A luta antiproibicionista e o debate da legalização das drogas no Brasil

Abstract

The dissertation presented has as its object of study the fight against drug’s prohibition in Brazil in the context of the 21st century. It was carried out through a historical and documentary investigation that aimed to evaluate the limits and potential of social movements and anti-prohibitionist groups and identify the Bills in progress in the National Congress, regarding the agenda of decriminalization and legalization of certain psychoactive in the country. In addition, it discusses the relationship between this theme and Social Work, aiming to contribute to the critical apprehension of this debate within the professional category. In particular, the guiding problem of the research refers to the feasibility of legalizing certain narcotics in Brazil, contrary to the current prohibitionist model and its “war on drugs” policy. Therefore, the study starts from the theoretical-methodological and ethical-political perspective of Critical Social Theory, based on the dialectical historical materialism of the Marxist tradition, with the emphasis of analysis: the ontological centrality of work; the historical and structural character of political economy in the constitution and development of the social being and the socio-historical reality; the multiple determinations that affect the use of psychoactive substances as a historical and sociocultural practice; its condition, in the present time, of (illicit) merchandise inscribed in the dynamics of capitalist accumulation; the construction of the moral, political and ideological discourses that provided their control and prohibitionist regulation by modern States and international organizations; the critique of the political economy of drugs as a peculiar paradigm of accumulation through dispossession; the participation of certain narcotics in the socioeconomic formation of Brazil; Brazilian adherence to the dominant prohibitionist ideology and its social consequences; the incidence of this trade and consumption today; the media construction of the theme in society; alternative proposals for regulating these goods; and the political significance of social movements in the dynamics of class struggle. Thus, the general objective proposed was partially achieved, because, with the difficulties arising from the current pandemic, the documentary resources and other information regarding the researched object became insufficient to fully apprehend the limits and potential of social movements and anti-prohibitionist groups. and the Bills presented and analyzed in the National Congress, starting in the 2010s, to fight for the decriminalization and legalization of certain psychoactive drugs in the country; the contribution to the critical apprehension of this subject by the Social Service is understood to be achieved in the context of the reflections and considerations elaborated in this work.