Abstract
Policies toward illicit drugs have attained the utmost relevance in the debate pervading all levels of Brazilian society. Propositions for relaxation of traditional, coercive legislation share the landscape with others aimed at maintaining and deepening prohibitionism and its corollaries. This chapter describes the narratives produced in the history of Brazil’s prohibitionism, from the beginning of the twentieth century until the current times, and its unfolding juridical backdrop. Among other possible repercussions, Brazil’s domestic politics and its connections with international prohibitionism, inclusive of the War on Drugs, are presented, as are the political associations, progressive and conservative, that are currently at play there. The paradoxes and tensions that currently pervade Brazil’s policies toward the drug issue are underscored. These policies oscillate between blunt, military support for the War on Drugs, the moral persecution of users and addicts, and support for controversial treatment campaigns, to reformist propositions like those carried out in other Latin American countries with the support of social movements, such as the proposal to regulate the medicinal or recreational use of cannabis. The authors wrap up the chapter by addressing the different political traditions and moral views that inform these opposing views, and try to understand the wider implications of contemporary changes to Prohibition at a global scale.
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Notes
- 1.
Therapeutic Communities are private entities recognized by the Brazilian Federal Government, authorized to treat users of legal and illegal drugs and provide care and psychological and medical support. These entities receive public resources to maintain this service and, officially, cannot force the user to stay or follow a certain religious orientation, nor can they disregard the right to receive family visits.
- 2.
In order to consult the NEIP platform and find out about its material and history, consult www.neip.info; also see Labate et al. (2008).
- 3.
For more information on Growroom, consult www.growroom.net.
- 4.
For information on the Brazilian Platform for Drug Policy (PBPD), consult its website: www.pbpd.org.br.
- 5.
According to data published by the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime, Brazil has become the second largest consumer of cocaine (smoked, sniffed, and injected) in the world, second only to the United States (see UNDC World Drug Report 2014).
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Rodrigues, T., Labate, B.C. (2016). Brazilian Drug Policy: Tension Between Repression and Alternatives. In: Labate, B., Cavnar, C., Rodrigues, T. (eds) Drug Policies and the Politics of Drugs in the Americas. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-29082-9_11
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