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Government

A Portrait of Epidemic Cocaine Addiction in Brazil’s ‘Crack Lands’

Dec. 31, 2012 7:15pm Liz Klimas

RIO DE JANEIRO (AP) — Bobo has a method: Cocaine gets him through the day, when he cruises with a wheelbarrow around a slum on Rio’s west side, sorting through trash for recyclables to sell. At night, he turns the day’s profit into crack.

“Sometimes I don’t sleep at all; I’m up 24 hours,” says Bobo, a former soldier who doesn’t use his given name for safety reasons. “I work to support my addiction, but I only use crack at night. That drug takes my mind away. I lose all notion of what I’m doing.”

Spread of Cocaine Use in Brazil Has Government Debating and Spending Billions on the Epidemic

This is Bobo. (Photo: AP/Felipe Dana

Bobo says balancing crack with cocaine keeps him working and sane. On the shantytown’s streets, life can be hell: Addicts unable to strike Bobo’s precarious balance use crack day and night, begging, stealing, prostituting themselves, and picking through trash to make enough for the next hit. For them, there’s no going home, no job, nothing but the drug.

n this photo taken Dec. 21, 2012, former soldier Bobo pushes his cart containing recyclables he collected at a slum in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. Bobo spends his day sorting through trash for recyclables to sell. (Photo: AP/Felipe Dana)

Bobo sells some of the recycled materials he has collected. (Photo: AP/Felipe Dana)

With a boom in crack use over the past decade, Brazilian authorities are struggling to stop the drug’s spread, sparking a debate over the legality and efficiency of forcibly interning users. Brazil today is the world’s largest consumer of both cocaine and its crack derivative, according to the Federal University of Sao Paolo. About 6 million adults, or 3 percent of Brazilians, have tried cocaine in some form.

Rio de Janeiro has taken the lead in trying to help the burgeoning number of users with an approach that city leaders call proactive, but critics pan as unnecessarily aggressive. As of May 2011, users living in the streets have been scooped up in pre-dawn raids by teams led by the city’s welfare department in conjunction with police and health care workers. By Dec. 5, 582 people had been picked up, including 734 children.

A Rio de Janeiro Social Work department agent (R) speaks with an alleged crack addict at ‘crackland’, near Parque Uniao slum during a police-sanitary operation in Rio de Janeiro on November 29. (Photo: CHRISTOPHE SIMON/AFP/Getty Images)

The sight is gut-wrenching. While some people go meekly, many fight, cry, scream out in desperation in their altered states. Once they’re gone, their ratty mattresses, pans, sweaters and few other possessions are swept up by a garbage removal company.

Adults can’t be forced to stay in treatment, and most leave the shelters within three days. But children are kept in treatment against their will or returned to parents if they have a family. In December, 119 children were being held in specialized treatment units.

Demand for crack has boomed in recent years and open-air “cracolandias,” or “crack lands,” popped up in the urban centers of Rio and Sao Paulo, with hundreds of users gathering to smoke the drug. The federal government announced in early 2012 that more than $2 billion would be spent to fight the epidemic, allotting money to train health care workers, buy thousands of hospital and shelter beds, and create transitional centers for recovering users.

An alleged crack addict pregnant woman holds her boy friend at ‘crackland’, near Parque Uniao slum during a police-sanitary operation. (Photo: CHRISTOPHE SIMON/AFP/Getty Images)

Mobile street units stationed near cracolandias are among the most important and visible aspects of the government’s approach. The units, housed in metal containers, bring doctors, nurses, therapists and social workers to the areas where users concentrate. Slowly, by offering health care and other help, the units’ workers gain the trust of users and refer them to treatment centers.

Studies suggest the approach can work: 47 percent of the crack users surveyed in Sao Paulo said they’d welcome treatment, according to the Federal University of Sao Paulo study.

In this photo taken Dec. 8, 2012, a young drug dealer sitting on a chair holds a weapon and a two-way radio at a slum in western Rio de Janeiro. (Photo: AP/Felipe Dana)

Ethel Vieira, a psychologist on the raid team, thinks their persistence is paying off.

“Initially, they’d run away, react aggressively, throw rocks,” she said of users. “Now most of them understand our intention is to help, to give them a chance to leave the street and to connect with the public health network.”

Human rights groups object to the forced commitment of children, saying treatment delivered against the will of patients is ineffective. They also oppose the sweeps, which they describe as violent.

“There are legal procedures that must be followed and that are not being followed. This goes against the law and is unconstitutional,” Margarida Pressburguer, head of the Human Rights Commission for Brazil’s Association of Attorneys, said during a debate last year.

