Pubdate: Mon, 05 Dec 2005
Source: Tufts Daily (MA Edu)
Copyright: 2005 Tufts Daily
Contact:  http://www.tuftsdaily.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/2705
Author: Brian Yun
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/coke.htm (Cocaine)

COCAINE ABUSE NEEDS TO END

I'd like to start this viewpoint by praising "The Secret Life of... | 
Casual Coke Users" article that came out in the Daily, Thursday, Dec. 
1, titled "Dabbling in the white dust." The article brings to light 
cocaine use at Tufts, but I'd like to shed some additional light on 
the subject of drug use, specifically cocaine.

The common phrases used among the "casual" cocaine users in the 
article were that they were not addicted or could stop when they 
wanted to or weren't predisposed to the addictive traits of cocaine. 
Do people do anything that's a vice in hopes that they'll get 
addicted their first time? Ask a person that is performing fellatio 
for a gram of coke if they saw themselves in this position ten years 
ago when they first started - the answer would be a resounding no. 
The excuse many people use is, "It's college and I'm supposed to be 
experimenting and what better place than college, which provides a 
safe environment." You think you've got the drug under control and 
you don't have an addictive personality. What happens after college, 
when you leave the safe environment and enter an often hostile 
competitive world? Things may not go so well and what probably will 
end up happening is that you'll go back to the drug that separates 
reality from fantasy, a drug that made you feel good in the old days. 
This is where the danger lies.

Won't happen to you, you say? That's probably the same thing the 
person performing gratuitous sex acts for blow said. The illusion of 
"free will" quickly unveils.

According to the National Institute on Drug Abuse, "regardless of how 
cocaine is used or how frequently, a user can experience acute 
cardiovascular or cerebrovascular emergencies which could result in 
sudden death. Cocaine-related deaths are often a result of cardiac 
arrest or seizure followed by respiratory arrest." If you're not 
pre-med, that basically means you can die from a heart attack or 
stroke. Regardless of your age, gender, ethnicity or health, every 
time you snort, smoke or inject cocaine, it is playing Russian roulette.

Even if you don't believe me or the scientists that say cocaine use 
is dangerous, realize that every time you buy cocaine, you're funding 
a drug cartel. A drug cartel that resorts to torture, murder and rape 
to spread its disgusting product. According to the U.S. State 
Department, "Ninety percent of the cocaine Americans consume comes 
from Columbia. In 2000, Americans spent almost 63 billion dollars on 
illegal drugs. To put that in perspective, media giant AOL-Time 
Warner's total revenues for 2000 were 36.2 billion dollars." Dawn, a 
senior whose name had been changed in the article, said "Me dabbling 
with some yeyo isn't going to make anything worse." Well, when many 
people ignorantly think the same way, it adds up to 63 billion 
dollars in waste that could have been spent on education, healthcare 
or any number of constructive projects.

Those who help distribute cocaine need to get their heads examined. 
"Friends" who give friends drugs are not friends, but acquaintance 
murderers. Drug dealers like Marcus Mattingly are parasites of 
society. The same way a murder during the commission of a burglary is 
considered first degree murder in many states, drug dealers should be 
punished for attempted first degree murder. They knowingly sell a 
lethal drug in hopes to make a profit. Drugs slowly torture and turn 
apart an individual and surrounding friends and family. I'm not a 
lawyer, but that's premeditated and malicious.

Brian Yun is a senior majoring in economics.
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MAP posted-by: Beth Wehrman