Not that I use it, but I like reading up on the stuff

I watched Scarface yesterday so I decided to read up on cocained on Wikipedia. While the pharmocology is interesting, the economics are just mind-blowing. Here's a quote:

The estimated U.S. cocaine market exceeded $35 billion in street value for the year 2003, exceeding revenues by corporations such as AT&T and Starbucks. There is a tremendous demand for cocaine in the U.S. market, particularly among those who are making incomes affording luxury spending, such as single adults and various professionals. Cocaine's status as a club drug shows its immense popularity among the "party crowd". Cocaine's high revenues may be due to the drug's psychologically addictive nature, which makes the cessation of use quite difficult when compared to less addictive drugs such as marijuana or alcohol. It has become much more popular as a middle class drug in the United Kingdom in recent years.

So Americans create a huge demand for a drug that mostly poor people (excluding the drug lords) in South America grow (coca leaves). Then billions of our tax dollars fund the DEA and South American governments to destroy as many crops, including non-coca leaves, as possible. End result: average South and North Americans get fucked over.

But hey, at least, The Ashleys and The Connors have a fun time at the party, right?