Coke is it

A couple of years ago, I had a letter in the Guardian applauding the Metropolitan Police's decision to go after middle-class cocaine users, on the basis that the trade was environmentally destructive and socially harmful in South America - I'm totally indifferent to the effects of cocaine in the UK.

Like most liberals, I used to think that legalisation was the only sane response to the 'drug war': it would bring taxes and enable drug use to be treated as normal (for dope smokers) and as an illness (for heroin users), and in many ways I still endorse these views. In years long gone, I accepted the occasional joint passed round, and very much enjoyed mushrooms collected from the Welsh hillsides - but there's no exploitation involved and the risks were all to me.

But, as George Monbiot points out today, far more eloquently than I ever could, heroin and coke production ruins the environment, enslaves peasants and fuels all sorts of other oppressive regimes and crimes. I don't mind if you get stoned, or snort some powder that makes you talk about yourself a lot, but there's no point buying Fairtrade bananas if your Friday entertainment is soaked in blood.

The cocaine business as currently constituted is the most immoral trade on Earth. By participating in it, you directly commission murder, torture, displacement and deforestation. According to the Colombian government (not, admittedly, the most trustworthy source on such matters) every gram of cocaine you take destroys four square metres of rainforest. The trade gives that government the excuse to wage an unending war against the peasantry, which is also caught between rightwing paramilitaries and leftwing guerillas, both of which make their money from powder. You might think it's daring and subversive to snort a line or two, but the real risk is run by people thousands of miles from here. You can choose whether or not to participate. They can't.

The biggest jump (29%) is among the group that professes to be most concerned about deforestation, slavery, war and all the other ills it is commissioning: 16 to 24-year-olds. Almost 7% of them are now taking cocaine. I don't know how they can afford it, but I know that the people of the Andes can't. Do as much damage to yourself as you please, but keep your nose out of other people's lives.