What would a truly ethical drug market look like?
In recent weeks with my new book, Pills, Powder and Smoke: Inside the Bloody War on Drugs, just out in the UK, I’ve been interviewed by a number of UK media outlets about this issue and so-called “woke coke” (for the record, it doesn’t exist).
Today the UK Evening Standard ran a long story on this issue and I was asked to comment:
So what would ethically sourced cocaine actually look like? Antony Loewenstein, whose new book Pills, Powder And Smoke explores the violent repercussions of the war on drugs, argues: ‘Ethically sourced coke means oversight and transparency at every stage of the supply chain, with everyone from the farmers in Colombia to the suppliers in Europe being treated fairly and given an adequate wage.’
Loewenstein confirms that it’s impossible to verify the claims of dark web dealers promoting ‘fair trade’ cocaine online. He believes that it is simply a marketing ploy, but says that it speaks to a wider school of thought surrounding the legalisation and regulation of cocaine. ‘There’s a number of people in Central and Latin America advocating for a legalised and regulated system, including politicians, because they know the absolutely devastating effect the current drug trade is having’, he explains.
Read the whole piece: How London developed a ‘woke coke’ problem | London Evening Standard