4 ms·
Having spent a fair bit of time in Peru and Bolivia, I am 100% convinced that consumers of cocaine, in the form of an illicit street drug, are missing the major
by Quequau 11y ago
Having spent a fair bit of time in Peru and Bolivia, I am 100% convinced that consumers of cocaine, in the form of an illicit street drug, are missing the majority of the experience of consuming the Coca leaf as it's consumed locally. Unfortunately I simply lack the vocabulary describe what exactly is missing and how the experience of chewing the Coca leaf is superior... but I've personally found the difference to be profound.
My experiences traveling through the region have convinced me that attempts to eradicate the coca plant and practice of chewing coca leaves are fundamentally misguided and unethical.
Cocaine is problem primarily in the advanced capitalist economies and it is solely within these nations where those problems can be solved... though it's obvious to anyone who is being intellectually honest that the strategies of the DEA and the drug war are abysmal failures and so must be either substantially reformed or abandoned altogether.
- pjc50 11y agoSimilar to the difference between drinking a cup of (regular black) tea and consuming a small amount of powdered caffeine?
- StavrosK 11y agoI don't think one needs to have traveled through the region to consider unethical the attempts to stifle a nation's old tradition that isn't hurting anyone. It's throwing the baby out with the bathwater.
- deleted 11y ago[deleted]
- user_0001 11y ago>Cocaine is problem primarily in the advanced capitalist economies and it is solely within these nations where those problems can be solved.. Travel through the poor neighbourhoods Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, Argentina, Brazil etc and say cocaine (or by-products of the cocaine process) are not a problem. >and it is solely within these nations where those problems can be solved The only solution is legalisation of all drugs. Producter countries such as Bolivia, Peru, Colombia, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Laos, Burma will have billions added to the government funds to help lift 1000s if not millions of people out of poverty. Transport countries such as El Salavador, Honduras, Mexico will cut of instantly 99% of profits to the drug gangs. Users will stop dying from tainted products, or using "research chemicals" instead of the real thing. Negatives? from what has been seen in Holland and the decriminalisation of cannabis and Portagal, none