POLITICS OF DRUGS, ALTERITIES AND BUILDING OF CITIZENSHIP IN CONTEMPORARY ARGENTINA

Abstract

Abstract: In  Argentina,  the  official  drug  policy  during  thelast  two  decades,  with  a  few  exceptions, focused  on  the  substances  of  consumption  and  the  need  to  solve  the  problem  concerning  abstinence and   penalty   in   the   sanitary   and   in   the legislative   fields   respectively. This   contributed   to   a naturalization of the practices of social segregation, with the diffusion of discourses that legitimize the existence  of  "second-class  citizens".  Both  the  public  policies  and  the  main  institutions  linked  to  the topic "drugs" are based on a warlike logic that establishes the discrimination of users and contributes to  the  construction  of  a  threatening  social  alterity.  However,  beyond  the  voluntarism  of  some nongovernmental  organizations  and  the  progressive  discourse  of  one  part  of  the  political  class,  the paradigm generated in the 1990s under Menem ́s governmentcontinues conditioned to the approach of the topic “drugs”.

Keywords: Drugs. Alterity. Citizenship. Public policy. Argentina.