By Eric Nicolson

A POSTER campaign at T in the Park this weekend will urge drug users to think of the moral and social implications of taking cocaine.

The Scottish Crime and Drug Enforcement Agency (SCDEA) is hoping that middle-class cocaine users will boycott the drug when they are made aware of the human suffering in South America that their habit causes.

Officers from the agency are using the music festival in Kinross-shire to get their message across.

Bosses said cocaine is mistakenly seen as a “clean” and more respectable drug because it can be snorted and not injected, unlike heroin.

Det Supt Willie MacColl, the national drugs co-ordinator of the SCDEA, said, “People boycott disposable nappies, choose organic vegetables and fair trade goods such as coffee but these same people think nothing of having a line of cocaine that’s caused immeasurable harm.

“Children are mercilessly exploited and thousands of people murdered in the horrendous violence connected with the production of cocaine.

“People who use cocaine should think about the consequences of how this drug is delivered to Scotland. It’s morally and politically irresponsible.

“If people were truly socially and morally aware of their lifestyle choices, they would never take cocaine.”

There are 18,000 murders a year in Colombia, an average of 50 a day, associated with drug trafficking.

In 2006, UNICEF published a report, Children in the Coca Areas, which highlighted the plight of children involved in the coca trade and exposed poverty and violence.

The risks faced by the army of children and adolescents involved in the industry are high and often involves physical abuse and rape.

There is a similarly high level of violence and murders associated with drug trafficking. When seeking drug couriers, organised criminals will seek out the vulnerable and the poor and coercive tactics are often used.

They send these couriers by circuitous routes to the market destinations in an attempt to mask activity and avoid detection.

It is a high-risk business for the drugs mules. If caught, the penalties come with a high jail tariff.

If they choose to conceal the drugs internally, a favoured option, the stakes are much higher. Couriers may swallow up to a kilo of cocaine—one ruptured package mid-air would lead to a certain and painful death.

For the unscrupulous criminals, the risks are much lower.

In recent years, cocaine has gained a foothold among ordinary people as well as the chaotic or problem drug users. Before, it was seen as the drug of the rich and famous. By many, it is often viewed as a more respectable drug.

This is far from the truth, however, and the effects and dependence can be catastrophic. For example, cocaine makes one 24 times more likely to have a heart attack.

But the user must also know that there is extreme violence associated with the drug industry, from production through to the marketplace, Mr MacColl said.

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