<![CDATA[Grist - Comment Feed for Cocaine production threatens Peruvian rainforest]]> Grist Comment Feed en Comment #1 by PermieWriter http://www.grist.org/article/2009-05-11-peru-rainforest-amazon-drugs/ Tue, 12 May 2009 09:18:57 -0700 http://www.grist.org/article/2009-05-11-peru-rainforest-amazon-drugs/1 Yet another reason to buy songbird friendly, shade grown organic coke.

Oh, right, it's illegal so you can't do that. Too bad.

I do my part to reduce demand by telling folks that when they stomp the leaves in the acid they do it barefoot so you end up snorting Peruvian serf foot powder, but as I don't know anyone who does cocaine (as far as I know), this has not had an appreciable effect.

]]> Yet another reason to buy songbird friendly, shade grown organic coke.

Oh, right, it's illegal so you can't do that. Too bad.

I do my part to reduce demand by telling folks that when they stomp the leaves in the acid they do it barefoot so you end up snorting Peruvian serf foot powder, but as I don't know anyone who does cocaine (as far as I know), this has not had an appreciable effect.

]]> Comment #2 by Tyler Durden http://www.grist.org/article/2009-05-11-peru-rainforest-amazon-drugs/ Tue, 12 May 2009 23:27:04 -0700 http://www.grist.org/article/2009-05-11-peru-rainforest-amazon-drugs/2 Yeah, and how much of the Earth has been destroyed to make gasoline for your cars?  Or the metal for them?  Or the electricity for your homes and businesses?  Or for the beef that you eat?  Do you know that gangs, mainly from Mexico, are destroying U.S. forests in order to grow marijuana?  They kill trees and other native plants, and poison the Earth with pesticides.  There is so much destruction of so much of the Earth for so many unnatural modern human things that it seems really odd that cocaine production should be singled out.  Tropical rainforest destruction is worse than destruction of other ecosystems for a couple of reasons, but I seriously wonder if this is not just one of those stories to get people to ignore the real problems of the world considering how little land this likely involves.


And the moral of this story is that drugs ought to be legal.  If they were, cocaine and other plants would not be grown in secret and their growing would be regulated so that it doesn't lead to the destruction of tropical rainforests and other ecosystems.  People and some other animals have a natural desire to get high, and people have been using plants for that purpose for millennia.  The answer is not a puritanical, police state-imposed prohibition, but instead a tolerant attitude that does not criminalize drugs.  We've had a war on drugs in one form or another for a long time, and it's never worked.  In fact, it always makes things much worse.


]]> Yeah, and how much of the Earth has been destroyed to make gasoline for your cars?  Or the metal for them?  Or the electricity for your homes and businesses?  Or for the beef that you eat?  Do you know that gangs, mainly from Mexico, are destroying U.S. forests in order to grow marijuana?  They kill trees and other native plants, and poison the Earth with pesticides.  There is so much destruction of so much of the Earth for so many unnatural modern human things that it seems really odd that cocaine production should be singled out.  Tropical rainforest destruction is worse than destruction of other ecosystems for a couple of reasons, but I seriously wonder if this is not just one of those stories to get people to ignore the real problems of the world considering how little land this likely involves.


And the moral of this story is that drugs ought to be legal.  If they were, cocaine and other plants would not be grown in secret and their growing would be regulated so that it doesn't lead to the destruction of tropical rainforests and other ecosystems.  People and some other animals have a natural desire to get high, and people have been using plants for that purpose for millennia.  The answer is not a puritanical, police state-imposed prohibition, but instead a tolerant attitude that does not criminalize drugs.  We've had a war on drugs in one form or another for a long time, and it's never worked.  In fact, it always makes things much worse.


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