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'

[GothAnneGeddes]

TSC - you do realise that the majority of pharmaceutical drugs are manufactured? Not harvested in dire conditions like cocaine.

As for the argument that technology is as much of a western frippery as cocaine, the world is not as simple a place as "Westerners with technology, everyone else with none".

Nokia are still just about the world's leading phone manufacturer, they do huge business in less developing countries, where having a mobile phone has made life much better for people.

Then there's movements like the Arab spring, which would have been suppressed were it not for people having access to the internet and satellite phones.

Then there's the useful technology we all have, whether it's to keep our hospitals running or power stations safe.

The cocaine industry is evil. People using the "oh but chocolate is just as bad argument" are a classic embodiment of perfect is the enemy of good.

Nobody needs recreational cocaine. It's harms massively outweigh any benefits. So let's stop treating it as an acceptable indulgence.

[CailinDana]

TSC when you have to resort to comparing cocaine to calpol you know you're clutching at straws. I'm not going to answer your question because I am going to credit you with the intelligence to be able to tell the difference between illegal drugs and therapeutic drugs.
And again you've resorted to the classic argument from casual drug users - you're "boring" if you don't do them. It's barely a step up from saying you're not "cool" enough to do them. I would say it's a juvenile argument but that's a bit insulting to juveniles, many of whom have the sense not to take drugs.

[Selks]

OP - "I meant 'fat ass' to convey spoiled, cushioned, thoughtless, selfish, ignorant, mollycoddled." - Exactly my objection!!

[maillotjaune]

It is perfectly possible to be appalled by the impact of cocaine in producing countries AND feel similarly about the impact of technology etc. This thread started with an OP about coke though.

The thing about technology is that I can't avoid it because of work. I can avoid coke. Or coffee.

[HollaAtMeSanta]

Have you been to South America, OP?

The issues you raise would all be resolved by legalisation.

I thought this was going to be a rant about how unbelievably fucking tedious people are on coke. Which is an excellent reason to deplore its use.

As for de Beers... I think your view of them is a little too rosy.

[Alisvolatpropiis]

Takataka...nobody swallows condoms full of chocolate,risking their lives to smuggle it in to another country because they are desperate to provide a better life for their family . Granted the working conditions re chocolate production and clothes manufacturing are nothing to sing the praises of.

Good post op.

There is an argument that legalising such drugs would stop these things happening. The only reason the poor and desperate are being exploited is because its illegal. Legalise it and there would be no more drugs cartels fuelling the black market.

Not saying I agree with the argument per se but it does exist.

[Alisvolatpropiis]

I wear diamonds. Ethically sourced,not from conflict zones.

[dreamingbohemian]

I agree, the problem is not the product, the problem is the trade and industry.

I don't think legalisation alone will stop it though -- look at DR Congo, where by the way about 5 million people have died in the last 15 years or so. All those conflict minerals are legal products, it's just the supply chain that is massively illicit. A lot is being done to clean it up, and you would need similar efforts for drugs.

There are some interesting cases out there, like Turkey, which managed to transform much of its illegal heroin industry into a legal morphine industry.

I know you don't want to hear 'what about the iphones' etc. but I agree with those who say we need to look at these issues from a larger perspective of how we in Europe and the US basically exploit the rest of the world.

[Alisvolatpropiis]

Dreaming...it's not just Europe and the USA who use those things. The vast majority of all the products discussed can be found in every country in the world to greater or lesser extents.

Not that it makes it ok.

[dreamingbohemian]

Alis -- obviously, but it's the huge markups in the West that create the big profit incentives that drive the trade and the industry (and the violence and competition).

[CailinDana]

TSC if you look upthread you'll see we already discussed legalising and I said that could be a solution to the problem, though I'm not convinced as I would worry that more people would become addicted.

The fact is, cocaine is illegal at the moment. So you can't just ignore that when you talk about it. I'm not against cocaine per se, if you want to use it, use it, but don't make out there's no harm in it because as the world stands there is a great harm in it. I for one am not in favour of altering my brain chemistry in ways that could do me long term harm so even if cocaine were legal I wouldn't take it.

BTW no one decided alcohol was good and ecstasy was bad. Alcohol was an established societally acceptable drug before any ideas about regulating people's personal habits came into society, whereas ecstasy wasn't. If ecstacy had been around in the 18th century there's a good chance we'd all be high on it down the pub and getting some in for Christmas.