Rio Mayor Eduardo Paes suggested in October that the city would start forcing adults into treatment. “A crack addict isn’t capable of making decisions,” Paes said from the Jacarezinho shantytown in the week after police stormed the area and seized control of what was then Rio’s largest cracolandia.

The Rio state Attorney General’s Office responded by telling city officials “the compulsory removal of adults living in the streets has no legal foundation.” It said adults can be committed only when they become a danger to themselves or others and outpatient treatment options have run out.

“They give us a place to sleep, food, clothes, everything,” said Bobo. “I’ve been picked up by the city and I liked it. They are doing this for our good.”

But even as Bobo endorsed the city’s approach, a friend was stepping over to the drug stand for more cocaine. Bobo asked for $5 worth of drugs – cocaine for now, crack for later. Then he rolled up a bill and dumped a small mound of white powder in his palm for snorting.

Here Bobo is buying crack. (Photo: AP/Felipe Dana)

With a nose full of cocaine, he set off, ready for another day.

In CONTROL, Glenn Beck presents a passionate, fact-based case for guns that reveals why gun control isn’t really about controlling guns at all; it’s about controlling us. Find out more HERE.

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Comments (72)

hardcharger812
Posted on January 1, 2013 at 9:30am
Loser. How can you be so stupid?

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- STARSANDSTRIPES4EVR
  Posted on January 2, 2013 at 9:34am
  Its called addition. Rational thought is not even part of the equation.
  
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- MrSunshine
  Posted on January 2, 2013 at 12:01pm
  I get the same way over subtraction and don’t even get me started on division!
  
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ireport uderide
Posted on January 1, 2013 at 9:12am
If you want to know one of the reasons why crazed drug addicts and the mentally ill are running loose in your streets read the following quote from the article.

“Human rights groups object to the forced commitment of children, saying treatment delivered against the will of patients is ineffective. They also oppose the sweeps, which they describe as violent.”

In other words, drug addicts and the mentally ill have the basic human right to be free to attack, rob, molest, rape, murder then receive government aid. Sound familiar? It’s right there in the ACLU handbook under “how to destroy a free people”.

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- starman70
  Posted on January 1, 2013 at 12:47pm
  Here is a chilling picture of what America will become in the near future!! First, keep passing Marijuana freedom legislation. The more states the better. Allow the youth to become addicted to Marijuana. Second, pass legislation to prevent authorities from arresting those who graduated from Marijuana to harder drugs. Thirdly, allow the ACLU to lobby for legislation to free ALL of those jailed for manufacturing Cocaine and Meth, on the pretense of freeing up jail space. Fourth, pass legislation creating open “Drug Parks” where those addicted can go and buy whatever they are addicted to. Finally, pass legislation to allow open drug use everywhere, the reason being that the “Drug Parks” are too limited in space to accomodate all the hopheads wanting to use the area.
  
  IT IS COMING HERE SOONER THAN YOU THINK!! If you think crime is out of control now, just wait.
  
  Report this comment
- Kupo
  Posted on January 1, 2013 at 1:47pm
  No, they have the right to be free but they don’t have the right to rob, rape, murder, etc.
  
  Report this comment
- SgtB
  Posted on January 1, 2013 at 2:02pm
  Funny how Portugal stopped having their drug problems when they completely legalized possession and hospitals starting offering cessation treatments and programs that actually work. Also, how do you feel knowing that your borderline psychotic fear of a plant is potentially keeping all hopes and dreams of a cure for cancer from becoming a reality?!?
  
  Now, don’t take me as a drug user or methhead. I’m surely neither. I am a Marine Corps veteran and am in the process of earning a degree in engineering with a child on the way and a mortgage to pay; however, the facts are that marijuana or cannabis is the only plant that contains cannabinoids in any significant quantity. These cannabanoids are chemicals found naturally in the human body. Their foremost role is the regulation and destruction of cells that grow uncontrollably, otherwise know as cancer. Furthermore, this plant has proven itself to be medically beneficial in many other aspects. It is even used as a treatment to get children with severe nausea from chemo to eat.
  
  Lastly, it is obvious that you are a simplistic moron who cannot and will not accept the fact that other human beings should be afforded the same ability to make their own life decisions. Oh, and that includes the decision to issue force upon another person. But that is where a person’s natural right to life and Liberty over rule that decision and deadly force can be used for protection. Effectively eliminating from society all the miscreants you despi
  
  Report this comment
- cmonnow
  Posted on January 1, 2013 at 11:46pm
  SGTB – great comment. Too bad most on this site are so reactionary and knee-jerk that they can’t process this..
  
