Cocaine Is Evil | Hacker News Reader

Cocaine Is Evil

slate.com

18 pointsojbyrne10 comments

Every voter who voted for a pro-Drug War politician has blood on their hands. This violence is part of a war that they demanded. The market has existed, currently exists, and will continue to exist, regardless. It's like believing that socialism (e.g. our socialized war on the very existence of the black market) is going to somehow win against capitalism if we just sacrifice enough innocent victims on the pyre.

Indeed. Anyone who does Cocaine has blood, and lots of it, on their hands.

Of course that sounds a bit flip, but any moral drug user should think twice about their "victim-less" crime and either A. stop using illegal drugs, or B. campaign tirelessly for the mass legalization of drugs.

I'm amazed how many people don't see it this way, but I completely agree with you, having seen lives torn apart by Cocaine when I was kid.

At the same time, the politicians have just as much, if not more blood on their hands. It has always been in their power to make drugs legal, and having seen the criminal effect the illegality created, they should have changed the laws.

I'd rather see millions of damaged addicted people who have nobody but themselves to blame, than deaths of people who are blameless.

If anyone is interested in the logistics of the cocaine trade I recommend the Dark Alliance book [1]. The book argues that when cocaine first appeared in the US it was not considered so dangerous or addictive and the authorities did not respond to it as a serious threat (at the time it was PCP that was being demonised).

[1] http://www.amazon.com/Dark-Alliance-Contras-Cocaine-Explosio...

What rubbish, paying for coke is like supporting the Nazi party?

It's basically saying the Jews are to blame for the Nazis being so bad.

If only they stoped being so Jewish there would have been no holocaust.

I see comments putting all the blame on the Drug War, but that doesn't quite make sense. While the illegal status of drugs certainly contributes to the criminal and violent nature of the cartels, it's naive to believe the cartels would be upstanding, respectful organizations were drugs legalized. Diamonds are quite legal (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blood_diamond) and so are bananas (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Banana_republic), yet cartels dealing in those exports have been quite violent indeed. When a high-value product can be grown or mined in a country with weak internal security, the trade can often be taken over by violent gangs, whether or not the product itself is legal. There's a lot to be gained by violently controlling supply, even if the product is legal.

> the illegal status of drugs certainly contributes to the criminal and violent nature of the cartels, it's naive to believe the cartels would be upstanding, respectful organizations were drugs legalized.

Were drugs legal, the same measures taken that constrain lawful business in other industries could be brought to bear on the narcotics industry (which would really, then, just be an offshoot of the pharmaceutical industry.)

Now, certainly, that doesn't necessarily mean that there would be no bad things associated with the industry -- particularly in developing regions where the supply comes from, as you point out with diamonds and bananas (and one could point to oil and lots of other things there, too.)

OTOH, even in those developing world supply areas, pressure -- both government and consumer -- in the developed market countries where most of the retail dollars chasing the product comes from have often time been useful in curbing the worst abuses in many industries. But when there is already a "war" on the industry, the marginal costs such pressure imposes doesn't exist.

Bad title. That's like saying guns are evil.

Agreed, although often the editors change/create the title rather than the author. Even a simple change like "The Drug War is Evil" would be much more befitting of the piece.

"The Drug War is Evil" is actually just as bad of a title as "Cocaine is Evil." This article is about how buyers of cocaine support a system that has caused (according to the author) millions of deaths, not about government policy's role. The title "The Drug War is Evil" is appealing because it's 1) correct and 2) somewhat relevant, but it's not actually what the article's about.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com