Proibicionismo e criminalizaçao das drogas no Brasil: a ótica seletiva no combate às drogas

Abstract

This study aims to critically analyze Brazil’s drug policy within the broader context of prohibitionism, emphasizing the contradictions inherent in the country’s socio-historical development. Brazilian social formation has been marked by hygienist practices implemented in the post-abolition period, which facilitated the reproduction of structural racism under the guise of the so-called racial democracy. The central research question guiding this study is: Do the socio-historical and political foundations of the war on drugs serve as a strategy for racialized social control in Brazil? The main objective is to understand the "drug question" as an expression of the prohibitionist and punitive offensive targeting the Black working class. The specific objectives are: to examine the role of drug policy within the dynamics of capitalist sociability and its contradictions as intrinsic to the social question; to contextualize prohibitionism as a foundational element of the punitive state within the war on drugs; and to analyze the nexus between the penal state, prohibitionist discourse, and the criminalization of individuals involved in the drug economy, as evidenced by the mass incarceration of the Black population. Methodologically, we conducted exploratory documentary research in order to recover the legal framework on drugs that would contribute to our discussion with the aim of improving the debate on the subject. Documentary research was conducted to recover the legislative body related to the Drug Law for later analysis. The result of this research is the perception of the long path of prohibitionism based on racism, the dialogue between prohibition and racial criminalization means that there are racial control strategies implemented by the State itself. Due to the impossibility of creating segregation apparatuses, legislation performs this function. Therefore, segregation occurs for inmates who face difficulties in reestablishing sociability after imprisonment.