Traficando informação: o caso “Baladaboa” e os processos de criminalização da redução de danos

Abstract

This article seeks to analyze a specific case involving a harm reduction strategy in scientific research that resulted in a police investigation about instigation of drug use and apology for crime, from a critical perspective in relation to the war on drugs and prohibition, whose central pillar, absenteeism, non-use of drugs, is challenged by the breadth of the concept of harm reduction, which encompasses ways of increasing the quality of life of drug users who do not want or cannot stop using them. Turning information about drugs into illicit represents an affront to freedom of expression and science, but the criminal law of drugs and their practical application are examples of the distorted and symbolic use of criminal law to pursue goals outside the scope of the law.