There may not be societal costs in the consuming country, but there are certainly negative externalities to the people/countries that produce the coffee beans
I guess I don't consider this a legit argument. You could point to negative externalities that are the result of literally everything humans produce/consume.
But if we want to use that metric, OK. I would venture a guess that the production of coffee yields a heck of a lot less suffering than the production of cocaine, heroin or meth. Any far fewer people consume the latter.
I don't know, the guy in Kona running the coffee farm seemed pretty happy. And the coffee was great (and I typically dislike coffee! It was that good...)
In any case, legal production can be regulated in ways that illegal crops cannot. It's hard to draw a legitimate comparison.
But if we want to use that metric, OK. I would venture a guess that the production of coffee yields a heck of a lot less suffering than the production of cocaine, heroin or meth. Any far fewer people consume the latter.