https://stopthedrugwar.org/chronicle-old/394/brazil.shtml

Brazil possesses a vibrant harm reduction movement in ABORDA, the Brazilian Harm Reduction Association, and harm reduction programs such as needle exchanges have been underway in Brazil for at least 15 years, but have always operated in the legal shadows because Brazilian law defined anyone who assists a drug user in using drugs -- such as someone who hands him a clean needle -- as guilty of violating the country's drug laws. Not anymore.

Now, Brazilian harm reduction is beginning to come in from the cold. In a decree issued July 1 and published July 4, the Brazilian Health Ministry announced that it is bringing harm reduction measures under its purview. In the decree, the ministry stated that the measure "determines that actions aimed at social harm reduction and health related to product, substance or drug use will be regulated" by the ministry.

The move is a landmark for Brazil's harm reduction movement, which began in the late 1980s when Fabio Mesquita, who is currently head of AIDS/HIV prevention for the city of Sao Paulo, began a program in the city of Santos. While harm reduction efforts continued to expand during the 1990s and early this decade despite their fuzzy legal status, police repression of programs such as needle exchanges continues on a sporadic basis.

Still, there are now at least 25 harm reduction or drug user organizations in the country, the Health Ministry noted, with nearly 200 harm reduction projects underway, as well as more than 100 "psychosocial attention centers," where drug users can access free, anonymous harm reduction assistance.

"We know this is only one more step in the process of making harm reduction a part of public policy that responds integrally to drug use," said Pedro Gabriel Delgado, national coordinator of mental health policy for the Health Ministry, in a statement announcing the move, "but we know this is a very important step because it means harm reduction will be regulated under public health. We hope the endless resistance to harm reduction we have observed in recent times will now be reduced, but we certainly have plenty to do."

While the legal process continues, said Delgado, the move should be viewed as a true victory. "Today is a day of celebration and acknowledgement for all of those who, anonymous or not, fought for all these years to see these regulations published."

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