This article brings the subject of Brazilian's policies about drugs, aiming to rescue the history of the harm reduction strategy - HR - in Brazil. With bibliographic research using public domain websites and data bases available on the internet, we traced the origin of the harm reduction strategy in the country, which began with the AIDS epidemic in the 80's, and the policies that were implemented before the HR strategy. The collected data evokes reflections about the contemporary challenges that the application of HR strategy faces in the use and abuse of drugs, such as alcohol and crack, the predominant prejudice related to drugs' users and the exigency of intersectorial interventions for the consumption of drugs confrontation. Moreover, the conflict between the drug policies of the security and health fields continues until nowadays, with predominance of the prohibitionist model. Meanwhile, the production of licit and illicit drugs diversifies, what shows the necessity of different harm reduction strategies.
Drug abuse prevention; Drug rehabilitation; Formulation of policies; Mental health legislation
