[barrkel]

Do you consume caffeine for "escape"? How does your argument look if you replace cocaine with caffeine?

Your comment reads like you're regurgitating government propaganda swallowed wholesale.

[jrockway]

How does your argument look if you replace cocaine with caffeine?

Hey now. A crime fighting dog told me that cocaine is bad. What more evidence do we need?

[celoyd]

I believe that cocaine is bad and that its users shouldn’t be treated arbitrarily harshly. There’s no contradiction there.

[scotus69]

Sure. Just because the government is saying something, even truth, does not automatically make it false.

Replacing cocaine with not only "caffeine", but also "theophylline" and "sildenafil citrate" also works. Only, neither of those has the propensity for "addiction" or "dependence" to the degree that "cocaine" does.

Or perhaps you have done some research that proves otherwise?

[aaronblohowiak]

So you yield that it is the addiction and physical dependence that drives cocaine use, not thanatos ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thanatos_(psychoanalysis) )

If addiction is a disease, then addicts need doctors, not executioners. Even if addiction is a moral weakness, I think you'd have a hard time suggesting that the weak-willed all deserve poison in their vice (lest ye cast the first stone.)

[Alex3917]

According to the WHO, cocaine use, when done safely and responsibly, is non-addictive causes essentially zero problems in the vast majority of users:

"Occasional cocaine use does not typically lead to severe or even minor physical or social problems ... a minority of people start using cocaine or related products, use casually for a short or long period, and suffer little or no negative consequences, even after years of use. ... Use of coca leaves appears to have no negative health effects and has positive, therapeutic, sacred and social functions for indigenous Andean populations."[1]

Also, there is a wealth of research indicating that cocaine is vastly safer than caffeine, especially when it comes to the health and safety of unborn babies.

[1] http://www.tni.org/archives/drugscoca-docs_sixhorsemen

[scotus69]

Perhaps your references need updating.

The current WHO statement is here: http://www.who.int/substance_abuse/facts/cocaine/en/index.ht...

Furthermore, the reference you cite is : "WHO/UNICRI Cocaine Project, 5 March 1995 (unpublished Briefing Kit)."

An "unpublished Briefing Kit", oh come on !!! ??? !!!

[Alex3917]

You conveniently left out the part about it being the largest survey of cocaine use ever conducted. But no matter, the Consumer Reports guide to drugs will tell you essentially the same thing:

http://www.druglibrary.org/schaffer/library/studies/cu/cumen...