Criminalization of drugs in Brazil: where are we and where are we going?

Abstract

The repressive policies proposed by the UN since the 1960s, followed in Brazil in combating the consumption and trafficking of illicit drugs, did not give the expected result. Since the publication of Law 11.343, of August 23, 2006, which decriminalized possession for personal use, incarceration for trafficking increased significantly, accounting for 68% of the occupation of women's prisons in the country. In this context, the questions that this research sought to answer were where Brazil is in terms of regulation of illicit drugs and where this rule should go, with the aim of identifying exactly where we are and where we are going in matters of this timbre. The justification of the study was the insufficient result of the repressive policy in the fight against illegal drugs, and the need to seek new alternatives to the model coming from outside, with a North Americanized and Eurocentric tone. After basic, descriptive, bibliographic and qualitative research, it was concluded that Brazil is lagging behind the other seven Latin American countries analyzed, and that the way forward is the decriminalization, legalization and regulation of all types of drugs today illicit, with public policies similar to those used to fight smoking, which without prohibition of consumption and trade had excellent results.