Live | Discussion about the 12 years of the Drugs Law

Harumi Visconti and Nathalia Oliveira (Brazilian Platform on Drugs Policy) take stock of the impacts of drugs policy over the past decade.

In August 2006 Law 11.343 was sanctioned by the then president, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva. It is known as the Drugs Law and revokes the 1976 law 6.368 and the 2002 law 10.409, making a legal distinction between traffickers and users. Following this change, a user can no longer be arrested on the spot and is eligible for alternative sentences to prison. A drug trafficker is liable for between 5 and 15 years in prison.

The Drugs Law is currently contributing to an increase in mass imprisonment of poor, black people, from underprivileged areas of cities. The criteria for imprisonment are not clearly set out in the law and allow for distortions and anomalies in prisons and trials. The criteria for classifying someone as either a user or a trafficker are subjective, for example quantity and circumstances at the time of arrest. It is up to each judge to decide which category applies to the accused.

In the transmission, available in full, below, Harumi Visconti and Nathalia Oliveira of the Brazilian Platform for Drugs Policy and Henrique Apolinário, Advisor on the Conectas Institutional Violence Programme, discuss the 12 years of the Drugs Law and its impact on the increase in the number of people in prison, in Brazil.

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