Uso prejudicial e dependência de álcool e outras drogas na agenda da saúde pública: um estudo sobre o processo de constituição da política pública de saúde do Brasil para usuários de álcool e outras drogas

Abstract

This study takes on as its object the process of creation of the public health policy for the user of alcohol and other drugs, established in the year 2003. Assuming beforehand that health policies are not established exclusively from the need of a special attention to issues involving health, the effort was to identify the factors and conditions that made possible the creation of the public health policy for the user of alcohol and other drugs. The study made use of the semi-structured interview as the privileged source, added by a bibliographical and documentary research. Asample was represented by nine key-informants, selected according to their participation in the investigated process. Results show that the establishment of a public health policy for the user of alcohol and other drugs became possible through technical, political and ideologicaladvancements made viable by the implementation of the Public Healthcare System (SUS Sistema único de saúde), the AIDS prevention policy especially the damage reduction program and the reformulation policy applied to the attention for mental health. These advancements contributed so that the health administrators, on a national level, could approach the prejudicial use and addiction of alcohol and other drugs as public health issues, and not through a moral oranti-drug perspective. Beyond these favorable conditions, the study shows that the policy was established inside a context marked by the growth of the financial impact brought by problems related to the use of alcohol and other drugs to the public health sector and the impact of these problems to the populations health and to Brazilian society.