Trabalho, Educação e Saúde - TES (Work, Education and Health) is an open access scientific journal, edited by the Joaquim Venâncio Polytechnic School of Health, from Oswaldo Cruz Foundation.
The article presents the different positions the current Brazilian public policies have on alcohol and drug abuse and discusses the possible effects such differences could have on the healthcare worker's performance. It is the outcome of documentary research on these policies, such as ordinances, laws, and decrees from 1938 to those currently in effect. We chose to list them chronologically, considering the two main political positions: 1. Focus on public security and justice; 2. focus on public health. We found that in this period there was a clear attempt to make a paradigm shift in order to include use prevention and treatment. However, the policies and the common sense still bear strong signs of idealistic views of a world free of drugs which are derived from moralistic, intolerant, and authoritarian concepts such as the war on drugs, repression, and reductions in supply. It is in this context that public health professionals, especially those working in psychosocial alcohol and drug abuse care centers, face the challenge and experience the subjective effects of everyday work at the face of so many differences and contradictions.
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