and I eat lots of fruit, too

Last November, Piero Marrazzo, former president of Lazio, admitted he took cocaine during his meetings with Natalie, his trans friend.
Some 20 days ago, Marco Castoldi (aka Morgan), the frontman of Bluvertigo, declared he used to smoke cocaine as an antidepressant - following Freud's suggestion of therapy. Not especially surprising, considering that the title of their first album was "acidi e basi", and it had only partly to do with the little chemist.
Few days ago, the results of a drug test involving 232 voluntary Italian parliamentarians have been published (here). One of the volunteers (obviously the brightest of the crowd) tested positive for cocaine.

I don't think anybody would say these people are drug addicts. They lead their lives in a "normal" and "productive" way, they can probably do perfectly fine without drugs, they are not socially dangerous. Just like at least half of our former schoolmates, and quite a few teachers, parents, janitors, etc. Do you remember Titta di Girolamo in "le conseguenze dell'amore"? What's the ratio between the total of people you know have taken drugs and the number of those who have suffered any kind of negative consequences? I'm not saying drugs aren't bad for you. And I won't go into discussing why alcohol and tobacco are perfectly legal, or the differences between hard and soft drugs. I'm just noticing that the common reaction when this kind of news comes up is a "public health" one. Drugs provoke addiction. Drugs are dangerous. Drugs are bad. Make sure you say it loud and clear in TV, when apologizing.

My main concern is that drugs are one of the pillars (if not the main one) of the economy of criminal organizations. They are one of their main sources of revenue, they give those organizations the means to rule over their territory as well as a decisive competitive advantage when entering the formal economy. They are the fundamental means of financial control of many societies worldwide, what allows such organizations to direct, slow down, or paralyze their development. Drugs basically allow them to be the kind of powerful entities they are, both on the Italian scene and in the international one, with all the consequences this power implies.

In some kind of more or less tortuous way, the cocaine Marrazzo, Morgan, and Mr Smart bought must have been produced and provided by a multinational criminal supply-chain, and their purchases have fueled a continuum of violations of human rights, concentration of wealth, economic inequality, underdevelopment, all the way from the farmer to the pusher. This is the something I don't really understand in the kind of engagé, socially active person who just seems not to be able to give up smoking pot. And it's something I don't really understand in our legislation, which, as far as I know, does not differentiate between the marijuana you grow in your garden and the cocaine you buy directly from some camorra employee.

Are we really sure the direct negative effects of drugs on consumers are worse than the systemic consequences of drug trafficking on our society as a whole? Isn't there a risk that these slightly bigot, prude reactions don't end up hiding a bigger, more urgent problem?