THE INEFFECTIVENESS OF THE WAR DRUGS AS PUBLIC POLICY: BETWEEN THE FALLACY OF SECURITY AND THE VIOLATION OF FUNDAMENTAL RIGHTS IN THE NEOLIBERAL CONTEXT

Abstract

This article explores the global historical context of the War on Drugs mechanism, decreed by the neoliberal state, which operates as an instrument for asserting punitive state legitimacy. This is achieved through the creation and maintenance, for over fifty years, of an institution based on a logic of permanent exception that results in the suspension of fundamental human rights. Beyond failing to fulfill its stated objectives, this policy serves a precise political function: controlling the lower classes through discursive construction, violating what it promises to protect life and security. Despite presenting itself under the justification of protecting society, its concrete effects demonstrate the opposite: intensified violence, mass incarceration, and the systematic violation of fundamental rights guarantees. The work analyzes the War on Drugs not as a form of protection, but as a mechanism of a death management policy, masked by a discourse of order and security that conceals practices of exclusion, symbolically reaffirming state sovereignty over marginalized classes.