A more apt comparison would be alcohol vs illegal drugs.
Coffee vs meth or heroin does even come close to ringing true. What are the individual or societal costs to consuming coffee? Both approach zero.
Coffee vs meth or heroin does even come close to ringing true. What are the individual or societal costs to consuming coffee? Both approach zero.
But if we want to use that metric, OK. I would venture a guess that the production of coffee yields a heck of a lot less suffering than the production of cocaine, heroin or meth. Any far fewer people consume the latter.
In any case, legal production can be regulated in ways that illegal crops cannot. It's hard to draw a legitimate comparison.