The Dubai, or maybe Belgium, of drugs

Here's another excellent video from Vanguard Journalism, the TV show that did that piece on Oxycontin trafficking in Florida I linked to back in October. It is excellent both because it is very well done, and also because it succeeds in making a point I've been trying to make with various degrees of success ever since I read McMafia last year. Whenever I am asked why I have such contempt towards people who use cocaine, this video is the answer I try to convey. Our generation of North Americans is completely oblivious to the horrible effects of our vices - the lives lost or ruined, the cities destroyed or communities split into warring factions - and nothing is more representative of this ignorance than cocaine. Coke is a stupid person's drug, a stupid person who is willfully blind to their place and privilege in the world, who pays no real price for their enjoyment, who puts tremendous suffering on the backs of people they will never see or have to deal with, all so they can enjoy their night slightly more than they already are. While I have this general sentiment towards all illegal drugs that aren't made in North America, coke stands out for me. If there were a just God with a good sense of humour, the dudes at the beginning of this documentary would wake up one day on a farm in South America, slaving away at gunpoint day in day out to make enough coke to pay for some drug kingpin's exotic animal petting zoo.