Slanging drugs, Captialism, and morality.

[Political_Chucky]

I just had a big fight with a good friend of mine(a fellow comrade) on the subject of a person selling drugs in a capitalist society(such as an addictive drug as crack cocaine), discussing whether or not it is wrong for a leftist to do so since its the person' who is buying it choice. The discussion led to the idea by selling drugs to people in a capitalist society, you are preventing people from becoming aware of the problems of society and by doing so the person selling drugs is becoming part of the system.

I would like to know both capitalist and leftist point of views and will express my feelings after a few points to prevent some biased opinions.

[colonelguppy]

wait so the use of any particular market commodity that can be construed as a distraction from "real" problems is bad?

[pusher robot]

It is not the seller's right or responsibility to look after the interests of the buyer, so not culpability should be attached for the buyer's use of the product (with certain extreme exceptions). Even if you think it would be good in this case, the principle, generalized, becomes absurd. Would you tolerate a grocer who refused to sell you the food you want because he didn't think it was nutritionally in your best interests? Would you tolerate a dentist who refused to treat your cavities on the grounds that you should be brushing more often in the first place?

[Political_Chucky]

Well since no one else has posted since this morning, I’ll go ahead and post.

I was arguing for basically a pro-choice stance on behalf of both the dealer and the buyer. For one, it is the buyers choice whether or not to start onto a drug and in today's society, I think people are becoming more and more educated on the situation of the "war on drugs" and the false accusations against drugs in general. However on that note, it is also known that abusing drugs are dangerous and using a drug in moderation is pretty much the safest way to use them. Nevertheless, my friend was arguing that by a dealer putting the drug out there and selling it, the dealer(who in this case is a leftist) is contradicting his own beliefs by selling the drug. Even though my friend's statements were contradictive, he kept emphasizing that the drug was bad, but if a person wanted to do it, then its their choice but a dealer selling it was totally immoral.

I just want to know what people think about this because I haven't seen much on this issue yet feel it is an important one. Are drugs something we should encourage or something we should keep away from the leftist movement? Freedom to do with what you want with your body is very important to me and whether or not its being sold, I think this is irrelevant.

[Jazzratt]

The position any leftist will hold on this depends largely on how they view escapism (which flavours their view of drugs) and whether or not they believe leftists should be selling anything (generally this comes from the party line of people like the Communist League who believe that petit-bourgeois (or in this case lumpenproletariat) cannot be revolutionary.).

Having a pro-drugs attitude and a view that on a personal scale ideology trumps class in terms of revolutionary potential but on the scale of groups it is class that matters I would say that selling drugs is generally good.

Some people would argue that selling drugs worsens conditions in countries that grow them* but they fail to take into account that legal drugs, such as coffee, and non-drug commodities, like shoes, do a lot more substantial harm to various countries - through sweatshop labour and exploitative trade deals with primary producers.

The issue of drugs themselves also comes up, as you have pointed out, with a greater awareness of them and their effects. Though the knowledge of drugs at the moment seems to be increasing a lot of government-perpetuated myths are still floating around and some have gained popular belief. Recently, for example, I heard an otherwise educated person maintain that THC was a physically addictive substance along with a selection of other chemicals - some he was correct with (nicotine and a variety of opiates) but most were simply war on drugs assertions.

On the subject of the war on drugs it must be remembered that it is actually harmful to a great many countries and people, as well as being completely ineffectual. Many of the anti-drug measures in places like Colombia are leading to a sharp increase in poverty whilst crackdowns in ghettos and industrial estates are ripping apart communities.

Finally your friend's strange assertion that buying drugs is okay but selling them is a strange one but whether comrades will agree or disagree with it depends on their view of commerce and of the lumpenproletariat class. Some might argue that selling anything is an abominable act but recognise a need to purchase it, these types believe that leftists cannot be, for example, shopkeepers. This view is one that alienates a lot of the downtrodden poor whilst remaining ideologically pure to a vulgar Marxian analysis. Another attack may be that selling drugs makes you one of the hated lumpenproletariat and therefore worthless to revolutionary struggle, this kind of view is popular with those that take a special pride in dividing up the left into "true revolutionaries" and "potential traitors" and is again a vulgar interpretation of Marxian class analysis.

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*Heroin refined from opium grown in Afghanistan causing Afghanis to turn from food crops to the more lucrative opium thus lowering food output and increasing risk of being killed by soldiers in the "war on drugs", for example