O objeto/sujeito da redução de danos: uma análise da literatura da perspectiva da saúde coletiva / The object/subject of harm reduction: an analysis of literature through collective health perspective
AUTOR(ES)
Vilmar Ezequiel dos Santos
DATA DE PUBLICAÇÃO
2008
RESUMO
This essay had the goal of describing and analyzing the object/subject of harm reduction, based on Brazilian literature, having as theoretical perspective the Collective Health bases. International literature shows that harm reduction has been adopted and spread in several countries. North America and Europe focus the debate on the evaluation of strategies in some population segments, but the theoretical and political debate seems to be massed in Latin America, remarkably in Brazil. To understand the tendencies of this debate in Brazil, 44 national publications were selected, from 1994 to 2006, having LILACS¹ as reference. The analysis of this material showed that harm reduction initially objectified contagious diseases, especially AIDS, aiming the prevention of these problems among injecting drug users. Having circumscribed such object, marginalized or excluded drug users were considered. The first theoretical conclusions that guided the practices were highly critical of the approaches and therapeutics that only focused on abstinence. Although criticism being recalcitrant to the tough and intolerant models of drug combat at times, the focus on abstinence was supported by most of those who ended up adopting, totally or partially, harm reduction orientation. For as much as the increase on contemporary drug use, which has lead several areas to study this phenomenon, the theoretical debate on harm reduction was extended. The adherence to harm reduction practices, in the face of increasing social contradictions, brought to academic and service discussions the topic of ethics, human rights, prohibitionist decoy, etc. Then, harm reduction became a political movement that aimed at solving these contradictions. In that rate, the development of harm reduction practices - mostly supported by NGOs and international organizations - became tolerated by civil society and legitimated by the State. Thus, accepted by the new public health, it incorporated life quality and style concepts and health planning, causing great changes at the subject studied. In this perspective, the aim is improving the usersway of life, achieved by the qualification and preparation of "community" to be aware of health issues. The political debate is then over, and the drug use discussion is confined to a quite particular dimension, blaming individuals, families and communities for a problem which was originally found in the contemporary malaise. Alternatively, Collective Health has been of great importance on recalling social and political awareness of harm reduction in order to inhibit its transformation in a tool of capitalism. Its suggested therefore, in this essay that knowledge acquisition and social answers related to the complex psychoactive substances system is linked to the global procedures of contemporary society and its contradictions
ASSUNTO(S)
drogas de abuso saúde coletiva subject drugs of abuse sujeito revisão bibliográfica redução de danos bibliographic review harm reduction collective health
