Video Shows the Global Effects of 'Casual' Cocaine Use
The U.K.'s crackdown on cocaine calls attention to the widespread violence and destruction caused by drug trafficking.
The #EveryLineCounts launched today in the United Kingdom to warn weekend warriors that their casual use of the drug has fatal ripple effects.
The NCA’s Twitter and Facebook accounts are using the hashtag on graphic photos depicting the violence of the cocaine trade, in hopes it will appeal to the social conscience of casual coke users, who the Daily Mail refers to as “affluent middle-class cocaine users who turn a blind eye to the misery caused by the drug.”
On its YouTube account, a surprisingly powerful animated video, narrated by a cheery fictional British drug lord, describes a “recipe” for cocaine. Among the “ingredients” are rainforest destruction, village-poisoning chemicals, and, above all, widespread violence caused by crime gangs. “For a bit of spice,” says the narrator, “Add the police, who are injured and murdered by the gangs!”
When casual users line up for a fun night out, they’re probably not thinking of the other lives they’re putting at risk by supporting the drug trade. “We think many of them would be shocked by the reality,” said NCA Head of Drugs Threat Tony Saggers, in a press release. “When they use cocaine, aside from putting their own lives at risk, they are feeding an industry which routinely uses death, violence and destruction in its production process.”
The #EveryLineCounts campaign has so far been earnestly adopted by the online community, though it runs the risk of being repurposed as a call for cokeheads to turn up.
One user has used it to call attention to the much-rumored coke addiction of UK Chancellor George Osborne.
Cocaine addiction in the UK costs the country roughly the equivalent of $16 billion dollars, according to the NCA. The agency is working together with Colombian Anti-Narcotics Police to continue targeting the global organized crime networks responsible for trafficking the drug.
