Cocaine “is no worse than whisky” and is only illegal because it comes from Latin America, said Colombian President Gustavo Petro during a live broadcast of a government meeting.
Colombia is the world’s biggest cocaine producer and exporter, mainly to the United States and Europe, and has spent decades fighting against drug trafficking.
During a six-hour ministerial meeting – broadcast live for the first time ever – the leftist president said “cocaine is illegal because it is made in Latin America, not because it is worse than whisky.”
“Scientists have analyzed this. Cocaine is no worse than whisky,” he added, suggesting that the global cocaine industry could be “easily dismantled” if the drug were legalized worldwide.
“If you want peace, you have to dismantle the business (of drug trafficking),” he said. “It could easily be dismantled if they legalize cocaine in the world. It would be sold like wine.”
Petro also pointed out that fentanyl “is killing Americans and it is not made in Colombia”, referring to the opioid responsible for around 75,000 deaths in the United States a year, according to official data.
“Fentanyl was created as a pharmacy drug by North American multinationals” and those who consumed it “became addicted,” he added.
Since coming to power in 2022, Petro has attempted to make peace with all of the armed groups that are fueled by drug trafficking in the hope of ending six decades of conflict.
Cocaine production in Colombia reached a record-high in 2023, jumping 53 percent to 2,600 tons, according to the UN Office on Drugs and Crime.
Anecdotally, cocaine seems to make its users into the worst versions of themselves. Alcohol can have negative effects (the “mean drunk”, drinking as disinhibition for impulsive antisocial behaviour, etc.) though the average drinker is generally not regarded as negatively as the average cokehead. I wonder how much of this is due to the substances’ intrinsic properties and how much due to cultural expectations.
I suspect a large part has to do with a selection bias. The people most likely to turn into a bad cokehead are also the people with the most access to it. Most people will never come into contact with cocaine, but they will come into contact with alcohol and likely consume it. The average person is more likely to become an alcoholic, while only certain segments are likely to even have the potential to become a coke addict and I’d bet on those segments being more likely to be harmful.
Yeah. The stereotype of the cokehead is the asshole trader who works at Goldman Sachs. Rookie numbers and all that…
Just to add a note that this graph comes from a study made on rats. I love the study and i use this graph frequently when discussing drugs, but i think it’s important to know.
Being done on rats also raises the point that it’s done excluding a mental component of using the drug, like for instance how some people use cigarettes in depression for its antidepressant effect or use alcohol to cope with mental health issues.
It also doesn’t explore the mental health effects of repeated exposure to large doses of hallucinogens on people, which we still don’t have research on because of how demonized hallucinogens are in most countries doing research on drugs.
I’ve been doing an exhaustive study for the last couple of decades on the effects of whiskey on a human with mental health issues.
Feedback?
It’s hard to write down scientific conclusions when you black out at the end of the night, but so far I wouldn’t recommend it. I’ll try again tonight and get back to you.
Interesting! Do you have a link to the original study by any chance?
Damn so when I say something like “in my opinion a joint is exactly the same as a cup of coffee” I’m wrong… because coffee is more likely to kill you than a joint
He’s right, we should legalize it. We’ve lost the war on drugs. Fully legalized cocaine would be dirt cheap and addicts with access to a safe, affordable supply could lead relatively normal, stable lives. The money earned in the drug trade would be taxable instead of supporting criminal or extremist groups, both at home and abroad.
Not so sure such a highly addictive substance would be so innocuous. It’s several times more addictive than alcohol
I don’t think it’s innocuous, but we’re already failing to prevent the harm it causes and our efforts are causing a great deal more.
Not really, it’s somewhere between alcohol and nicotine in terms of addictivness. Slightly more than alcohol, slightly less than nicotine.
Ah ok. I wouldn’t know conclusively but the cokeheads I knew were… more intense than the alcoholics.
Probably because it being illegal creates a selection bias. Most people will never use it or have it easily accessible. Most people will have easy access to alcohol and nicotine, and will likely try at least alcohol.
No, I’m referring to the “let’s buy another 8ball for $250 tonight” and then regretting it the next day. Super common. Whereas the drinkers could be okay with not drinking anymore in most cases.
You also have to take into mind that theyre probably taking coke laced with amphetamines without them knowing and not pure cocaine
Probably? There’s a million factors. I don’t know how one would even begin to guess that
Is cocaine legal in Colombia?
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i don’t know enough about cocaine and want to learn.
setting aside the axe he has to grind and in the specific context of his comments about fentanyl and whisky, how accurate or inaccurate are his statements? what makes them so?
Going off memory, I think cocaine on its own really isn’t THAT bad as far as hard drugs go, but when combined with alcohol it metabolizes into “cocaethylene” which is highly toxic and basically shreds your heart.
And I’ve never met anyone that uses coke WITHOUT booze.
Cocaine is one of the most addictive drugs that exist. Alcohol is
barelya lot less addictive.Meanwhile, severe cocaine withdrawal makes you tired and irritable while severe alcohol withdrawal makes you have seizures and die. Most people who use cocaine never develop an addiction, just like most people who drink never develop alcoholism. As far as addiction potential, methamphetamines, opiates, and nicotine are the worst offenders, as is the crack formulation of cocaine, which is not what’s being discussed here
If you make cocaine legal, you effectively make crack legal, since the conversion is trivial.
And no, methamphetamine existing does not make cocaine less harmful.
If you make cocaine legal, you reduce overdose deaths significantly. Most OD deaths involving cocaine are due to dosing uncertainty and adulteration with other substances like fentanyl. Legalization would also decrease barriers to treatment and less criminal justice involvement would improve treatment outcomes
That’s certainly true, yet I still disagree with the post’s claim that cocaine is “no worse than whisky”.
Keeping the whiskey out of the microwave is more about taste.
Fuck yeah. I want to be able to buy cocaine as easily as I can buy whisky.
The monkey’s paw curls its finger. Alcohol has been criminalised, and is now equally easy to buy as cocaine.
That’s perfectly normal. They have no incentive to lie, do they…?
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