Practices in primary health care oriented toward the harmful consumption of drugs^*

Las prácticas en la atención primaria de salud relacionados con el consumo nocivo de las drogas

Objective

To analyze the practices of primary care focused on the harmful consumption of drugs.

Method

This is a qualitative study, developed with a dialectical-critical approach. Data collection was carried out through semi-structured interviews with 10 employees of a basic health unit (UBS).

Results

The demands are not accepted, and if they go beyond the barriers shaped by the historical absence of health care practices for drug users and moralistic and preconceived ideologies, they are not reinterpreted as health needs; practices that meet these demands and go beyond the barriers are poor; the functionalist approach, which explains drug use as a disease and considers drug users as deviants, supports the few existing practices.

Conclusion

primary health care is mistakenly focused on addiction; it lacks structural elements of the production process in health and internal dynamics of the working processes that would foster the development of collective practices.

Drug users; Primary health care; Family health strategy; Health personnel