Drug use isn’t a moral issue. Why do police still treat it as one?
It’s a long bow to draw. To suggest that people who use illicit drugs are sinners by proxy, and that they automatically inherit the moral debt of those who may or may not have manufactured the product they’re consuming, is not dissimilar to saying that individuals who use Apple products should be vilified for supporting cobalt mining in the Democratic Republic of Congo.
[As of May 27, 2020 The miners earn between $2 and $3 per day by selling their haul at a local minerals market. At the same time, in cobalt-producing regions of Congo, child laborers are being employed, women are spending their days washing minerals, and babies are being born with shocking, rarely-seen birth defects.] “We want Australians to think about their health but also want them to have a conscience when it comes to illicit drug use. We want them to think, ‘Is my illicit drug use, no matter how regular, contributing to terrible environmental consequences?’ … We want drug users to ask themselves, ‘Is my partying putting other women and children across the globe through horrendous circumstances?’” [said Australian Federal Police (AFP)]. “Sure you can make that connection,” Gino Vumbaca, President of Harm Reduction Australia [says], “but do you think people are actively doing it to do that? That’s the insinuation [police are] making: that people are actively supporting organised crime so that they can use a drug. It’s nothing to do with that.”
Original Article (Vice & TreeHugger):
Drug use isn’t a moral issue. Why do police still treat it as one? & What you should know about the cobalt in your smartphone
Artwork Fair Use: Robert M. Lavinsky
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