White Destroying Green

Back in July, I did a post about the environmental impact of ecstasy not it's cocaine's turn to come under the microscope.

The bottom line is stay away from the lines.

From The Huffington Post...

"Every user that snorts a gram of cocaine kills 4.4 square meters of rain forest," Colombia's Vice President Francisco Santos Calderón said in an interview.

According to Calderón, 300,000 hectares of tropical rain forest are destroyed each year to make way for coca plants and the industrial chemicals needed to turn them into a value-added product. In an attempt to highlight the environmental impacts of coke use, Calderón's office launched the Shared Responsibility project, designed to encourage consumer countries to participate in the fight against coca production.

The vast majority of the coke bought and sold in the US originates in Colombia, where the clearing of land for coca crops has had a devastating impact on one of world's most bio-diverse areas.

"Cocaine use requires a disposable income and during the week many users drive hybrid cars and recycle. Then, on the weekend, he or she destroys everything they believe in," Calderón said.

Colombia's government argues that coke users do more than just destroy the environment. They also help fuel the violent insurgencies that have resulted in the kidnapping, displacement and deaths of thousands of Colombian civilians.