Hi, this is more of a general question regarding utilitarianism rather than EA in specific.
For context, I know a person who knows a person who knows another person who does cocaine. I do not personally know the person that does cocaine. We are all students at a university.
On one hand, I believe it is morally right to report said person (although I am not sure how I would be able to report said person) because cocaine is very harmful and I am guessing buying cocaine funds very bad people (like cartels ).
On the other hand, I believe reporting a person doing drugs can lead to harsh consequences (getting expelled from university, and going to jail), so I don’t know.
Admittedly, I am biased to remain uninvolved because I feel uncomfortable to get involved in this scenario.
What is the morally righteous choice here?
I believe you’re getting downvoted because this question isn’t very relevant for the EA forum, which I think is understandable. Perhaps it would be better suited for Reddit or Twitter and maybe a quick take here. But to answer your question: I would not get involved, mostly because you don’t know this person. There are so so many people doing cocaine and other drugs, reporting them doesn’t really solve anything. You might ruin someone’s life. You only get involved in case you know the person really well and then you just start with personally talking to them. Even then I’m not sure I’d report it. They’re often a victim of their addiction, so they need help and support rather than punishment.
Yeah, I know it is not really related to EA but I need to talk with consequentialist like members. Its interesting, because I thought it would be my moral obligation to report it—less so to save some person’s life more so to reduce funding for drug cartels. But it seems majority of the comments are telling me to not get involved—which is just fine with me because I would feel awkward getting involved
I guess an important question to begin with should be what chain of actions to you expect from your report. Do you want to report them to the police? The university? Do you want to show pictures as evidence or bring them to an occasion where the asserted crime happens? What then? They write a report, nothing happens except scoreched earth?
Without diving into the details of peoples motivations for doing cocaine and their actual needs, doing cocaine is a problem common enough in most western countries that reporting a single individual consumer will likely have negligible consequences at large and potentially harmful consequences for yourself. Reporting individual cocaine consuming students doesn’t seem like a realistic strategy to combat drug cartels but comes with personal risks that don’t seem worth it, even if you believe in some positive consequences from said report (like this guy not using cocaine anymore?), which I’d be sceptical of in the first place.
Yeah, stopping one individual customer is indeed negligible towards cartels. However, I am still confused about whether I should get involved for the own person’s good or not. Cocaine is very addictive, but being in prison for a felony can be pretty bad too (which is why some people argue for lenient laws towards drug users).
Furthermore, you bring up a good point that I don’t know how to report it. I don’t even know the person’s name and I would feel awkward asking for said person’s name from a friend that will ask another friend for the name.
On one hand, since it is not my business, I am biased to remain uninvolved—but I’m not sure if that is the correct utilitarian response. If I can stop a coke addiction, I can effectively save a life (without donating like 5000 dollars to a charity).
Edit:
Also coke is pretty bad for the environment as well.
There also lies the issue of whether u can blame consumers of unethical companies. Companies like Nestle have done horrible terrible stuff, and some people eat factory-farmed meat. Yet, I don’t do anything to stop said consumers (though there is nothing I can do too).
It’s unclear whether reporting would stop a coke addiction at all
It’s unclear whether stopping a coke addiction saves a life, since I assume most coke users don’t die from overdose
You could easily do more harm than good
Elaborate on 3)
Ruining the person’s life, their job prospects, their relationships (family, friends, partners),… while having little to no impact on the business of drug cartels. I’m not saying that’s what definitely would happen, but I think the odds are uncomfortably high to risk it.