  Report this comment
- Kupo
  Posted on January 2, 2013 at 3:25pm
  Starman70
  
  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Slippery_slope
  
  Report this comment
redneckdiver
Posted on January 1, 2013 at 8:42am
I don’t understand. Brazil has very effective, common sense gun control measures. How did that child drug dealer get such a menacing street howitzer?

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- 123456beatriz
  Posted on January 1, 2013 at 9:15am
  This new “Cancer” is Global, is everywhere. Sad and sad for responsible workers because we pay taxes to keep these people alive. Bitter reality.
  
  Report this comment
likwidlizard
Posted on January 1, 2013 at 8:15am
Addictics will only clean up when they are honestly ready to change. Nothing will change them till they want it. I’m a former addict so I know. I’ve been clean for 16 years now.

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cemerius
Posted on January 1, 2013 at 6:49am
Nice story but there is one closer to home and that is the HORRIBLE drug epidemic in Puerto Rico you know that country that in the 2012 election cycle voted to allow US statehood??? Of course, the story should mention Puerto Rico’s HUGE AIDS per capita numbers too!!

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- DZ-015
  Posted on January 1, 2013 at 10:26am
  That’s two more senate seats the ‘crats expect to pick up.
  
  Report this comment
ADNIL
Posted on January 1, 2013 at 5:58am
The solution is Soooo simple. Crack-Free Zones. Make the whole country a Crack-Free Zone.
There…….problem solved. Duh

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- cemerius
  Posted on January 1, 2013 at 6:47am
  as long as the women can still show their cracks in those micro bikinis :)
  
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- YAHSHUARULES
  Posted on January 1, 2013 at 6:59am
  Give a little more time and this could be America if the progressives have their way – creating a people so dumbed down they not only want cradle to grave government care but they can’t exist without it – can’t critically think, they can’t serve on juries competently and can’t vote intelligently. Useful idiots for the state.
  
  to create an America so corrupt it stinks; use public policy to subvert America from inside, infiltrate and influence our culture driving us in a direction designed to destroy us. . If you don’t know all this you need to find out!
  
  I have watched it 12X to absorb all that is in it!
  
  This is the most comprehensive, best movie I have seen pulling all this together. Watch it. Share it. Arrange a showing in church, groups, clubs, with friends or family. Everyone who loves America needs to see this movie,
  It is free on line for the moment
  
  https://vimeo.com/52009124
  
  Report this comment
- 1776freedomofspeech
  Posted on January 1, 2013 at 8:21am
  @YAHSHUARULES
  
  You are right. This is the future of America if we don’t start taking care of business.
  
  Great Blazer name you choose BTW. Jesus is Lord! Amen!
  
  Report this comment
media-bias-steals-elections
Posted on January 1, 2013 at 3:15am
Looks like the government is “regulating the use” of drugs by rounding up people living on the streets and then giving them rehab? Not exactly putting a .45 in their skulls, are they? Only people that want to live like they are plugged into a tube of goo like the Matrix stay on that stuff, they grow out of it?

Have you ever met somebody on Prozac? You will stay sober the rest of your life after your realize what “government approved” medication can do for you?

That’s called advocate instead of regulate, and it works, because you motivate people to think a certain way, and they want to do it, you don’t have to force them? Nice job Glenn, lots of people would think twice about Cocaine looking at this story?

Stay off all drugs, live clean, you have enough to worry about?

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- TurboCat
  Posted on January 1, 2013 at 4:39am
  What’s with all the question marks??????????????????
  
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justa_thought
Posted on January 1, 2013 at 12:42am
Looks like a Wall Street protest to me.

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- piper60
  Posted on January 1, 2013 at 2:57am
  This is what the OWS types would have looked like if their protest had gone on. It also occurs to me, that our dear leader would love to have a majority of our youth looking like Bobo.
  
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MrKnowItAll
Posted on December 31, 2012 at 11:42pm
Why did they pay Tom Hanks all that money to Star in Castaway. This guy would have done it for crack.

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psadie
Posted on December 31, 2012 at 9:49pm
Yeah, what are they going to do with all those bands of kids that are running wild in the streets before the Olympics? Rumor has it that the federales are killing them when caught.

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- Walkabout
  Posted on December 31, 2012 at 10:13pm
  The police had some people working after hours called the Black Hand that would kill street kids causing problems for local merchants. Street kids & gangs have been a problem for over 50 years in Rio.
  
  We’re talking about very small merchants 40 by 60 feet of floor space.
  
