Abstract
There is strong evidence suggesting that harm reduction policies are able to reduce the adverse health and social consequences of drug use. However, in this article I will compare two different countries to demonstrate that some social aspects lead to the adoption or rejection of harm reduction policies. In this case, countries where drugs are seen as a security concern are less likely to adopt these harm reduction policies. For that purpose, I will compare Colombia and Uruguay’s political, normative, and social aspects, which are considered drivers in the adoption of harm reduction policies, as well as how those factors influence the treatments available for substance abuse disorders.
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Notes
The Colombian Drugs Observatory in “Drug Use in Colombia: Characteristics and Trend” explains that the use of legal substances is decreasing, and the use of illegal substances is increasing in Colombia from 2008 to 2013.
Luz Estella Nagle explains that “the founding fathers borrowed the notion of individual guarantees of a bill of rights as appeared in the French Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizens, the concept of separation of powers and the role of the judiciary.
“The Spanish law, as Eder noted, remained in force, and the practices of the courts and the modes of Spanish legal thinking continued with little change until the adoption of its own codes later in the 19th century that were modelled after the Code of Napoleon.”
The law 19,172 in its article 2 determines that “the State will take control of regulating the activities of import, export, planting, cultivation, harvesting, production, acquisition in any capacity, storage, marketing and distribution of cannabis and its derivatives, or hemp when appropriate, through the institutions to which it grants legal mandate.”
Basuco is a mixture of cocaine, brick DUST, chalk and even volcanic ash, with residues of lead, sulfuric acid, ether, chloroform, kerosene or gasoline.
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Narvaez-Chicaiza, M.A. Harm Reduction Policies Where Drugs Constitute a Security Issue. Health Care Anal 28, 382–390 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10728-020-00415-9
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10728-020-00415-9