01 December 2020 | The online event "Drug Policies and Development: A Presentation for Brazil" was co-organized by the International Development Policy Journal, the Global Commission on Drug Policy (GCDP), and Transnational Security Studies Center and Professional Master in Global Governance at the Pontifical Catholic University of São Paulo (PUC-SP).
Brazil has experienced violent confrontations between criminal organizations trafficking drugs and law enforcement, with major unintended negative consequences on development objectives: increased HIV transmission; over-incarceration, and a large and powerful violent illegal market. Brazil also introduced major innovations in drug control, such as the Braços Abertos Program in Sao Paulo focused on a harm reduction approach. Furthermore, the National Health Agency recently regulated the medicinal cannabis market, although in a very restricted manner. The debate in Brazil is currently focused on the litigation concerning the decriminalization of drug use at the Supreme Court, and with the ongoing Congress debate of a broader regulation on industrial and medicinal cannabis. To bring in new perspectives to the discussion, this online event presented the findings of the Special Issue “Drug Policy and Development: Conflict and Coexistence” and opened a discussion with national experts on the future of drug policy in Brazil.
Prof. Dr. Paulo J. R. Pereira, Coordinator of the Transnational Security Studies Center at the Pontifical Catholic University of São Paulo (PUC-SP), gave the welcome remarks. Prof. Dr. Cláudia A. Marconi, Coordinator of the Professional Master in Global Governance at the Pontifical Catholic University of São Paulo, moderated the event. Speakers included Dr. Khalid Tinasti, Director of the Global Commission on Drug Policy and Research and Teaching Fellow at the Global Studies Institute at the University of Geneva; Dr. Andrea Galassi, Coordinator of the Reference Center on Drugs and Associated Vulnerabilities at the University of Brasilia (UNB); Dr. Luiz Guilherme Paiva, Researcher at the Center for the analysis of Liberty and Authoritarianism (LAUT); and Prof. Joanne Csete, Associate Professor of Population and Family Health at the Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health.
Read the Special Issue in open access: [ Ссылка ]
