THE SOCIAL FUNCTION OF "DRUGS" IN CONTEMPORARY CAPITALISM: An analysis of Social worker in the CAPS AD of Natal / RN
Prohibitionism. Public Policy on Drugs. Psychoactive Substances. Social Work in the CAPS AD
The present dissertation aims to analyze the demands, challenges and strategies of action of social workers in public institutions of mental health care for users dependent on psychoactive substances. We chose the Centros de Atenção Psicossocial Álcool e Drogas (CAPS AD) of Natal / RN as an empirical locus. The research process is oriented in a materialist historical-dialectical perspective, with a qualitative approach. In order to systematize the information produced, the following instruments of data production were used: documentary analysis of the Portarias do Ministério da Saúde that regulate the CAPS AD and the Public Policies on Drugs, and semi-structured interview with social workers of the CAPS AD of Natal / RN . The main results allow to consider the use of psychoactive substances as a human need that assumes particularities and determined social function given the market dimension that permeates this universe within the framework of capitalist society; The criticism of the Brazilian prohibitionist drug policy, understanding it as one of the expressions of contemporary conservatism and the insertion of Social Work in the CAPS AD, it was possible to identify and analyze that professional demands are put in reality in an increasingly complex way in In view of the objective and subjective conditions of individuals and the structural and conjunctural limits that affect social policies, institutions and the use of psychoactive substances at this historical moment, showing social workers numerous challenges, especially with regard to professional practice In the social direction of the ethical-political project of the profession. The analysis based on a perspective of totality in the seizure of social relations and Social Work favored the critical reflection on the prohibitionist perspective of Public Policies on "Drugs" and the conservative tendencies present in the State action, revealing contradictions and incompatibility with the ethical project of the profession.