Abstract
The Brazilian courts, especially the STJ and STF, have clearly affirmed that the trafficking activity is sufficiently characterized by the detection of a drug in the seized sample. Neither does Law 11.343/2006 (the Drug Law) regard the purity of the drug as a necessary condition, either for attesting the materiality of the crime or for the sentencing dosimetry. Drug concentration is an issue that has been discussed internationally for a long time. It involves both public health and criminal policy issues. For this reason, determining the purity of drugs is a central question for an appropriate national drug policy. This research aims to answer the following questions: how is the allegation of drug purity interpreted by Brazilian legislation and faced by the TJ/SP? And what are the practical consequences of this scenario? The main goal of the study is to show how Brazil deals with the issue of the purity of seized drugs and to demonstrate, through an interdisciplinary approach, the reasons why the purity of drugs matters. To this end, the hypothetical-deductive method was used, with bibliographic review, jurisprudential search in TJ/SP, from 2009 to 2018, and graphic data analysis.