[Alisvolatpropiis]

True enough dreaming. I was being a bit simplistic there. I shouldn't have been,I really do know better.

[thewhistler]

I gather bleach is now used as cheaper than diesel.

Nothing to do with the argument.

Support OP.

[dreamingbohemian]

Alis -- no, it's a really important point, I'm glad you raised it! I think what's actually too simplistic is thinking that drugs are produced in one part of the world and consumed in another part, it's much more complicated. Iran, for example, has one of the worst opiate addiction rates in the world (it's a transit country for Afghan opium). It's a huge crisis there.

But I do put more onus on Western countries for not doing enough to reduce demand, because this creates such a huge pull and makes the trade so profitable.

Interestingly, the drugs trade doesn't always have to be violent. Tajikistan is basically a narco-state (again, Afghan opium) but there is relatively little drug-related violence there, simply because they have come to an agreement as to who handles what.

A lot of the violence in Mexico is not simply because of an increase in drugs but because of political changes that disrupted longtime drug trafficking arrangements.

So again, drugs are not inherently violent and evil. We could find a way to manage it all more peaceably if we would be more sensible about it.

[AndABigBirdInaPearTree]

you guys have very different friends than I do.

[strandednomore]

Well said OP I agree as someone who has lived and worked in one of the countries massively effected by the cocaine trade (Jamaica) and worked with drug mules.I get so fed up of people thinking that using cocaine is fine as long as they're "responsible" and "not doing it around the kids" or whatever. I used to think legalising it was the answer but now I am not so sure. Those who profit enormously from the illegal drugs trade will always find a way to make money. If it's not drugs it could be human trafficking.

[RedToothbrush]

Aside from the moral and health argument against cocaine, the easiest and most obvious thing that put me off it was being around a bunch of cokeheads.

Lovely people when off it, turned into selfish arrogant wankers whilst taking it. Without exception.

Was enough for me.

[LaurieBlueBell]

Up until know I didn't know how to C&P from here to my FB.

Your post made me learn, couldn't agree more.

[SevenSnapespearesSwimming]

Just watched the Bruce parry amazon clip. I had NO idea. I've never taken it, I'm a bit scared of drugs, but I know enough fucking idiots who turn into even-bigger-idiots when they're on it to be enough of a warning sign.

[AmberLeaf]

The fact that cocaine is illegal makes no difference, it is still used by lots and lots of people worldwide, its illegality doesn't put people off using it.

I don't think making it legal and then regulating the industry would make more people use it.

[Abitwobblynow]

Yes Amber, but would the reality of what they are really causing, put people off? I have more faith in human nature than you it seems. I think that people are thoughtless selfish and shallow, more than evil.

SecondComing, why is it in your world you think the use of mind altering substances is OK? Why must the mind be altered, in order for pleasure? Do you not understand the natural karma of balance, and the cost of being out of balance?
What is wrong with the real self, and getting in touch with that? Doesn't the fact that British youth are the most unhappy in the developed world - doesn't that concern you even a tiny bit?

So baa back to you, and take a trip to Ecuador why don't you. You sound young and ignorant of life.

[Proudnscaryvirginmary]

That's harsh, Wobbly.

TSC is a) just being honest about her drug taking past (I took coke too and am a similar age) and b) she has a point about some of the ridiculous language on here such as 'druggies'.

Don't you know that teenagers roll their eyes and ignore older adults when they start talking in hysterical and exaggerated terms? That when they hear outdated terms such as 'drug pushers' as opposed to dealers and 'druggies' as opposed to 'drug users' they feel entirely alienated from those adults and therefore are more inclined to think these warnings and terms are irrelevant to them because said adults don't have a clue what they're talking about?

I don't think anyone here is condoning coke use - and I think everyone agrees coke makes people selfish, boring and sometimes aggressive company/

[Proudnscaryvirginmary]

Oh and by the way, thank you for your OP. I knew some, but not all, of that info - it's shocking and it needs to be out there. I'll definitely share it.

[AmberLeaf]

I don't think people are evil, but yeah, its the human nature that keeps the drugs trade moving.

As I said before, the benefits of technology outweigh the bad for most people, most can chose to turn a blind eye and justify the sacrifices other people are making.

People that use cocaine feel the same I'd imagine, as far as they are concerned, it's worth it.