Growing in the the Caribbean, one might think that I was surrounded by drugs of all kinds. I was actually, unaware of that misconception about people from the Islands until an acquaintance of mine told me the first time he met me “Oh! you’re from Haiti, you guys smoke a lot right?” I was shocked because using drugs is just not that common in Haiti, which is strange, because we not only have absolutely no laws on substance regulation in Haiti, but we are also on a strategic route for the drug trade in the region. According to Global security, : “Haiti is just under 430 miles from Colombia’s most northern point, and easily accessible by twin engine aircraft hauling payloads of 500 to 700 kilos of cocaine. Due to the numerous uncontrolled points of entry and internal instability, vast amounts of narcotics from South America arrive in Haiti after being transported across the porous border with the Dominican Republic, and then shipped on to Puerto Rico”. (Haiti: Drug Trafficking Crossroads)1 Being asked this question made me realize how much I ignore about drugs in general, because culturally, it is just a subject we don’t talk about, so I made it a priority to find out more on the matter.
The occasion to gain more insight into the subject came to me couple months later. A friend of mine was suffering from a stomachache, and at that time, I used to have chronic pain and as a result was prescribed “percocet” by my physician, to help me fight the pain, so I offered my friend some of my “percocet”. When I brought her the bottle, her answer baffled me because she told me :”Do you know how much people are paying for these?” She then proceeded on educating me about prescription drugs, and other substances in general by telling me her personal experience. At that time, we were living in a College town, and she told me how students were buying prescription drugs, plus a lot of other drugs, “under the table”, and that’s when she disclosed that she knows all that was because she buys marijuana from the same people. I was surprised, because I did not know that she smoked. At that time, my idea of someone who smoke weed, was “someone who is always stoned and unable to live a stable and healthy life”. Hearing that she was a regular user of marijuana, and seeing how normal of a person she was made me realize that what the media, and the criminalization of drug use make us believe drug users -(particularly marijuana users in this case)-, look like is completely untrue. Of course, there is a difference between recreational use of drugs, and actual substance abuse, and I know there is a thin line in between, but there are many other factors involved and it is not as simplistic as general public perception makes it seem.
What surprised me the most in this case was how easy it was for me to be able to legally get my “percocet”, but in order to legally obtain marijuana one has to go through so many logistics! Plus, if you get caught in possession of such controlled substance without legally acquiring it, the rules to punish such violations are so harsh, that it makes one think twice before thinking about using. My friend is a functional member who contributes in society, she is highly intelligent, and actually stopped using marijuana after we graduated from college, because “she was over smoking” in her own words. I think people should be free to use any substances they want, alcohol is legal, so are many other substances that have more harmful consequences than marijuana, therefore people should not have to fear being caught using marijuana as long as they are responsibly doing so. I am glad that I had this experience and I am thankful to my friend for opening my eyes about this subject.
References:
https://www.cato.org/publications/congressional-testimony/drug-legalization-criminalization-harm-reduction
David Boaz. CATO Institute. 1999.
GlobalSecurity.Org.
Haiti: Drug Trafficking Crossroads. 2011. Unknown author. Retrieved on 11.02.2016
What do I know 