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.

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.

      • Rai@lemmy.dbzer0.com
        1·
        1 hour ago

        You’re right, it’s hella addictive. I’m very lucky that my body/brain works the way it does, though… I’ve got access to endless amounts of incredibly pure stuff and I only do it a few times a year.

    • TrickDacy@lemmy.world
      0·
      3 hours ago

      Alcohol is blamed for about 2,100 overdose deaths a year in the United States, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Cocaine, meanwhile, killed 14,510 people in the last year.

      Now, let’s back up a step and look at how many American adults use these drugs. The National Institute of Health says that about 86 percent of adults drink. In comparison, only about half of a percent of adults use cocaine.

      That statistic alone tells you that cocaine use is a far riskier activity.

      Source: https://www.theraleighhouse.com/addiction-blog/cocaine-versus-alcohol

      • Not_mikey@lemmy.dbzer0.comEnglish
        0·
        1 hour ago

        That statistic is about cocaine related deaths, not necessarily overdoses. Often with cocaine related deaths the user is taking multiple drugs at once, usually opiates, and often alcohol too, but it usually doesn’t get blamed.

        This is also more a problem with prohibition then cocaine itself since people don’t know the dose of what there getting or adulterants. If it were legal like alcohol there would be far less deaths. There were far more deaths from alcohol under prohibition when your “whiskey” was full of methanol and industrial alcohol

        Also overdose isn’t the only danger from drugs. One that alcohol is miles ahead of every other drug is DUI, which kills about 13,000, meanwhile cocaine, by itself, is rarely implicated in DUI. Alcohol impairs your driving ability way more than cocaine. There’s also chronic health concerns, which are harder to weigh. Alcohol is a carcinogen and chronic use fucks up your liver, meanwhile cocaine will fuck up your heart.