Brazilian Minister Does not Like Result of Drug Study and Attacks Authors

By Xiu Ying, Contributing Reporter

RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – From 2014 to 2017, the Oswaldo Cruz Foundation (Fiocruz) conducted 16,000 interviews and assigned 500 researchers to develop the Third National Survey on Drug Use by the Brazilian Population.

It is a sort of census on the consumption of licit and illicit substances in Brazil.

Given its scope, the study was expensive: R$7 (US$1.75) million, paid by the government, which has now shelved the research, preventing Fiocruz from disclosing it.

The foundation won the call for tenders to carry out the study in 2014, having won bids for the two previous surveys.

The prohibition against this edition’s publication surprised the scientific community.

The veto is permissible – a clause in the contract stipulates that research may only be disclosed with the consent of the National Secretariat of Drug Policy (Senad), an agency linked to the Ministry of Justice.

For researchers and specialists in the field, however, the study has been shelved for a different reason: it does not confirm the existence of a drug epidemic in the country, as Osmar Terra, the Minister of Citizenship, often proclaims exists.

Senad officially claims that the survey has not been released because Fiocruz failed to comply with the requirements of the public bid procedure. On the other hand, the Minister seems to confirm what experts suspect by attacking the institution and claiming that the survey does not corroborate what is seen “on the streets”.