UK has highest cocaine use in Europe
It’s probably no surprise to some, but here in the UK, we have the biggest cocaine use in Europe.
The consequences of this to the nation’s health (and therefore our National Health Service), are far reaching - depression, anxiety, heart disease, strokes etc.
However, there are many other tragic consequences which you might not be aware of next time you put a rolled banknote up to your nose -
- Colombian manufacturers of cocaine routinely protect their crops with landmines - these account for roughly 1000 maimed or killed locals every year.
- the same manufacturers spray carcinogenic pesticides on their crops, further threatening the lives of the local population.
- 2.7 million people in Colombia have been illegally displaced from their land in the last ten years in order for the drugs cartels to grow coca (the crop used to make cocaine).
- huge areas of tropical rainforest are cut down every year (so producers can keep evading the authorities) throughout the Andean region to make way for coca plants, producing massive soil erosion and flooding.
- vast quantities of chemicals used in the refining process are being dumped illegally - such as Sulphuric Acid, Kerosene, Hydrochloric Acid, Ammonia, Acetone and Ether - all find their way into the local water supply.
- Colombia’s biodiversity accounts for a massive 10% of the world’s species, these are all massively threatened.
- Colombia has become one of the most violent nations in the world.
- the USA is spending roughly $45 billion per year on it’s ‘war against drugs’, surely funds which could be better spent elsewhere, especially when they are now spraying chemical herbicide from the air over massive areas to try and eradicate the coca - affecting local farmland, animals and of course the people.
