nonseq said:
But most drugs are illegal in most places therefore produced and distributed by criminal organizations. Buying from them sustains them and thier devastating effects.
so we should legalize drugs and let phillip morris take over the business?
i.e., people of course realize that if you legalize drugs then hustlers will be made redundant???
nonseq said:
I meant destroying families for example in Colombia in the case of coke. The families of kidnapped, murdered people etc, families in destroyed countries with no future for the kids but working in coca fields, constant risk of getting murdered or raped by terror squads. Parents in jail, kids living on the streets. Drug traffickers shot down or cokeballs opening in their stomach killing them, peasants bombed by the U.S. etc etc
isn't this more a function of poverty and imperialism?
why do you see drugs as the root of all evil? -- i.e., why not eliminate money instead
nonseq said:
that's govt propaganda recently debunked
nonseq said:
and structural chaos and misery in ghetto's
poor people weren't miserable before the 20th century??? -- i.e., let's say that drugs first get widely disseminated in western societies circa 1950
(i.e., i don't think heroin and marijuana were all that common in 19th c., barring a few poets and the like -- but correct me if i'm wrong)
and what's so bad about taking drugs to relieve the misery of one's days?
nonseq said:
Check out the documentary on the dvd of Cidade de Deus.
i think the "city of god" a wonderful, first-rate film -- but i still don't agree w/ your arguments
nonseq said:
The rich are living safely in Europe, snorting coke, and have never even given it a thought what they are paying for. Not the coke, it's cheap. They're funding guns, death squads, corruption, kidnapping, dictators and so on. Western decadence is fuel to the destruction of third world countries.
this is entirely too simplistic an account
nonseq said:
Is the destruction caused by cartels really the same level of misery as the life of a girl in a free trade zone making Nike shoes? That should also be changed of course, but do you really think it's comparable?
cartels exist b/c men lust for money and power -- if they weren't fighting for control of the drug trade, they'd be fighting for control of some other trade
and why do cartels have such power in some countries?
(1) absence of the rule of law (and culture of law)
(2) weak states -- which is closely related to point 1
nonseq said:
Of course it's all infinitely more nuanced and complex
indeed
nonseq said:
but the general point will remain: buy drugs and you're destroying a lot more than your own health.
drug use is destructive of one's health only if done in excess
therefore, the point is so general as to be meaningless = buy anything and you participate in the destruction of a lot of things
(none of which is to suggest that i'd advocate smoking a couple joints a day (though i guess it's fine if works for you and doesn't hinder your projecgts) -- nor would i deny that drugs are part and parcel of a hedonistic and mindless mass culture)
and i also think that the taboo and criminal attributes of drug use allow for social exchange w/ people you o/w might not come into contact with or get to know -- i.e., not everyone who uses illegal drugs takes advantage of such opportunity -- and yet enough users do that it's safe to say they lead more interesting lives than straight people who keep to their "own kind"
drugs, music, religion = the great levellers, the mediums of mano a mano understanding = everyone's the same when they're high on cocaine = breaking down everyday identities
you call it immoral, i call it good