H360 supports research on cannabis regulation in Brazil and comparison with international experiences

The Humanitas360 Institute supports scholarship and research of its collaborator Higor Cauê in the Master Course in Political and Economic Law. Higor works on the theme “Cannabis regulation and (racial) reparation: international experiences and the Brazilian case” in the Stricto Sensu Post Graduation program of the Presbyterian University Mackenzie, in the research line “Citizenship Shaping the State”.

In this line, the concept of citizenship is integrated with the foundations and principles of the Social and Democratic State of Law, resulting in an in-depth analysis of the promotion of social justice and effective political participation, in the measure of the relationship of citizenship and political participation in relation to the State. The study and research of the experiences of cannabis regulation marks a change from the prohibitionist, repressive paradigm that was hegemonic in drug policy for decades, and that in recent years, through the discussion of legalization – for recreational or medicinal use – has opened space for recognition of the historic errors that occurred in the “drug wars”. Considering that for some this “war” was presented only as a law and for many others as a de facto war, marking the history of mass incarceration and genocide of Black people.

Drugs are classified and separated between licit and illicit, but from there, the reparation of access to certain substances, through their criminalization, resulted in the perpetuation of historical and structural inequalities, spreading throughout the social fabric. Mapping debates of reparation, from the dynamics of cannabis legalization, in international experiences may allow us to understand the economic and law relationship, and the control of space and power to produce race. Finally, the aim of this project is to evaluate how international experiences of reparation at work in cities, provinces and states that regulate cannabis (medicinal, recreational or industrial) can be thought of for the Brazilian context, taking into account the initiatives and movements already operating in the country.