Pubdate: Sun, 03 Apr 2005 Source: Observer, The (UK) Copyright: 2005 The Observer Contact: http://www.observer.co.uk/ Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/315 Author: D J Welch Referenced: http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v05/n533/a06.html Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/coke.htm (Cocaine) Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/decrim.htm (Decrim/Legalization) NO 'FAIR TRADE' IN DRUG SMUGGLING David Aaronovitch urges us 'to forget ... prohibition' and encourage users to abstain. That Sir Keith Morris, the former UK ambassador to Colombia, has called for the legalisation of cocaine should give Aaronovitch pause for thought. Certainly it is difficult to disagree with the Metropolitan Police commissioner that it is hypocritical of someone who would not dream of buying anything other than fair trade coffee to buy cocaine. However, Aaronovitch's logic is flawed. We cannot forget prohibition because it is prohibition that denies the consumer the possibility of buying 'fair-trade cocaine'. The fair-trade movement provides the consumer with an ethical decision when buying certain commodities. It should not be confused with reducing ethics to consumption choices nor should it be used as an excuse for reducing the political to the personal. The human misery of the cocaine trade is created by prohibition, regardless of whether a tiny proportion of cocaine users compromise their 'fair-trade' ethics by buying it. It is often suggested that the alternative to prohibition is a legal free market and anyone concerned with fair trade would surely oppose this. However, as Transform points out in its report 'After the War on Drugs - Options for Control', the abolition of prohibition presents the opportunity of a regulatory clean slate. D J Welch Manchester M16 - --- MAP posted-by: Jo-D