What if I sell cocaine as a cleaner?

Let's pretend a situation where I decide to sell cocaine as a miracle cleaner. If there's a better cleaner out there for a lower price, I should go out of business (natural course of capitalism). But despite the crappy effects of my cleaner, people still keep on buying it. Should the government step in, or should they just let things take it's course?

Now, before you say that cocaine could be used as a drug let me remind you that people sniff paint, and paint is legal. I'm selling my product as a cleaner, it's not my responsibility if my clients abuse it.

You may say that cocaine is an illegal drug. I agree, it should be illegal as a drug, but not as a cleaner. Just like how magnisium is illegal as a salami ingredient, but is not as a battery.

You may claim that the cocaine will most likely be used not as instructed, and will cause the user harm. That is the same argument against exercise equipments. Most people don't use them as instructed (they may just let it collect dust), and that caused them to be unhealthy, but exercise equipments are legal.

You may say that cocaine funds terrrorists, but so does oil.

Maybe cocaine should be a legalized cleaner.

On a semi-related note: Anti-drug ads always say that lacing (mixing two or more) drugs together can have 10 times the effect of one drug alone. Why don't drug doers just always buy two drugs, and take 1/10th of each? That way they can have the same effect, and the same amount would last them 10 times

It wouldn't clean anything, so it's false advertising, and the gov't will ban it as a cleaner. Perhaps you could sell chunks of it as an ornament (ya know, like your seashell collection), and powder as fake snow?

stratego said:

Now, before you say that cocaine could be used as a drug let me remind you that people sniff paint, and paint is legal. I'm selling my product as a cleaner, it's not my responsibility if my clients abuse it.

You may say that cocaine is an illegal drug. I agree, it should be illegal as a drug, but not as a cleaner. Just like how magnisium is illegal as a salami ingredient, but is not as a battery.

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Cocaine is a narcotic - a controlled substance. Your analogies are inaccurate.

stratego said:

You may claim that the cocaine will most likely be used not as instructed, and will cause the user harm. That is the same argument against exercise equipments. Most people don't use them as instructed (they may just let it collect dust), and that caused them to be unhealthy, but exercise equipments are legal.

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I don't care about the harm done to the user unless the user is a child (then I care a great deal). If the user causes harm to others, or to society in general, or makes health care costs rise, then I also care. Otherwise, snort/smoke 'til you die. But they can do that today, without the drug being legal.

stratego said:

On a semi-related note: Anti-drug ads always say that lacing (mixing two or more) drugs together can have 10 times the effect of one drug alone. Why don't drug doers just always buy two drugs, and take 1/10th of each? That way they can have the same effect, and the same amount would last them 10 times

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Because the results may also be 100 times, causing quick, or sometimes painful and slow, death. Or, the results may be nothing and the drug user has wasted their money. I've never seen an anti-drug ad state that, but I would think it would be an invitation to always use the drugs together like you said, if it could be believed.

Or how about selling bazookas as a "heavy-duty" cleaner?
Or Semtex as play-dough?

Or how about amputation of the hands as a means of editing out ideas before they get typed and submitted to this forum?

Hmmm maybe I could use that too.

How about:

"I'm gonna sell plutonium to North Korea as a method for sterilizing water! It won't be my responsibility if they do anything else with it! It's the same as excerise equipment, that can be misused, but its still legal"

I really can't see where you are coming from on this one

if this works can i cut-in?be an importer for eu?......at least get a line?

There used to be a head shop in Minneapolis that sold ether as a cleaning agent. The police made them stop. Good luck on your cocaine cleaning business.

Stratego has some good points, actually, even if all you like to think there's a heavy line between "narcotics" and "harmless substances".

Nicotine: Addictive. Damaging. Sold freely, albeit with a warning.
Paint, glue: Get used for sniffing. There's surely some sort of warning saying "don't be stupid with this" on them though.

And as for 'harm to society': Can you say "drunk driving"? Or "drunkenness" in general? Sure, drunk driving is forbidden. Doesn't stop it happening. And cars kill 50,000 people a year. (Poof! There goes a medium sized city!) But nobody has banned them for being dangerous.

</devil's advocate>

Smart thinking Stratego.

Except that I wouldn't sell it as a cleaner (Cocaine lacks special abilities that are associated with cleaning), so stopping the sales might be well-based).

But if you sell it as "decorative snow" or "handpowder" you are selling it for a quality cocaine certainly has.

Slightly off topic: If you ever get "drugs education" your first question should be: "Which drug has the best result for its price?". That always makes the so called educators (which are in fact anti-drug campaigners) look at you really strange...

Rik Meleet said:

Slightly off topic: If you ever get "drugs education" your first question should be: "Which drug has the best result for its price?". That always makes the so called educators (which are in fact anti-drug campaigners) look at you really strange...

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and the right answer's E,not cocaine...but thats another thread,maybe even a poll