Sorry LV Ron, as nasty and insidious as coke is, those people destroyed themselves -- the cocaine didn't do it, they did it.
We conservatives stand for the concept of people taking responsibility for themselves and their actions. Blaming the drug, be it coke or alcohol, for someone's downfall is like blaming a gun instead of its wielder for an armed robbery.
By the way, I've been there. I ingested my share of coke and other drugs, along with booze, in my wicked and wanton youth; I, like most of my partners in "crime," grew out of it and are doing just fine now, including at a few very upstanding, outspokenly conservative and productive citizens and employERS I know who used to be in the same scene in those old days. WE know that of those in the scene who succumbed and whose lives were screwed up "by cocaine" or whatever, it wasn't the drug that screwed them up -- IT WAS THEMSELVES.
It isn't about taking the drug. It's about taking personal responsility.
Since you admittedly, and willingly admit to abusing it yourself, I would think you would know just what I meant.
Drugs are just as insidious as sin, it all leads to destruction of ones life.
And yes, I did my share in the days....