The Struggle for Medicinal Cannabis in Brazil: Alliance Limitations and Biopower's Influence

Abstract

In 2014, families' struggle for the regulation of cannabidiol (CBD) in Brazil—one of the cannabinoids found in cannabis sativa—strengthened the public debate about the plant's medicinal use. As a result, CBD became legal in the country. This work, using theories and methods associated with controversy mapping, has two main objectives: 1) to show which institutional and individual associations enabled this regulation, and 2) to explore how concepts such as biopower (Foucault) and assemblage (Deleuze and Guattari) can contribute to understanding this network's movement. The mapping reveals that the connection between family demands and historical cannabis activism was crucial in transforming an individual need into a collective struggle. Meanwhile, concepts like biopower and assemblage illuminate the limitations and possibilities of this alliance. Assemblages and lines of flight demonstrate how the network expands beyond actors' specific discursive demands to broader debates about the understanding of science, medicine, and regulatory agencies' roles. However, institutional actors tend to focus on the "side of life" (medicinal use in children), while sidelining the "war on drugs" (letting die) from public discourse.