Hacker News Reader

Comment by Jonovono | Hacker News Reader

All fair, and I didn't mean that to be 'adversarial'. It was just bizarre in that, I have never seen someone speak so positively about cocaine lol. I was pointing out is I think, when talking about the pros, it might be worth mentioning the cons for some stuff

View on HN

Other than being illegal, there is not a whole lot wrong with it, relatively speaking. Let's disregard cigarettes and alcohol, those are too easy. Look at food, the majority of my country is eating themselves to their early deaths, and experience all manner of outcomes worse - diabetes, cancers, immobility, sudden heart attacks.

I'm not saying it doesn't have some risks, but I am saying with all other things considered, these are the same risks associated with running, sex, and spirited debates.

Consider this: It's normal for people to do this thing where they feign not being able to function without coffee in the AM but it is somehow not socially acceptable to have a bit of cocaine on some weekends. Let us consider that it's a dual standard for what is essentially the same thing, enhanced attentiveness, a brief euphoria, better focus, and an urge to poop.

If all addictions are equal, isn't the person who can't function without coffee or cigarette the same as people who can't go without a line? So you might ask "I've never seen someone steal to buy coffee, but I've seen people steal to buy coke, why is that?"

My estimate is that it is because one is normalized and one isn't, you simply have a subset of people who are self admittedly okay with breaking 'the law' by doing coke, so naturally they might normalize theft as well since it is a hobby that is so highly penalized only those with the shakiest hold on reality/morality is likely to do it. That distorts the image of it, and we then begin to develop this social stigma.

Ergo, legalize it, you won't have more of this any more than you have coffee-heads who happen to also be thieves.

You don't go psychotic and destroy your brain from neurotoxic doses from chronic caffiene abuse. In the past you could take cocaine like you took coffee, but only stimulants were the ones to be pretty much universally controlled. Many countries do not even allow the entire category of stimulants to be prescribed as a medication for ADHD, such as Japan or Germany.

You're completely ignoring the fact that just a couple grams of cocaine can kill a person. It might not be particularly easy to take a lethal overdose of cocaine but consider how easy it is compared to other popular substances: nicotine, alcohol, cannabis, coffee, psychedelics, etc. It's an immediately dangerous substance that can cause serious harm in a short moment of disinhibiton, which I think justifies it's illegality inasmuch as any recreational drug should be illegal.

You're right -- the lethal dosage of cocaine is about 95 milligrams per kilogram of body weight. This translates to about 6.5 grams for a 150-lb person. [0]

You neglected to mention that the lethal dose for caffeine is in the same magnitude -- "150-200mg per kg of body weight, or 5 to 10 grams of total caffeine ingested, is considered lethal." [1]

Given that the street price of cocaine in the USA is around $120 / gram [2], it would cost about $780 to overdose. Meanwhile, I can easily and legally order 16 grams of caffeine tablets online (or in any CVS) [3] for $11.49 -- enough to kill two people.

Does this cause you to rethink any assumptions?

Don't forget -- at one time, drinking coffee in public was punishable by death. [4]

[0] https://gracerecovery.com/cocaine-overdose-amount/ [1] https://www.verywellmind.com/can-you-overdose-on-caffeine-21... [2] https://www.statista.com/chart/18527/cocaine-retail-steet-pr... [3] https://www.cvs.com/shop/cvs-health-caffeine-tablets-80ct-pr... [4] https://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/was-coffee-ever-illega...

Reply on news.ycombinator.com