Presenting a personal approach to the role of advocacy in legal and social disputes surrounding cannabis in the country, lawyer Emílio Nabas Figueiredo, who has been involved in the cannabis agenda since 2008, released the book "Advocacy and Marijuana: An Ethnography on Lawyers in Defenses and Demands of Cannabis in Brazil" in August.

In the work, the author highlights mainly the therapeutic use of cannabis and the fight against criminalization. The publication analyzes the work of male and female lawyers in drug policy, reinforcing the importance of advocacy in defending rights related to medicinal access and decriminalization of the plant.

More than an academic contribution, the book offers a first-person perspective on a legal field in transformation. "Cannabis is a plant intimately linked to humanity for millennia, and this work shows how the Law can be used to restore its relationship with society, far from the paradigm of exclusion," says Emílio Figueiredo.

Structure and contributors

Resulting from research conducted in the Master's program in Justice and Security at the Federal Fluminense University (UFF), the work combines anthropological methodology, personal accounts, and stories from legal practice. The book portrays the routine, dilemmas, and strategies of lawyers working in this constantly changing field.

The research includes interviews with criminal lawyers, activists, patients, and family members, as well as the analysis of landmark judicial decisions - such as habeas corpus petitions that authorized home cultivation of cannabis for medicinal purposes.

Published by Editora Reviver, with photography by Fabrício de Lima, the book features three prefaces signed by references from different areas:

- Luciana Boiteux, jurist and professor at UFRJ, a national reference in Criminal Law and drug policy;

- Sidarta Ribeiro, neuroscientist and professor at the Brain Institute of UFRN, best-selling author and advocate of the therapeutic use of marijuana;

- Marcos Veríssimo, anthropologist and researcher at INCT-InEAC, specialist in sociology of law.