Cocaine users are destroying the rainforest - at 4m squared a gram

[T_i_B]

Source: UK Guardian

Four square metres of rainforest are destroyed for every gram of cocaine snorted in the UK, a conference of senior police officers as told yesterday.

Francisco Santos Calderón, the vice-president of Colombia, appealed to British users of the class A drug to consider the impact on the environment. He said that while the green agenda would not persuade addicts to give up, the middle-class social user who drove a hybrid car and was concerned about the environment might not take the drug if they knew its impact.

Santos said 300,000 hectares of rainforest were destroyed each year in Colombia to clear land for coca plant cultivation, predominantly controlled by illegal groups, including the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, known as Farc.

He told the Belfast conference: "If you snort a gram of cocaine, you are destroying 4m square of rainforest and that rainforest is not just Colombian - it belongs to all of us who live on this plant, so we should all be worried about it. Not only that, the money that you use to buy the cocaine goes into the hands of Farc, of illegal groups that plant mines, that kidnap, that kill, that use terrorism to protect their business."



Read more: http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2008/nov/19/cocaine-rainforests-columbia-santos-calderon

[cobalt1999]

1. I thought eating hamburgers was destroying the rainforest. n/t

[dipsydoodle]

2. No - that's soy in Brazil

.

[JVS]

10. Cokeburgers!

[Fumesucker]

3. Make cocaine legal and all those problems go away..

It can be grown on regular farms with renewable resources instead of slash and burn.

And the profits won't go to FARC or whoever the bad guy du jour is..

But that would interfere with the police officer's careers so it can't be done.

[cobalt1999]

4. Actually, the problem isn't cocaine, hamburgers, soy, or lumber

It's too many people on this planet putting more and more pressure on the remaining natural areas. If not one thing, it will be another until human population numbers get under control.

[paparush]

5. Here! Here! Where's the US politician with cajones enough to address THIS issue?

Where's the leadership on population control?

[Fumesucker]

8. US birth rate is *already* below ZPG

Without immigration, the US would be declining in population right now.

[bigwillq]

18. But overpopulation is still a major concern

regardless if the birth rate is declining in the US. Too many damn people on this planet. There is no need for anymore. I know that sounds like a bizarre statement but we as a society are killing the planet, one person at a time.

[Fumesucker]

21. I agree, global population is a major problem..

It's just that the industrialized world (except maybe China) is not contributing to that particular problem, at least not directly.

[cobalt1999]

24. While the industrialized world population (minus China) isn't growing

The industrial nations still have populations too large to be sustained in a renewable manner. The industrial nations while their populations are decreasing, still need to figure out a way to further decrease their numbers.

[surrealAmerican]

25. That's in the US. Hardly the case in Colombia.

[Billy Burnett]

7. IOW --> religion.

That (religion) pretty much sums up the resistance to birth/population control.

[Royal Oak Rog]

6. Up your nose with a rubber hose!*

[JVS]

9. Oh no, now people are going to try to join the Hectare Club.

[TexasObserver]

11. utter bullshit!

four square meters? That's roughly 150 sq feet.

For a gram?

That's ludricrous, exactly the kind of fantastic nonsense one expects from those selling snake oil.

[JVS]

13. You're thinking of a square that's 4 meters on each side

4 square meters is 2 meters or roughly 6 feet on each side. That would be about 36 square feet.

I would like to know how they get the number though.

[TexasObserver]

15. is it 4 meters squared, as stated in the OP, or 4 sq meters, as you state?

I see the body of the OP says 4 sq meters. The topic title said 4 meters squared. I read the title, but didn't notice the diff in the body.

[JVS]

17. The article starts with "Four square metres"

I pretty sure my take on this is correct. Fucking Guardian, pulling a Nigel Tufnell with the measurement

[TexasObserver]

19. yeah, I see it's in the body of the OP, but I read the title

I skimmed right past the diff in the body.

Even so, I don't buy it. One gram for 40 sq feet? Sounds like the kind of bullshit that's been churned out for decades to make drug usage sound worse than it is.

[JVS]

20. Next time I see a gang of those notorious coke-snorting Prius drivers the article mentions...

I'll have to ask them about it.

[TexasObserver]

23. I suppose 150 sq feet would be closer to an eight ball

Don't get me wrong. I think cocaine is a scourage, but there are many things I don't approve that I still don't want to see used to send people to prison.

It's the whole insane drug war I find repulsive. George Schultz, and before him the Nixon Commission, got it right 20-35 years ago.

[Raskolnik]

14. You might want to check your math.

Four square meters is just over forty square feet.

[TexasObserver]

16. the OP topic title says 4 meters squared

but I see the body of the OP says 4 sq meters

even so, still sounds ridiculous

[Raskolnik]

22. "4 meters square(d)" is British for "4 square meters" n/t

[TexasObserver]

26. Didn't we fight a couple of wars with them so we could use feet and inches?

I'm pretty sure we stuck our foot up their ass a couple of times.

[DS1]

12. bulllllllllshit!

Fuck you, Francisco Santos Calderon, please blow yourself up like Alderaan