This is not what they meant when they said Coke was putting “woke politics over consumer Interests.”
It’s no secret that corporations tout certain PC beliefs to protect their bottom line. However, now even the black market is following suit: Drug dealers are hawking “ethically sourced cocaine” to woo eco-minded Westerners seeking a guilt-free trip.
“I have been shown ads for ‘environmentally friendly sniff,'” UK drug policy expert Neil Woods told the Mirror of the so-called eco-conscious blow. These supposedly “green” drug commercials were put out in response to growing concerns among Westerners over the environmental damage and violence occurring along the South American drug highway, according to Metro.
However, Woods sees “woke coke” as a “clever marketing” ploy to help drug cartels recuperate their losses after the COVID pandemic disrupted the supply chain.
“There is no way you can have environmentally friendly cocaine,” the narcotics hawk said, “not when the market is unregulated like it is today, so people are paying more for the same product.”
Indeed “woke coke” reportedly runs customers nearly $300 per gram, around four times the normal street price in the UK.
Woods added that the distributors are able to lie with impunity “because the government has no control and they are being increasingly clever about how they operate.”
Not only that but the idea of “ethically sourced coke” is an oxymoron as the narcotics trade is one of the main drivers of rainforest degradation in Colombia, where coca leaves are grown. Between 2001 and 2019, the country’s Catatumbo rainforest lost 6.2% of its tree cover while deforestation soared last year, in line with skyrocketing demand for cocaine during quarantine, the Metro reported.
“It’s a vicious cycle,” lamented Colombian botanist Alberto Gomez Mejia. “The narco growers destroy the jungle, the government destroys the plantations and then the growers have to go further afield, and so on.”
This so-called cruelty-free coke also has potential to exacerbate cartel violence. The coke trade “inevitably involves bloodshed” and the “destabilization of communities,” according to Colombian aid worker Bibiana Villota, who added that high demand perpetuates the brutality.
In 2019, skirmishes over supply routes in Colombia, where 60% of Europe’s coke supply originates, drove thousands of people from their homes, Metro reported. Meanwhile, on Friday, 18 people were killed during a bloody shootout between suspected Mexican drug cartels in Valparaiso, Zacatecas.
Despite the global consequences, eco-conscious drug fiends are swallowing the “woke coke” myth — hook, “line” and sinker.
UK actress Davinia Taylor, 43, claims that the “sustainable” nose candy is regularly available at celebrity soirees in London.
“They’re like, ‘Hi, darling, I’ve got woke coke. It’s all PC, £200 a gram,'” she told the Mirror, adding that guests have “got their vegan food, their organic wine and their woke coke and a spliff going.”