The consumption of cocaine has been a disaster for the human race. An untold amount of violence and aggression for South/Latin Americans to maintain captial-driven distribution routes for US Chadlings. A boycott on cocaine would end vicious cycles of poverty and violence. Discuss.
I try to avoid products and companies that are responsible for child labor, murder and violence. Sure there is no ethical consumption under capitalism, but just like I wouldn't go buying blood diamonds, I don't think I need to go buying cocaine.
It's weird that the same people who talk about how bad Raytheon is will also talk about how great their cocaine habit is. Sure is cool to help fund private armies that terrorize populations.
The way I see it, hard drugs are a revolution-level problem. If there was a people's army to seize the land that the plants are being grown on and distribute it to those currently being exploited by that system, then there's your solution and it's staggeringly similar to the way to deal with all of the other capitalists. But the power to do that does not currently rest with the relevant people, and the bourgeois institutions that hypothetically could do it right now will never have the political will for it, because from the beginning the War on Drugs was a plot to crack down on enemies to the bourgeoisie and funnel money to the police industrial complex, never to actually solve the problems related to drug use.
In the meantime, there may be political will to alleviate people's suffering via legalization. It's not perfect, but turning cocaine from an illegal industry to a sanctioned one will give those that work in it the legitimacy to do things like unionize and will disincentivize the extreme violence you see from the cartels that rely on it.
Same could be said about alcohol and prohibition in the US. Prohibition never works.
Don't cartels already have huge piles of cash they can't use, that they then launder? I'm very sure the laundering process doesnt usually involve the banks, so I don't think taking out banks will help.
It's a feedback loop that involves many factors. Colombia's production of cocaine is a product of Peruvian crackdown on its own cocaine trade, and so producers shifted their focus to Colombia. The conditions that made Colombia the biggest cocaine producer in the world can be traced as far back as the 1800s, when socialist movements were destroyed by a repressive constitution that made property owners the sole proprietorship of any political movement within the country.
Mexico itself used to be a conduit for Colombian cocaine, for its routes to the US. However, the cartels now produce their own narcotics in Mexico, much of this is done on land that was previously used by Mexican farmers that were crippled by NAFTA. And that's really just scratching the surface of extremely deep seated issues.
What needs to happen is the reversal of accumulated capital back into the hands of those who now suffer the brunt of decades long nightmarish violence. The war on drugs was a disaster - full on prohibition would be an even bigger disaster.
No particular commodity is responsible for the harm caused by capitalism and individual boycotts are useless af lifestyleism.
I guess I'm lucky that I don't really enjoy coke. I've done it a handful of times and it does feel kind of nice for a bit but I usually end up having long conversations with people I don't like and end up feeling like shit on the comedown. Plus some of the shittiest people I know love coke, like dudes in sales and shit.
That said, if you like doing coke I really don't care. Yeah there are some ethical issues with it but I have a couple pairs of Nikes so who am I to judge. The war on drugs is fucking stupid and it creates this environment for exploitation and violence. I don't blame the consumer anywhere near as much as the system.
Now if you'll excuse me I'll be sticking to weed, booze, and psychedelics like god intended.
