On drug users

[zhauranak]

Consider me a moralist. Not! I would, however, pluck your liver out if you claim to be one and don’t step up to the bat.

Drug dealing is rightfully stigmatised, but drug consumption is quite often glorified. WHY?

I remember this WWF ad about some rare Asian tigers being used for the infamous balm. It finished with this: “When the buying stops - the

Comments

[pasperou]

A bit of moralising from a non-moralist? ;)

The key to the moral issue here is degrees of separation: am I enslaving a large throng of people, chaining them to desks and paying them a pittance? No, I'm just buying some Nike runners.

Exploitation is at the root of almost all commodities. Why not focus on more common, hence more harmful ones, like coffee growers, or cheap clothes etc if you are worried about how much pain is being caused?

Drugs are over publicised/demonised vis-à-vis drug producers: they strike me as standard capitalists operating in those areas, not particularly different to textile factory owners in china for example (whose products, clothes, are even more addictive and widely abused!).

[pasperou]

And look at us with our sexy, sexy expressionist user pics! I've seen both these in real life now btw! :D

[zhauranak]

Hehe:) Lucky you!

[zhauranak]

Let's not confuse consumerism (the rich unsustainably buying lots of goods which may not be produced fairly) with egoism (when one's desire to have fun imposes economic and moral costs on society, namely supporting illegal production, trafficking, corruption and costing taxpayers money for curbing all of the above).

Regarding the first point, sweatshops and child labour aren't necessarily 'bad', since they give people jobs in an otherwise welfareless state. China has been through it and they have seen dramatic increase in standards of living and now sweatshops are disappearing.