São Paulo Marijuana March protests arrests and police violence
Mass incarceration and police violence in the poorest communities are at the center of discussions at this year's São Paulo Marijuana March. Under the slogan “Creating a Future without War”, the demonstration took place on Paulista Avenue, in the central region of the capital, on Sunday (Jun. 16).The movement asserts that the prohibition of marijuana is used as a pretext to persecute the black population living in the peripheral areas of large cities. "The big lie of prohibition is perpetuated to sustain the arms industry, prisons, and massacres. A racist ideology that turns corruption into routine, feeding armed, violent, and profitable markets that grow day by day," states the manifesto of the 2024 march. It emphasizes that the illegality of drugs is upheld by lies that contradict scie...