THE CHAMPAGNE OF DRUGS..
Wednesday, November 19, 2008 at 09:57AM Interesting to read that British cocaine users helped finance the kidnapping of Ingrid Betancourt, Colombia’s Vice-President claimed today, as he travelled to the UK to warn that its consumption of the drug was destroying rainforests and funding terror in the Latin American country.
Far from being a “victimless crime”, use of the illicit drug was supporting paramilitaries who terrorise the Colombian population with kidnappings and landmines, Francisco Santos Calderon said. Some middle class Britons who might otherwise pride themselves on their green credentials thought nothing of indulging in this so-called “champagne of drugs”, the Vice-President said. Yet every gram of cocaine snorted in Britain caused the destruction of 4.4 square metres of valuable rainforest, ultimately exacerbating global warming.
Calderon was speaking at a conference held in Belfast. I wonder did the local terrorist groups such as the UDA and UVF - prime dealers in illegal narcotics - get to hear any of this? Or do they get a bye?
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Reader Comments (9)
Similar things could have been said about beer in 1920s chicago - money spent going to finance brutal paramilitary mobs etc.
Comes with the territory. You want prohibition - this is what you get.
making drugs a legal product would take the violence out of it and controll where the money goes hell the tax on them alone could wipe out all national debt, except unlike alcohal drugs have always been and always will be morally unacceptable.
Morality to the majority still mean something
Troll
I agree with most of what you say. Not sure of the situation in America but at least in England a lot of the currently illegal drugs were perfectly legal - maybe not completely socially acceptable though - until the first world war.
I support legalization of many drugs for the reasons given by Andy and others- would take great strain off the police, prison, FBI, Border Patrol system and would ease the terrible deformations the drugs trade causes in Mexico and other places.
The current policies do not work and cannot work, regardless of the good work done by the guys in the field.
I totally agree legalizing drugs. It would take the sting out of drug pushing, etc., It's a no win situation for the police, legalizing them would put them on a category with cigarettes. It is no good saying it will harm a lot of people, so what, like cigarettes it is self inflicted. At least legalizing them would help monitor them.
And I think that the huge majority who support legalization, like me and I think most here, don't like or support the use of drugs.
I despise cocaine, heroin, and other drugs like them and I don't like or endorse in any way the use of marjiuana/hashish.
I just want to destroy the criminal/terrorist axis that profits from this ( Hezbollah, Taliban, parimilitary gangs in Ireland, mafias everywhere ) and remove the strain on civil society
Interesting first sentence Phantom. You're probably right. The Dutch for example, are by and large a conservative nation yet support their current de facto legaliszation of cannabis - because they view it as a pragmatic solution.
By the way - are you still in Israel? I hope you remembered to do some research into the shwarma/beer/fellafel situation...
I'm back, but can't talk now.
The Macabee beer was not bad, but the falafel is just as good in NY as it is there! The Israeli schwarma was really good.
I agee, legalise it.