Recreational Drug Users Eco Terrorists?

That’s what Columbia’s Shared Responsibility Program is trying to promote to North American and European cocaine users.

Ana Maria Caballero believes that many recreational cocaine users are well-educated professionals who also recycle, drive hybrid vehicles, and buy fair-trade products, but that they just don’t understand what cocaine is doing to Colombia’s environment. —Murray Carpenter, CSM

According to the program there has been a massive amount of destruction and damage to Columbia’s environment due to cocaine:

43 square feet of forest are cleared to produce one gram of cocaine, and coca growers have cleared an area the size of New Jersey – nearly five million acres – within Colombia over the past 20 years.

Clandestine cocaine laboratories, which use an array of toxic chemicals, pollute once-pristine waters in remote areas. And slash-and-burn clearing for coca farms is one of the country’s largest sources of air pollution. The clearing also accelerates global climate change, which is shrinking Colombia’s mountaintop glaciers. — Murray Carpenter, CSM

 Will this program get through to European and North American recreational cocaine users like BNL’s lead singer, enviromentalist and NDP supporter Steve Page?  Probably not:

“It’s probably not something that would influence me,” says one environmentally minded, occasional cocaine user who did not want her name used. She says she would rather see a more holistic approach to addressing drugs in society. And she says there are some times when she wants to turn her environmental filter off. “We all have our vices,” she says, “and you don’t want to think about this.” —- CSM

It seems for some enviro warriors their “enviromental filters” are only on for oil companies and SUV drivers.  Keep your hands off their drugs!