But...
The most common objections. And what's true about them.
What people say
"Not all coke comes from South America"
- →Technically correct. But factually irrelevant.
- →Colombia, Peru, and Bolivia produce 99% of the world's cocaine. UNODC data.
- →The other 1%? Tiny amounts in Mexico or labs elsewhere. Statistical noise.
- →Your gram in Berlin comes from South America. No exceptions.
"Other drugs are evil too. Why single out cocaine?"
- →True, other drugs have problems too. But not this supply chain.
- →MDMA is mostly made in Europe. Weed increasingly comes from legal cultivation. Ketamine is diverted from pharmacies.
- →Cocaine is different. There's no legal route. Every gram goes through cartels.
- →Doesn't mean other drugs are unproblematic. But with coke, the connection to mass murder is especially direct.
"The problem is criminalization, not consumers."
- →Yes, the war on drugs has broken a lot. That's true.
- →But you're not funding drug reform right now. You're funding cartels.
- →Both can be true: Prohibition is bad, and your purchase funds violence.
"It's my business."
- →Sure, you decide what you take. But your money isn't private - it goes somewhere.
- →You wouldn't say "it's my business" if you bought clothes made with child labor.
- →You make the choice. Others bear the consequences.
"I only buy from people I know. My dealer is cool."
- →Your dealer didn't grow the coke. Where does it come from?
- →Trace the chain back. Every gram passed through the same hands.
- →There's no fair trade cocaine. Nowhere.
"If it were legal, none of this would be a problem."
- →Maybe. But you're not buying legal cocaine right now.
- →You can support legalization and still not fund cartels today.
- →"It'll get better someday" isn't an excuse for now.
"There's no ethical consumption under capitalism anyway."
- →Really? You've completely given up?
- →You still buy fair trade coffee. Avoid Amazon. Eat less meat.
- →This phrase justifies everything and nothing.
"One gram doesn't make a difference."
- →Berlin consumes 3 to 4 tons per year.
- →That's a lot of individual grams.
- →It's like "my vote doesn't count anyway." Technically true. And still not true.
"Alcohol kills more people."
- →True. Alcohol is also a huge problem.
- →But you can buy alcohol from legal sources that don't kill anyone.
- →With cocaine, that option doesn't exist. Every gram goes through cartels.
"What about pharmaceutical companies?"
- →What about them?
- →Pfizer doing bad things doesn't make cartels any less terrible.
- →You can criticize both.
See the costs in detail
Each aspect documented and sourced.
Sources for this page
- →UNODC World Drug Report - Cocaine Production(99% from Colombia, Peru, Bolivia)
- →EMCDDA: Wastewater Analysis Berlin(Berlin consumption data)
- →Levamisole in Cocaine Study(Levamisole contamination)