A historical approach to preventive practices in the field of drug addiction

Drug prevention emerged as a very active and motivated professional movement, with low\r\ninstitutional presence, except for support from youth areas, and was losing relevance when\r\nit was assumed by public structures. This paradox is explained, to a large extent, by the\r\nnecessary prioritization that was attributed to healthcare, but also by the ease with which\r\npolitical action can be passed off with rhetoric, since the impact of prevention is not usually\r\nevaluated beyond group experiments and reports of activities that describe the product.\r\nAs if this were not enough, citizens’ demand is very abstract and only requires hearing\r\nwith some degree of credibility that “something is being done,” which is not possible with\r\nassistance that requires real resources. This description of the situation appeared in the\r\nso-called “White Book of prevention” (1996), which was never released as such, but from\r\nthat same document, the terminology related to prevention changed and opted for a model\r\nof “evidence-based prevention” (which does not tend to assume the standards of scientific\r\nevidence) but that has facilitated the maintenance of rhetorical “simulations”. Overcoming\r\nthis situation is easy, but requires strong political commitment, without rhetoric and with\r\nresources, which is not something found in almost any agenda at this time.