This event is part of the agenda of the Doctoral Programme in Sociology of the State, Law and Justice (CES/FEUC), focused on the critical study of the performance of justice institutions and the relationships between the production and application of law, politics and society, and marks the international launch of the collection Repensando a Guerra às Drogas: Uma nova justiça para um novo capítulo da política de drogas no Brasil [Rethinking the War on Drugs: A new justice for a new chapter in drug policy in Brazil].

It seeks to promote a debate that articulates the paths opened up by the decision of the Brazilian Supreme Court (STF) and the Portuguese experience, with a view to developing drug use policies based on human rights, public health, social justice, and rational allocation of public resources.

In Brazil, the STF’s ruling on Extraordinary Appeal 635.659 (2024) represents a turning point: it decriminalised the possession of cannabis for personal use, established objective criteria to distinguish between use and trafficking, and set a new standard of proof. The current challenge is implementing this decision within the justice system.

The Repensando a Guerra às Drogas Collective, composed of members of the Public Prosecutor’s Office, the judiciary, the Public Defender’s Office, the legal profession, and academia from different regions of the country, is engaged in a critical review of the application of the ‘Drug Law,’ a vector of mass incarceration in recent decades. The collection brings together their analyses and proposals for new practises capable of mitigating the perverse effects of the punitive model and paving the way for a fairer and more effective drug use policy.

The Plataforma JUSTA is a centre for research, strategic design and advocacy in the field of the political economy of justice. It analyses the management and funding of the justice system, revealing how budgetary priorities have favoured prisons and police forces at the expense of investigation, health policies, and alternative penalties. Its work is guided by the fight against structural inequalities, especially those affecting women and Black people, and by promoting more democratic and inclusive public solutions. This perspective reinforces the understanding of drug policy as a structural issue of justice, budget, and democracy.

In Portugal, the policy and legislation to decriminalise the possession of all drugs for personal use, implemented in 2001, has become an international benchmark for its innovative and humanistic approach, treating consumption as a public health issue. Its trajectory, the dilemmas it currently faces and the challenges to its consolidation and updating are a central focus of reflection in this seminar, in dialogue with the advances and impasses in the Brazilian context. This seminar also serves as a symbolic commemoration of the 25th anniversary of this political and legislative break with the past and the innovation in relation to drug use in Portugal.

_{Note: Online participation requires prior registration HERE}

Organisers | Coletivo Repensando a Guerra às Drogas, Plataforma JUSTA, and Doctoral Programme in Sociology of the State, Law and Justice (CES/FEUC)