INTERVIEW: Luiz Paulo Guanabara of Psicotripicus
Anti-prohibitionism or drug legalization defense? In the present interview of th "Activism and Drug Policy" series, psychologist Luiz Paulo Guanabara, Psicotripicus' executive director, talks about the difference between going against a policy and proposing alternatives to it.
For five years at the institution's helm - which also has a board composed of doctors, social scientists, psychologists, and philosophers, Guanabara advocates drug legalization as a peace strategy and makes it clear: "Marijuana should be sold on the fair. Plants should be sold on fairs".
Which are Psicotropicus' actions when it comes to changing Brazil's drug policy?
We have already made two campaigns (2004 and 2005) and we also work with harm reduction, a project called Hepatitis on a Straw. For that we have made a research to better know who are the sniffed cocaine users, and we presented the research results on the International Conference. We release institutional material, promote debates, we always give our support and help organize the Marijuana March.
How do you relate drug legalization and peace from the human rights angle?
When you ban a product or products for which there is a strong population demand, you generate, as with Alcohol Prohibition, a parallel market whose profits are astronomic. That parallel market gets richer and richer, more powerful and harder to stop.
And how's the health approach?
If anybody has a real problem with drugs, he should be treated by doctors and psychologists. That person shouldn't be treated by the police or by a judge. One of prohibition's evils is the discrimination against drug users at healthcare services or the very fear of telling that one uses drugs. That can harm treatment for anything, because it's a vital information for the doctor, for instance. That makes healthcare less accessible for drug users.
Psicotropicus used to advocate anti-prohibitionism when it began operating. Today the organization's motto is Legalization and Peace. What's the difference between one and the other?
To be an anti-prohibitionist is to go against something, while to advocate legalization is more propositional. We want to look for ways for drug reform and reforms in legislation. And the peace is because we experience a globa war on drugs and against drug users, and we want to change that situation.
Today, after five years' Psicotropicus, my view of what should be done more objectively is that one should work for alterations in UN papers, which govern the global drug control system. To work on the level of change for honest information, not the one produced by the North-American [that's how we call "Americans", Mr. Borden; you must have noted I use "estadounidense" (ES) or "estadunidense" (PT) frequently; you are not the only Americans on the Americas] government since the 1920s, which is hypocritical. The US are the most liable for drug situation in today's world, for prohibitionist policy, which is a failure from the point of view of public health and human right violations.
The organization supports the Marijuana March. What is its relevance for the drug debate?
Among the forbidden drugs, marijuana is a special case. It has a huge economic potential, industrial, nutritional and pharmaceutical properties, and it causes an effect on the brain. And marijuana is not a cause for overdosis, it's difficult to find someone committed - which is an extreme measure - or in a Narcotics Anonymous meeting because of marijuana. So marijuana is a particular substance on that motley crue of substances where people put drugs illicit today. Marijuana should be sold on the fair. Plants have to be sold on fairs.
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[Read the full interview in Portuguese at http://www.comunidadesegura.org/?q=pt/node/39126 online.]
Re: "more propositional" "ways for drug reform"
Comment posted by tokerdesigner on Fri, 06/27/2008 - 5:30pm1. While advocating legalization is good, advocating physical, harm-reduction reform especially in the form of vaporizers and single-toke utensils for cannabis use, replacing hazardous hot-burning overdose cigarets ("joints") etc. is as propositional as you can get.
2. Marijuana is banned and demonized for two principal reasons:
B. It could replace tobacco as herb of choice for millions of users now feeding the Big Tobackgo marketing industry $2000/yr per pack-a-day habit, but
A. (Worse) Cannabis legalization means de facto legalization and availability to everyone of safe, non-overdose equipment, such as vaporizers and one-hitters, now widely banned or suppressed on grounds of association with cannabis, which if adopted by millions of cigaret addicts in imitation of progressive cannabis users, would result in a massive decrease in the sale of hot-burning overdose cigarets, the mainstay of the tobacco industry profit margin.
3. It may be added that Big Pharma feeds off Big Tobackgo, and joins the witchhunt against cannabis for two principal reasons:
B. Cannabis could replace many high-profit drugs, but
A. (Worse) Widespread adoption of vaporizers and one-hitters in place of hot-burning overdose cigarets as preferred method of nicotine inhalation by masses worldwide would result in a massive decrease in smoking-related illnesses presently treated with high-profit drugs, thus the collapse of Big Tobackgo will to some extent drag Big Pharma down with it.
4. Note that the hardline politicians responsible for 830,000 marijuana arrests per year (US)-- compare the figures, if obtainable, for arrests for possession of tobacco by minors or sale to minors, also illegal-- have received the most campaign donations from Big Tobackgo. A May 2008 study of Presidential campaign donations showed the candidate with the most funding from the tobacco industry, over $100,000, was former Mayor Giuliani, especially noted for a crackdown against cannabis in New York City in the 90's. The Republican Party usually gets twice as much tobacco money as the Democratic Party. These figures don't seem that large in a campaign budget of tens of millions, but I suspect the difference from some other donations is that the tobacco industry also invests heavily in sending a lobbyist-- usually young and attractive and well-dressed-- to visit and hang around with and influence the politician. They watch to see which candidates are leading and fund these disproportionately, so that they are in position to remind the victorious candidate after election day of their contribution.
I am somewhat disappointed to see how little attention pro-cannabis organizations, including DRC, having been paying to this vital link with the largely overlooked Conspiracy to Prolong the Survival of Big Tobackgo, but then, conspiracies which aim to change things attract much more attention than conspiracies which aim to preserve a status quo. (In this case, the status quo preserved is "business as usual" estimated by WHO as currently 5.4 million cigaret deaths per year worldwide, the biggest genocide in the history of the planet.)
5. Various additional hurdles to popularizing the vaporizer include:
A. The high cost of each device deters those who could benefit, especially youngsters being recruited at a rate of nearly a million per year (US) into nicotine cigaret addiction, from risking their money up front and buying a vaporizer.
B. You have to be careful to read the instructions for use thoroughly and avoid mistakes which could void your guarantee if the vaporizer breaks down.
C. There is not now such a thing as a Vaporizer Clinic, or Cafe (sounds like it would work in Amsterdam), where you can go and try out various vaporizers before deciding which one to buy, and receive instruction in their use. Certainly something positive which should be promoted and organized now.
6. For whoever thinks they can't afford a vaporizer, or for the bike trip when you are away from electricity, a positive effort should be made to educate a wider public in the virtues of a single-toke (25 mg.) utensil with a long drawtube. Burning temperature comparison studies need to be made which will authenticate my guess, which is that compared to the burning temperature of 1500 degrees F. in the tip of a cigaret, and the heating to under 400 degrees F. in a vaporizer, a one-hitter may offer temperatures in the 500 F range.