Mina Seinfeld de Carakuchansky & Heitor De Paola
https://www.drugwatch.org/
28/09/2005
Brazilian situation regarding drugs is a very complex one. The future of any anti drug movement here may be jeopardized since the Government espoused a harm reduction program that goes beyond anything dreamt by harm reductionist activists. Instead of simply supporting this policy the Ministery of Health itself is organizing the program and took in its own hands all the issues involved in a program such as this, including selection and administration of adequate places, distribution of syringes and pipes. Moreover, activists have taken every College in Brazil, particularly the state owned Universities. There is only a few resistance groups among physicians in medical schools but they are isolated and afraid to say what they think for the opposition is really aggressive and dominates the entire directive boards.
Recently the authors had a hard but very instructive experience. Both were invited to speak in a Seminar entitled DRUGS – Practical and Up-to-date Issues, organized by the Psychological Service of the Judiciary System of Rio de Janeiro, psychologists that take care mostly of children and adolescents within highly disturbed families mostly during divorce processes. Among fifteen speakers we were the exception: all others, including Judges, defended not only harm reduction but legalization as well of dangerous psychoactive drugs, particularly marijuana that was deemed almost unanimously as a miraculous curative factor to a great number of diseases. One of the judges present even said that drug traffickers should no be go to jail but instead be ‘condemned’ to ‘social activities’ for a period, in order to convert them to law!
However, it seems that also within the Judiciary branch there are some isolated individuals that oppose legalization. Among Representatives and Senators there is a majority of religious persons, mostly Catholic or Protestants, with which we could count since the Congress could rid itself of the enormous number of accusations of corruption that had cornered the Legislative branch. In case it comes to vote, legalization won’t pass.
Notwithstanding, the Executive is implementing all these programs in contempt of the law of the Country, presenting the Nation with such an ‘unanimous’ point of view that it is taken for granted as the only truth leaving no place to different views. Although among the newspapers some journalists resist these consensual ideas in all the rest of the media, particularly Television they are widely accept as granted. The greatest TV Network, Globo, introduces drug liberalization in many degrees of disguised dialogues and is widely known that a majority of its actors and actresses advocate personally for legalization.
What happened in the Symposium referred to above is how debates are being conducted and follows a precise method and planning. In order to show themselves as democrats, always a minority of discussants from the ‘opposition’ is invited to make contrast with the consensus arrived at beforehand.
Perhaps this is a very pessimistic point of view but we must assess reality as closer as it is.
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The authors are respectively International Vice President and Member of the International Board of Directors and Delegate in Brazil of Drug Watch International