State Government promotes in-person consultation for the review of the National Drug Policy Plan
The event was the country's first in-person consultation to discuss the new National Plan and had over 300 participants from public institutions, schools, and civil society
The Government of Pará, through the State Secretariat of Justice (Seju), and the State Council on Drugs (Coned) held, this Wednesday (7), in Belém, the In-Person Public Consultation in the North Region for the Review of the National Drug Policy Plan (Planad). The event, held in partnership with the National Council on Drug Policy (Conad) and the National Secretariat for Drug Policy and Asset Management (Senad), included the participation of civil society and entities for discussions and voting on proposals related to the national plan.
The meeting marked the first of the in-person consultations that will be held in each region of the country to present contributions to the Planad and the new National Drug Policy. More than 300 people participated in the discussions guided by axes such as sustainable development, prevention, harm reduction, public safety, access to care, participatory governance, evidence-based policies, and international cooperation.
The Secretary of State for Justice and President of Coned, Evandro Garla, emphasized that the North region takes the lead in a necessary change in drug policy. "We are here to debate and listen to the communities, the forgotten territories. The public consultation of Planad arises from the courage to build a country where drug policy is based on human dignity, social justice, and popular participation," he states.
The representative of Senad and the Ministry of Justice and Public Security, Ana Luiza Bandeira, highlighted the work of the government of Pará in drug policy. "The in-person consultation is a very symbolic moment of the democratic process to discuss and think about regional and national challenges. And having the inauguration of public consultations in Pará has been incredible; we know that other states will look to and be inspired by the organization here," she assesses.
Proposals and popular participation - in addition to the previously established axes for discussion and voting, it was possible to present new proposals for deliberation. This was the case of Luciano Figueiredo, a member of the therapeutic community Fazenda Esperança, who requested the inclusion of an axis to address welcoming and spirituality in the prevention and treatment of substance dependence. "This is a fundamental space for us to think about these factors as public policies on drugs," he explains.
Marcos Albuquerque, a representative in Pará of the international organization World Without Drugs, participated in the prevention axis, where he emphasized the importance of consulting and involving residents of the communities that receive preventive actions. "It is important to have interaction and exchange of ideas and information about projects, especially in the periphery, to mitigate the risk of drugs," highlighting that during the event, he met people who thanked him for the preventive actions and were now also debating proposals for the Planad.
