Nas teias do proibicionismo: políticas antidrogas em Belém (1900-1950)

Abstract

The present research aims to analyze the impacts of the prohibitionist drug policy in Belém from the end of the nineteenth century to the 1950s as well as to understand how the class-based society of that period fed, digested, and solidified restrictive measures against drugs. Additionally, it seeks to comprehend how interdiction zones for these substances were established, as the legal system defined which drugs could or could not be consumed. In this anti-drug crusade, the roles of intellectuals, doctors, and members of the judiciary guided the research, considering the resistance tactics of men and women, drug users or not, in their own ways of life in the region. This social space also gave rise to forms of resistance against the trade of substances deemed illegal. The national anti-drugs policy interacted with the international context and motivated the structuring of a prohibitionist project, whose historical perspective was shaped by class-based interests and values, of economically dominant social groups in the capital of Pará, albeit facing opposition from Belém’s working men and women.