Photo via Wikimedia Commons user Zxc
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But Schwartz remains optimistic about a cocaine boycott's chances of improving the drug's ecological and humanitarian footprint. "I think sometimes consumers sell themselves short as to what effects they might have," he offered. As an example, he pointed to the way in which outrage about the torturous deaths of the cows that became McDonald's hamburgers gave way to extensive reforms in slaughterhouses. "Obviously, nobody can change a system as one person," he said, but he added that with social media, "it's a hell of a lot easier to get something on people's radar."But short of a laughable scenario in which some of the world's deadliest gangs adopt nonviolence and sustainable agriculture, it's tough to imagine what positive change in the cocaine world would look like. But even Ra the coke dealer would love to see improvements. He suggested that narcos could arrange with farmers to have a "grow-op that's humane." Either that, he said, or "somebody has to start doing it in America, but it's crazy. Where the fuck would you do that?"Tree said the climate looks right in Florida, and noted that, "Hawaii had [coca] plantations back in the day," but he pointed out that those are small islands, and therefore easier to police than relatively lawless equatorial Latin America. Unlike weed, which you can grow in a small space like a closet and get a nice side business going, cocaine doesn't work that way. You need "an acre minimum" if you want to see a usable amount of white stuff according to Tree, so "the economies of scale just aren't there."
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