf]

shadylane, what a stupid thing to say.

Everyone in London is a casual user?

[QuickLookBusy]

Amber I apologise.

I thought you were being sarcastic

[shadylane]

Sorry! By everyone I mean it feels like everyone is. Obviously there are lots who don't but often feels like everyone who's out past eleven is.

[MrsKeithRichards]

I'm not going to act all saintly though. I don't know where my diamonds came from. I only have the small ones in my engagement ring. I don't buy exclusively fair trade coffee or chocolate. And I have used coke, not in many years though!

So whilst truths might be uncomfortable and need to be heard I haven't always adapted my behaviour in the past.

[FredFredGeorge]

I don't get why your conclusion is a totalitarian testing - rather than legalisation and production in ethical means...

[CailinDana]

IME casual drug users are the worst snobs imaginable. In their minds they're good enough and sophisticated enough to be able to take drugs without it being a problem - drug addicts, and people who suffer from drugs, are all plebs that have nothing to do with them. They almost see drug use as a sign of sophistication - they're the special ones who can avoid all the nastiness of drugs and just take advantage of them for recreation. All the time of course they just ignore the fact that no matter who they are or where they bought their drugs they're still supporting the horrific practices the OP describes. Oh, but all that doesn't matter because the drugs would be there anyway for the plebs, and at least they being oh-so-wonderful and so much better than anyone else, use drugs properly and have proper jobs alongside their drug habit. Wankers. They made me sick. Luckily I'm not around people like that any more.

[CailinDana]

And I agree with others that if you raise any objection you are painted as being totally unenlightened and sanctimonious - only unsophisticated people see drugs as being entirely bad - the great ones can see the "grey areas" - ie the areas that allow them to behave like utter wankers.

[sockmuppet]

Bloody hell Cailindana

This is obviously a personal post, what lies behind such hatred?

[CailinDana]

I worked with a lot of people like that years ago. They were utter cunts who would go on and on and on and on about being vegetarians, buying free trade, recycling, the whole shebang, then pull out the drugs at the end of the night. The hypocrisy drove me mad. Having seen people destroyed by drugs the whole thing just scared the living daylights out of me - I felt totally out my depth, and I felt so angry at being criticised by such idiotic people.

[Spero]

I agree but I also agree that this applies to so many many more things. What about the conditions of the miners who suffer horribly just so we can have mobile phones that vibrate? The workers in Apple factories who kill themselves so we can have a nice iPad?

Isn't the problem that we in the West are utterly spoilt and greedy and want our clothes, food, electrical goods etc to be cheap and plentiful and we neither know nor care how they are produced and who suffers for it.

I don't think this level of anger should be directed only at cocaine users, although I agree with everything that is said about their smug hypocrisy.