I have spent a lot of time around people who like to party. My first semester of college was spent at Arizona State University before I eventually joined Boise State's speech and debate team. As much as it may surprise you, there are a lot of people within the collegiate speech and debate community with a variety of drug habits. Boise is also a bit of a ritzy area, and that means that there is a lot of cocaine around. Let me preface this clearly: None of the following should be taken to increase the stigma which goes along with drug usage. Throwing people in prison for using drugs is still unethical. Addiction is a disease which needs serious medical attention to cope with. All of that being said, if you're reading this and you do cocaine, you need to stop.

I don't care if you "don't buy it yourself," "only do it when it's around," or "don't do it regularly." You need to stop doing it and you need to help the people with an addiction in your life to stop. I am not here to tell you about the detriments on your body. You know all of these, you've already decided that you don't care or that you'll be fine. In fact, the number of Americans who admitted to trying cocaine for the first time grew 61% from 2013 to 2015. Coinciding with this, 2015 saw the most overdose deaths since 2006. I don't intend to shatter the tenants of the young ego which tells people they are invincible with this article alone. Rather, I'm asking you to stop for someone other than yourself. I want to talk about the folks who are often left out of the conversation.

Approximately 90% of the cocaine in the United States was produced in Colombia. That means the coke you're doing for fun almost certainly came from Colombia, and the Colombian drug industry is no joke. Although little data exists regarding the actual number of deaths that can be attributed to Colombia's cocaine business, ballpark figures estimate it to be at least a nine digit number. Let's not beat around the bush. If you buy cocaine, you are contributing to active genocide. One million+ people don't die because of one off events. They die because violence is routine to the Colombian drug trade.

Death is only the tip of the iceberg, in fact. In Eric Vance's "Why Buying Cocaine Is Like Donating To the Nazi Party" he explains "decapitations and burning people alive are just the start. Chainsaws, belt sanders, acid—these things are used very creatively by cartel torturers. They disembowel bloggers and sew faces to soccer balls. Children are forced to work as assassins, people are forced to rape strangers at gunpoint and lines of victims are killed one at a time with a single hammer. Many of those people disappear into unmarked graves. If their bodies are ever found, they are described in the media with antiseptic words like “mutilated".

Take a step back, it's often easy to lose track of what one million lost lives look like. Instead perhaps imagine yourself, your family and your closest friends being enslaved to a plantation which will kill you for the slightest transgression. Take a deep breath and recognize how lucky you are that will never be you. Now use that breath to tell other people. Tell them at every opportunity, make it clear that you will distance yourself from the genocidal act of consuming cocaine. After all, every exasperated breath you've ever taken hyped up on coke was stolen in the first place. The least you can do is your best to give it back.