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'

[Chubfuddler]

The only diamonds I wear are very old

Chocolate is often produced in exploitative conditions, and that is terrible, but I've never heard of chocolate being linked to gang warfare, extortion, smuggling, children being used as chocolate mules etc etc.

[hackmum]

I'm like Sinister, I lead a terribly sheltered life. I've never taken cocaine, never been offered cocaine and as far as I know don't know anybody who does take cocaine. It's possible that it's going on all around me, however, as I'm terribly unobservant.

[Alliwantisaroomsomewhere]

YANBU. And on a much smaller, more personal level, I have lost one of my best friends because of it. He has not died (yet), but I could not continue my friendship with him because of it.

[Spero]

Chubfuddler - do you have a mobile phone? Google Frank poulsens blood in the mobile. More of a problem than diamonds and chocolate, possibly even cocaine if it is true that this has provoked civil war in DR of Congo.

I agree with op but think this is a much bigger problem than just cocaine production and use.

[VivClicquot]

TSC - you'd be surprised ... I've never tried any illegal drugs. Or smoked a fag, for that matter. Have never seen the appeal of either. Now wine on the other hand...

[CailinDana]

I don't think it makes sense to compare drugs to things like chocolate and nice cheese TSC. Chocolate and nice cheese are dangerous in large quantities but they don't alter your brain chemistry in a dangerous way and you at least know what ingredients are going into them. The purpose of drugs is to alter your perception of reality in a significant way which is really dangerous, and apart at all from the danger of addiction, there is also the danger of a bad reaction, something toxic being mixed with the drug, or your behaviour while on the drug leading to something dangerous happening.

Despite having been around drugs more than I ever wanted I have never once actually tried them. I've never even smoked a cigarette. And there are plenty of people like me - the perception that most people have done drugs is only there among drug users IME - it seems to be a way of justifying it.

That said I think heavy drinkers also have an annoying attitude - I don't drink much and when I was younger I was often bought drinks I didn't want or been called "boring" or "dry" by supposed friends. For some reason drug users and heavy drinkers need everyone around them to be in the same state or they get annoyed - is it because they know how idiotic they are when they're intoxicated and they don't want you to see them while you're sober?

[CailinDana]

TSC I have a friend who regularly goes clubbing without even a drop of alcohol in her.

[ethelb]

I totally agree with you OP.

Plus, having grown up in Hackney and heard people being shot near my house, I am always appalled when people from the area where I grew up partake in cocaine.

And though a lot of weed is grown in this country, lets not pretend that the process by which it is bought by the middle classes doesn't have a devastating effect by the people selling it (or being used to sell it rather) on their own door steps! And then they sneer at "chavs" and "the underclass" and insit on moving out to naice towns where none of this is visible. Bastards

[CailinDana]

I didn't say it wasn't fun, I said it was more dangerous than cheese and chocolate. I would agree that it would be hard to find someone who did a lot of clubbing and didn't do drugs, but among the general population it wouldn't be that hard to find people who haven't touched them. Out of my friends back home in Ireland I didn't know a single one who did drugs - but then we weren't big clubbers or drinkers either.

[YouCanBe]

This isn't really about drugs, it's about the West exploiting the rest of the world.
Phones, computers, jewels, clothes, drugs, all of it.
The material itself isn't wicked, the industry around it and the laws cause the problems, the people, the way things are set up.
People ignore the reality behind their products because they want the product. Everyone here is using a computer or phone so we are all as guilty as that 23 year old snorting a line in the toilets their work Christmas night out.
Read about conflict minerals. Not nice? Want to throw away your camera, your ipod, your laptop? No? It is easier to demonise the drug user, because drugs are seen as bad in our society. That's all.

[BuggerLumpsAnnoyed]

it's awful but believe or not the production of coke cola has a similar I'm p act on local African communities. without the crime as such but a lot of the general disregard for the local communities. so much of their water is polluted. threads like this really make you think

[Wallison]

I think the main problems are trade models and illegality. By trade models I mean the way that producers and their workers are treated by Western companies, which is hardly exclusive to cocaine and is a massive problem on a global scale. And the illegality means that criminals are in charge of production, distribution and supply; it doesn't have to be like that. The best thing for people who live in countries that produce the stuff would be for it to be legalised.

[Chubfuddler]

I do of course have a mobile phone. And it's not great the way some components are produced.

The other thing cocaine users are apparently unaware of us that it makes most people who take it regularly a t like arseholes.

[Wallison]

If you need to take drugs, that's a bit sad full stop.

Most people take them because they enjoy it though.

[ImperialSantaKnickers]

Thanks for giving me some ammunition for next time my prat BIL starts on about it being harmless.

[PoppyAmex]

"The other thing cocaine users are apparently unaware of us that it makes most people who take it regularly act like arseholes."

I'm nodding to this - a lot of people in my industry indulge in this habit and they never look "cool" or "fun", just try-hard losers who annoy the hell out of everyone else.

[CailinDana]

I agree ethel. I remember one of the girls I worked with mentioning that she was thinking of buying a house in a certain part of the city to which one of the drug users replied "but that's where all the drug dealers live!" WTF? You're one of their customers you utter wanker! One was a developmental psychologist who used to go on and on about the ills of tv and the importance of learning a second language, yet when I was at a house party in her house who supplied the drugs? Her 16 year old daughter. How nice for that girl that she was brought up without tv only to be a her mother's drug dealer before she was even 18. Yet that woman prided herself on being a great mum and wouldn't be seen dead in the "druggie" part of town, despite being a druggie herself. I just couldn't figure it out - surely you couldn't live in that level of hypocrisy and not realise it?

[Abitwobblynow]

"I agree, but did you really have to use 'fat' as a derogatory term OP? Thanks for that."

Selks - we are not fat! We are overflowing with sexiness!!!!!!

I meant 'fat ass' to convey spoiled, cushioned, thoughtless, selfish, ignorant, mollycoddled. If you can think of another word lets have it.

[Wallison]

Thing is, there are 'problem' consumers of everything - some people steal money/credit cards/phones. That doesn't mean that everyone who has money/a credit card/a phone can be lumped in with the problem users just because they have the same stuff as them. Similarly, just because someone takes drugs doesn't mean they are a problem drug user.

[CailinDana]

Oh I forgot TSC, only plebs can be called druggies, and only stupid people need warnings about drugs. The oh so sophisticated casual drug user is above all that. Your post encapsulates the attitude I came across perfectly.