Defend the Indefensible: Cocaine

Doesn't excuse end users so much as make their actions almost irrelevant, if you buy the line that the CIA is going to make sure there are always enough end users to create a sufficient demand for the product our government finds so profitable. (So, for example, if drug use goes down, introduce a new, more addictive form of it and if it happens to disproportionately affect minority and low income users, so much the better!) If you don't buy that line (and I admit it's a kooky one), it doesn't excuse nothin'.

I would distinguish the diamond trade on the grounds that there isn't a huge US government profit machine based on propping up brutal dictatorships willing to keep pumping diamonds into our underground economies.

A colleague of mine who's even more paranoid than I highly recommends this website: http://www.narconews.com/.

http://www.nypost.com/news/worldnews/50787.htm

The argument about snorting coke not being a victimless crime because of dying drug 'mules' doesn't really make sense. Imagine if many western governments outlawed mobile phones or tobasco sauce or razor blades or something, but there was still substantial consumer demand for these products within those western countries. The black market would illictly produce these products and people would smuggle them into those western countries. Some of those people would be very poor and desperate and be willing to jeopardise their safety (by swallowing dozens of phones / jars of sauce / blades / whatever) in return for cash. Some of them would die. This does not make the act of texting / shaving / eating chilli con carne inherently evil. It is the criminalisation of the act which causes the problem. Trust me - no one's dying from having too many mobile phones in their stomachs.

-- Teh HoBB (j__...), September 22nd, 2005 5:01 PM

I think the word "inherently" is doing a lot of work here. Nothing is "inherently" evil - things are evil because of their consequences. To think that taking drugs has no consequences for anyone else is somewhat disingenuous.

-- o. nate (syne_wav...), September 22nd, 2005 5:11 PM

I'm not saying that, though, am I? I'm saying that you can't use the plight of drugs mules as an argument against drugs (and hence in favour of their prohibition) when it's the very prohibition which brings about the plight of the drugs mules. Obviously there are OTHER reasons why cocaine is more harmful than tobasco sauce. (or mobile phones, etc.)

-- Teh HoBB (j__...), September 22nd, 2005 5:16 PM

Well, I disagree then, because I think that you can use the plight of drug mules - and many other people caught in the crossfire of the "drug wars" - as an argument against drug use. You can point your finger at the government and say "They started it", but the truth is it takes two to tango.
-- o. nate (syne_wav...), September 22nd, 2005 5:18 PM

But only because you already think it's a BAD THING. If the tobasco wars were raging around us and tobasco mules were dropping like flies, would you feel similarly justified in railing against tobasco sauce?
-- Teh HoBB (j__...), September 22nd, 2005 5:21 PM

In that case I would weigh how much I really needed Tabasco sauce versus the harm to society that would be caused by my continuing to support the illicit Tabasco trade.

-- o. nate (syne_wav...), September 22nd, 2005 6:24 PM

In regards to the actual drug, it makes a good topical anesthetic, and my band's singer sings about it alot in an ironic way.
Example:
I've got something caught in my through
it's making me gag.
I'm gonna crack safes for a living.
I'm gonna crack safes with crack.
Make a key made out of cocaine.
Gonna be tempting
not to fucking eat it
but I'm gonna use it to crack safes with crack.
I'm gonna crack my safes.
I'll buy more cocaine.
Fill the safe with cocaine.
I cut myself crackin' a safe.
Shrapnel wounds,
I'll stuff the wounds with cocaine.
Then I'll go steal some more cocaine;
Fill his daughter with cocaine.
I'll fill my whiskey with cocaine.
and then we'll se who's to blame.
When I have no shame,
I take it in the rain.

The song: 'Criminals, Cocaine, and You.'
He thinks it's the most hilarious drug ever.
It's expensive, the high is short, it's incredibly addictive(withdrawl can KILLL you!) it can rot your NOSE OFF...and people STILL DO IT.

What you will and what you won't
What you do and what you don't
What you can and what you can't
This is what you need to know:
Loved you though it didn't show
Ich liebe dich nicht, du liebst mich nicht
Ich liebe dich nicht, du liebst mich nicht
Ich liebe dich nicht, du liebst mich nicht
Ich liebe dich nicht, du liebst mich nicht
da da da
da da da
da da da
da da da
Da da da Ich liebe dich nicht, du liebst mich nicht
Da da da Ich liebe dich nicht, du liebst mich nicht
Da da da Ich liebe dich nicht, du liebst mich nicht
Da da da Ich liebe dich nicht, du liebst mich nicht
da da da
da da da
da da da
da da da
(whispered)
Ich liebe dich nicht, du liebst mich nicht, aha
Ich liebe dich nicht, du liebst mich nicht, aha
Ich liebe dich nicht, du liebst mich nicht, aha
Ich liebe dich nicht, du liebst mich nicht.
I know why you ran away, aha
Understand you couldn't stay, aha
Wonder where you are today, aha
After all was said and done
It was right for you to run!
Ich liebe dich nicht, du liebst mich nicht, aha
Ich liebe dich nicht, du liebst mich nicht, aha
Ich liebe dich nicht, du liebst mich nicht, aha
Ich liebe dich nicht, du liebst mich nicht
da da da
da da da
da da da
da da da
Da da da Ich liebe dich nicht, du liebst mich nicht
Da da da Ich liebe dich nicht, du liebst mich nicht
Da da da Ich liebe dich nicht, du liebst mich nicht
Da da da Ich liebe dich nicht, du liebst mich nicht
da da da
da da da
da da da

"Good" LSD vs "Bad" is a matter of what else is in it, how it's made, etc.