"That's a bold claim which I would like to see substantiated with evidence."
Oh, come on!
You're telling me that if some random stranger offered to sell you a few grams of mystery powder and you have no idea what's in it -- could be fatal, could be not... you'd rather take it, roll the dice, risk your life, and play russian roulette than go to a pharmacy to take a known quantity of pure cocaine -- a quantity you know won't be lethal and would probably make you fell really good instead?
Color me more than skeptical.
I doubt anyone would choose the russian roulette option than take a legal, regulated, pure, professionally measured and reliably labeled drug that they know won't kill them.
If a study was ever conducted on this, it would probably earn an Ig Nobel Prize.
"I highly doubt that young people who take cocaine to party will be type of people who will listen or dedicate their time to education campaigns."
This is in fact the strategy of harm reduction, and more recently of benefit enhancement. I recommend listening to interviews with Emanuel Sferios, the founder of DanceSafe (probably the most well known harm reduction organization, which does things like provide free drug testing and water at festivals).
Sferios gave a good talk, the first part of which (titled "Pleasurable Drug Use is Safer Drug Use") is here: [1] (though I recommend listening to all parts of it)
He focuses specifically on MDMA, but the harm reduction principles he talks about are applicable to all substances.
I was talking about the broader consequences, you're obviously right in the specific case, but that's why I wrote:
"That's a bold claim which I would like to see substantiated with evidence. How could one possibly foresee the potential damage that could be caused by cocaine going mainstream once it is legalised."
Oh, come on!
You're telling me that if some random stranger offered to sell you a few grams of mystery powder and you have no idea what's in it -- could be fatal, could be not... you'd rather take it, roll the dice, risk your life, and play russian roulette than go to a pharmacy to take a known quantity of pure cocaine -- a quantity you know won't be lethal and would probably make you fell really good instead?
Color me more than skeptical.
I doubt anyone would choose the russian roulette option than take a legal, regulated, pure, professionally measured and reliably labeled drug that they know won't kill them.
If a study was ever conducted on this, it would probably earn an Ig Nobel Prize.
"I highly doubt that young people who take cocaine to party will be type of people who will listen or dedicate their time to education campaigns."
This is in fact the strategy of harm reduction, and more recently of benefit enhancement. I recommend listening to interviews with Emanuel Sferios, the founder of DanceSafe (probably the most well known harm reduction organization, which does things like provide free drug testing and water at festivals).
Sferios gave a good talk, the first part of which (titled "Pleasurable Drug Use is Safer Drug Use") is here: [1] (though I recommend listening to all parts of it)
He focuses specifically on MDMA, but the harm reduction principles he talks about are applicable to all substances.
[1] - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eAdRIjF5aso