Políticas públicas sobre drogas em Pernambuco: uma análise das abordagens preventivas no período de 2007 a 2020

Abstract

For years, the subject of war on drugs has figured on the public policies for security and health, steming conflicts between preventive and repressive logics concerning the usage of psychoactive substances. Prohibitive and antiprohibitive approaches made it into the public security agenda, while in the health field the discussions sways between the models of abstinence and damage management. The goal for this paper is to reflect on the development of public policies about drugs in Pernambuco based on models that foster debates in the health and safety literatures. It is a qualitative research with content analysis using the CAQDAS software (Atlas ti), based on a corpus of 213 government documents, published between 2007 and 2020. Results show that two programs had outstanding results concerning the object of this research: the ATITUDE program with a model based on damage reduction and assistance-based approach, human rights and respect for users; and the program Pacto Pela Vida, on the development of integrated policies backed by the antiprohibitive paradigm, focusing on defending human rights and prioritization of life. In spite of those advances, the systematization of results, monitoring implementation and evaluation to back up evidence-based policy making has not been identified.