Do you really not see the difference with these? It is not about level of harm – everyone can figure out that alcohol is “worse” in physiological terms, kills more people and harms more families. This is not the difference, because otherwise you would only be advocating degrees of harm (or as you prefer to call it, damage). The difference is that there is no line of cocaine that you did that did not come from harm to someone else. And by using / abusing this you are supporting the harm done. Cocaine, as an illegal drug, is not manufactured in factories like alcohol or cigarettes. There is always human suffering involved. This is the real choice that you make and that you advocate when making libertine statements about coke – somewhere, somehow some person suffered in exchange for your high.
I immensely enjoy your blog, and would prefer to send my own comment on a positive note, but this just seems out of line with your otherwise educated and well thought out opinions. Before you dissect me – I am not a Christian, or even straight edge or on a mission. I just believe if you advocate something so openly here and which is something I feel strongly about, I should let my voice be heard as well.
You make an excellent point.
Now give back your shoes, clothes, and pretty much anything you’ve ever bought cheap at Wal Mart.
You want to see human suffering? Go hang out in the cotton fields and the third world sweatshops where most all of your garments and trinkets originated. That’s right. Somewhere, somehow some person suffered in exchange for your fruit-of-the-loom undies.
I’m not making light of your point. It’s valid, but don’t kid yourself into thinking that legalities play the slightest role in the first world’s exploitation of the third. Wake up and smell the Latin American agricultural commodity. My blow is no more politically tainted than your bowl of sugar.
Oh, and that human suffering I exchanged for my high? Courtesy of the United States Government. Coca eradication efforts by the US have amounted to little more than biological warfare against an indigenous population. The War on Drugs is the only pure evil here. Our government should be ashamed and embarrassed at the colossal amounts of time and money wasted trying to legislate morality.
Prohibition is what causes suffering. There’s nothing inherently evil about the Coca plant. It’s the assholes who make it illegal that cause all the problems.