The Ministry of Justice presents its drug policy from the perspective of health and user care.
The event, featuring leading experts, was organized by Brasil 247, TV 247, and Conjur.
Government Agency – With a focus on health, user care and the promotion of prevention and harm reduction actions, the Ministry of Justice and Public Security (MJSP) presented the drug policy at the seminar The National Drug Policy: A New Paradigm, this Tuesday (18), in Brasília (DF).
The event, organized by the media outlets Brasil 247, TV 247, and Consultor Jurídico, brought together ministers, authorities, experts, jurists, and representatives of civil society to discuss the economic, legal, and social impacts of the Supreme Federal Court's (STF) decision to decriminalize the personal possession of marijuana (cannabis sativa) in quantities of less than 40 grams.
At the opening session of the seminar, the head of the National Secretariat for Drug Policies and Asset Management (Senad), Marta Machado, highlighted that the court's decision provides the conditions for the country to advance in the creation of a national harm reduction network. Furthermore, it will allow for the application of prevention strategies based on scientific evidence, with the goal of guaranteeing multidisciplinary care for drug users.
“The criminalization paradigm, for decades, has had no effect on reducing consumption. The Supreme Court's decision recognizes the limits of this approach and its biases, especially racial ones, in the application of drug law,” said Marta. “We need a different approach, without stigmatization, guided by the perspective of care and comprehensive public health attention,” she added.
The secretary cited the creation, by Senad, of the Centers for Access to Rights and Social Inclusion (Cais) — spaces offering free services to drug users, run by multidisciplinary teams of professionals from health, social assistance, law, and other areas related to access to citizenship.
“The Cais [centers/services] aim to be welcoming places that understand the issue of substance use in a non-stigmatizing way, without any judgment, without demands. The idea is to care for this person so that, little by little, they are reconnected to the network of services, to health, to assistance, to public defenders,” he explained, highlighting the national scale of the initiative.
Marta also highlighted the importance of the Superior Court of Justice's (STJ) decision in November 2024, which recognizes the need to regulate the cultivation of cannabis for therapeutic and medicinal purposes. "This is a unique moment in Brazilian drug policy, the culmination of long-standing battles," she said.
Participating in the opening of the seminar, Minister Gilmar Mendes of the Supreme Federal Court (STF) emphasized that the court's decision opens the way for more humane treatment of drug users and addicts, shifting the state's efforts from the penal field to the sphere of public health.
“The State must offer specialized care and work towards their social reintegration, and not separate them from their families, or worse, stigmatize them as criminals, as the penal system did,” declared Mendes. “The user deserves the attention of public health.”
Minister Gilmar Mendes and Secretary Marta cited Portugal as an example for the development of drug policy in Brazil. The European country—represented at the seminar by legal policy expert on drugs João Castel-Branco Goulão—decriminalized drug use and began considering the possession of psychoactive substances an administrative offense in the year 2000.
Since then, the Portuguese model has become a global benchmark in conducting public policy that addresses the drug problem from a health perspective, with initiatives that involve user care and harm reduction actions.
Combating racism in drug policy
The seminar program included discussions on topics such as the applications and potential benefits of medicinal cannabis in Brazil, the fight against racism and mass incarceration, international experiences in drug policies, the economic and social impacts of the Supreme Court's decision, and its implementation by the justice system.
In the panel on combating racism in drug policy, the general coordinator of Ethnic-Racial Justice at SENAD (National Anti-Drug Secretariat), Lívia Casseres, emphasized the secretariat's commitment to "leveraging anti-racist public policies within drug policy." According to her, it is fundamental to broaden discussions and invest in pioneering initiatives with a racial perspective, as is already happening through SENAD's National Strategy for Access to Rights for the Black and Peripheral Population in Drug Policy.
Lívia also highlighted the implementation of the National Public Security with Citizenship Program (Pronasci) Youth. “It’s a pioneering program, focused on our youth, that seeks to prevent violence associated with illegal drug markets in the most affected territories, offering income alternatives so that young people are no longer killed, forcibly interned, and mass incarcerated,” she stated.
The actions of Pronasci Juventude are based on the impacts of violent deaths, mass incarceration of young black people from marginalized communities, and the exploitation of child labor by criminal organizations that drive the illicit drug market in Salvador (BA) and Rio de Janeiro (RJ), cities where the program is being implemented.
Representatives from the Brazilian Drug Policy Platform, Conectas Human Rights, and the Black Initiative also participated in the panel.
