This work is the result of a broader post-doctoral research. It aims to develop an analysis to present an approach perspective on drugs from popular education. In order to achieve that objective, it is based on two conditions: (1) a literature review in Portuguese, Spanish, French and English; (2) the theoretical basis used for a study on the implementation of the Uruguayan policy of decriminalisation of Cannabis. Some of its results are, for example, (1) the approach to popular drug education requires socio-economic scrutiny of drugs in the context of social relations and social distancing; (2) popular education calls for a discursive change in the way of referring to people who use drugs, with a view to overcoming stigmatised language; 3) socio-educational work in the context of harm reduction measures, under popular education, involves interdisciplinary knowledge. Among the conclusions, it is stated that the study of drugs needs to be placed analytically from a social point of view, rather than in the sphere of individual factors, which tend to define their use as a strictly personal condition.