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> This doesn’t happen in the coffee or sugar business.

Uhhh, are you joking? Slavery is still found in these industries to this very day.

Organized crime too- for example, cartels in Mexico have moved to extort Avocados from farmers because it has better margins than drugs...



Show me the torture chambers today in coffee and sugar. Just 1.

> Avocados [...] has better margins than drugs...

They don’t. If you steal/extort $anything though, the margins get really good. If you switch from drugs to extortion, it’s because you got cut out of the cartel or law enforcement got too distracted by drugs making other crime more attractive.

Criminalization of coffee or sugar would only worsen the poor treatment of labourers in their cultivation areas. The crop might change though.


Coffee: https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/the_americas/the-hidden... Sugar: http://edition.cnn.com/2009/WORLD/americas/01/09/brazil.slav...

I do not believe your implied claim that decriminalizing drugs would prevent this sort of behavior is correct.


Brazil’s definition of slavery is much broader than the one you’re thinking of.

> In Brazil, slavery is defined as forced labor but also covers debt bondage, degrading work conditions, long hours that pose a risk to health, and any work that violates human dignity.

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-brazil-coffee-slavery/pic...

Their “slaves” are generally people with poor alternatives with a side of government corruption/ineptness.


"Generally" could mean what you mentioned, or it could mean straight slavery - as the article said there is not good stats. Forced labor is prevalent in many industries, using the US definition of slavery: https://www.dol.gov/sites/dolgov/files/ILAB/ListofGoods.pdf Your original claim was that decriminalizing drugs would prevent this sort of behavior. I think the linked report shows that is not necessarily true.




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