By: Matthew Marcone
THCK’s West Coast Connection and Product Specialist Dannieul Macaro took aim at the War on Drugs during an interview with Liberty Multimedia on Saturday, November 18, 2017.
The War on Drugs is a term loosely used to describe the criminalization of various recreational and medicinal substances including marijuana, psychedelics, heroin, cocaine and methamphetamines, among others.
“It’s the biggest failure ever,” said Macaro. “It’s widely known now that the war on drugs creates criminals and creates crime where there isn’t any. People should be allowed to feel how they want to feel, as long as they’re not harming someone else.”
Having witnessed more than one close friend die from a drug overdose, Macaro said he understands that addiction is a serious issue.
“I know it’s nothing to play with, but if somebody feels that they want to do heroin or coke, or want to be a weekend warrior, and they can still control themselves and handle their life, I don’t see why you shouldn’t be able to do it,” said Macaro. “And that’s with everything, not just weed.”
Macaro used Vancouver – where he is currently based – as an example of a city starting to take a different path in dealing with drug addiction.
“Vancouver is starting to open up,” said Macaro. “On the low they have safe injection sites and clean needles, and that’s the right direction. Let’s empty out the prisons of the people who are in there for selling. You’ll find thousands of people there because they were caught smoking weed or sniffing coke, so now they lose their job, they lose their license, can’t get another job, so they have to resort to selling. Then you catch them and put them in prison again. The whole thing is manufactured.”
In Vancouver, several victims of the War on Drugs can be seen at East Hastings and Main Street, where drug addiction, homelessness, mental illness, sex work and crime are commonplace.
“It’s awful, just terrible,” said Macaro. “There are so many people out there that aren’t getting help. The war on drugs is a huge failure because there shouldn’t be a war on drugs. There shouldn’t be. You can have programs in place where we can help people instead of demonizing them. You take somebody that has a very serious addiction; that’s not a criminal offence, that’s an illness. They need to be treated for that addiction.”
The impending legalization of marijuana in Canada, scheduled for July 2018, represents another opportunity to shift the approach that authorities take regarding drug addiction.
Drug induced deaths have plunged since Portugal quietly decriminalized all drugs in 2001, along with addiction rates, discrediting the myth that legalizing drugs would result in higher instances of substance abuse.