To the Editor:
I celebrate Sofia Ortiz-Hinojosa's '11 thoughtful column on the War on Drugs and agree with her on many points. Like her, I think that marijuana should be legalized and know that it is less harmful than alcohol or tobacco. I also share the view that Brown students — and Americans in general — should be more mindful of their role as consumers in a trade that is responsible for tens of thousands of deaths a year, concentrated in countries like Mexico and my native Colombia. Why do we make such a fuss about, say, blood diamonds, when illegal drugs are much more common on campus than precious stones from Liberia or the Congo?
The problem with Ortiz-Hinojosa's argument lies in her assumption that the marijuana consumed on campus actually comes from Mexico or Colombia. In fact, my vague understanding is that most of the weed smoked on campus is grown somewhere in New England, New York or possibly as far away as California or Colorado. I have heard that most people involved in bringing the herb to College Hill consumers are neo-hippie entrepreneurs and direct friends of Brown students, so I can confidently say that, this 4/20, very little of the marijuana lit up on campus will have touched the hands of a murderous smuggler.
Her argument is much more readily applicable to cocaine, which is almost exclusively grown in the Andes and nearly all of which reaches the U.S. via Mexico or Central America. When you buy cocaine, you are certainly putting money in the pockets of Mexican and Colombian drug cartels and their immediate associates. Many Brown students are either unaware or willfully ignorant of the fact that casual cocaine consumption has a much more negative impact on human welfare and the environment than, say, buying coffee that is not fair trade or choosing not to recycle every now and then. As someone who has lost friends to drug-related violence, I agree with Ortiz-Hinojosa that this borders on hypocritical and should be part of a more open conversation on the moral consequences of Brunonians' drug habits.
But we should be wary of the mistake of lumping all drugs together. Indeed, this is one of the biggest flaws in the current War on Drugs. When people talk about "drug wars" in Mexico, Colombia or American inner cities, they are referring to battles mostly for the lucrative trade in highly addictive substances like cocaine and heroin, not to the small-time hydroponic marijuana rackets that feed Brown students' weed habits. This 4/20, those on campus who choose to smoke marijuana can do so guilt-free.
Pablo Rojas '11
