Colombian President Gustavo Petro said during a government meeting that cocaine is “not worse than whiskey” and that it’s only illegal because it comes from Latin America.
Colombia, the world’s largest producer and exporter of cocaine, has spent decades fighting drug trafficking, but the country’s left-wing president claimed the drug was being scapegoated by American politicians, who have waged the war on drugs for decades.
“Cocaine is illegal because it is made in Latin America, not because it is worse than whiskey,” Petro said during a six-hour-long government meeting.
“Scientists have analyzed this: cocaine is not worse than whiskey,” he added, suggesting that the global cocaine industry could be “easily dismantled” if the drug was legalized worldwide.
The thing is, he’s absolutely right. There was a suppressed 1995 study by the World Health Organization on cocaine and its effects. The US threatened to pull out of the WHO at the time since the findings didn’t match US drug policy. Instead of losing the US, the WHO quietly shelved the study.
https://www.brucekalexander.com/articles-speeches/cocaine/181-who-cocaine-study
https://web.archive.org/web/20090618160146/www.tdpf.org.uk/WHOleaked.pdf
From the conclusions section:
A continuum can be identified for cocaine use, which includes:
- experimental use
- occasional use
- situation-specific use
- intensive use
- compulsive/dysfunctional use
Experimental and occasional use are by far the most common types of use, and compulsive/dysfunctional is far less common. Compulsive or dysfunctional users often have serious relationship, work, legal and health problems.
I have met plenty of people who did various drugs. I have made various experiences myself. Nobody that i met who did drugs, was in good place in life all around. Those who did materially well had family issues, anxieties, etc.
Everyone who developed to do better reduced and eventually stopped using drugs regularly including not drinking alcohol much anymore. This also is not specific to any particular drug. I.e. i know a guy that went from being hospitalized after a speed (amphetamine, not meth), ecstasy and alcohol bender to being completely sober and stable in his life and i know someone who never did more than weed, but ended up failing his degree just sitting at home, smoking weed and playing playstation.
Some drugs are needed for medicinal uses. Some like psychedelics can have a a very positive impact in therapy, if used properly. But that is very different from taking acid at some festival, where many people end up on bad trips. I also volunteered for helping people with bad trips on festivals, provide safer use material, and sometimes drug checking. Psychedelics often have a history of spiritual use in a careful ritualized setting by people who lived in a very different relationship to their environment. In my eyes that is more of a medicinal use than how psychedelics are mostly used “recreationally”. I don’t think that psychedelics belong into a “recreational” setting.
I think we can agree that these are very different from the Cocaine, Meth and Alcohol i mentioned as coming from the devil. The world would be better off without them. For cocaine one could argue, whether Coca-Tea is to be put in the same category as extracted cocaine.