  Report this comment
- oldguy49
  Posted on December 31, 2012 at 11:21pm
  you can see this in ny city at nite……..you just can’t get a super size soft drink
  
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- Rob
  Posted on December 31, 2012 at 11:22pm
  I would be in favor of Judge Dread doing that over here too. Clean up the gene pool..
  
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- Walkabout
  Posted on December 31, 2012 at 11:34pm
  Rob.
  
  Nothing wrong with the gene pool. It is liberal memes that are the problem.
  
  Q Why do you think the f/cking trolls hate this website?
  A It hampers the dissemination of their cultural memes.
  
  “Dawkins defined the meme as a unit of cultural transmission, or a unit of imitation and replication, but later definitions would vary. Memes, analogously to genes”
  
  - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Meme
  
  Report this comment
Rob
Posted on December 31, 2012 at 9:29pm
Over here, we call them liberals.

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ENIGMA28724
Posted on December 31, 2012 at 9:27pm
At least he works to support his habit instead of stealing and assaulting people like American crackheads.

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Walkabout
Posted on December 31, 2012 at 9:24pm
Rio De Janeiro the site of the next summer Olympics.

If you wander of the main streets, well…

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- pavepaws
  Posted on January 1, 2013 at 2:52pm
  Adious
  
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SmellyDog
Posted on December 31, 2012 at 9:23pm
They had to go all the way to Brazil to see crackheads? There’s an addict on every corner around here!

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Kaoscontrol
Posted on December 31, 2012 at 8:49pm
Just like Amsterdam: Colorado and Washington legalized weed– Next it’ll be coke and crack. Scenes like these from Brazil are coming to a neighborhood near you, soon…

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hades3
Posted on December 31, 2012 at 8:30pm
The US does not have these types of addicts on our streets. We are politically correct, we refer to them as “homeless”. We are tolerant. We don’t want too hurt their feelings. We would rather have them just die, after all, any attempts too place them in treatment programs, would be a violation
of our constitution, which would no doubt be pointed out by those on the left. Ironically, by the very same people who hate our constitution the most.

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- sligresda
  Posted on December 31, 2012 at 8:57pm
  as an ex cocaine addict i can tell you that you cannot force treatment and recovery. you either want help or you dont. and only when you want help will treatment work.
  
  Report this comment
- Walkabout
  Posted on December 31, 2012 at 9:32pm
  sligresda
  What do you think about legalizing drugs (i.e. decriminalizing)?
  
  What do you think of the Chinese experience in the 1800s, when Britain fought wars to force the importation of drugs into China?
  
  Report this comment
- nomemymine
  Posted on December 31, 2012 at 10:17pm
  Please don’t legalize drugs. Drug use will spread to many more people, simply it is legal to use.
  
  Report this comment
- Walkabout
  Posted on December 31, 2012 at 11:17pm
  omemymine
  
  I do not want drugs legalized, just like I don’t want gay adoption. But both are happening to an extent in some states & may happen virtually everywhere.
  
  If churches don’t like the latter they can make sure their members have up to date wills. If the poorer church members cannot pay for it then the richer ones should chip in. If the church cannot do this then it is not worth it. Up to date wills are a final firewall.
  
  For the former churches can model appropriate lifestyles and provide appropriate outlets such as sports, hobbies and such. They could even teach Latin, Greek ancient Hebrew, theology and many other things.
  
  Report this comment
tothepoint
Posted on December 31, 2012 at 8:25pm
While the adults choose to live as addicted homeless people, the babies born to these addicts have the addiction and lifestyle forced on them. They are victims.
God bless those unborn humans and newborns in this situation.
So very sad…

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jungle J
Posted on December 31, 2012 at 7:59pm
looks like most ghettos in America….

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- Ghandi was a Republican
  Posted on December 31, 2012 at 8:19pm
  Looks like the place Acorn/seiu gets their day paid employees for their protests. Bobo even has that Encicom-ee look to him.
  
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- Eleutheria
  Posted on December 31, 2012 at 8:29pm
  In a few years, all of America will look like this.
  
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vic138
Posted on December 31, 2012 at 7:50pm
Ok, no crack for me tonight. Just the normal stuff…

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supermansdad
Posted on December 31, 2012 at 7:49pm
I can’t wait till the Olympics are held there! This seems totally safe!

Besides, why are they trying to stop the trade, they should just “decriminalize it” and all the problems would go away…….

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- Ghandi was a Republican
  Posted on December 31, 2012 at 8:16pm
  HAHAHAHh That’s right- THIS place beat out Chicago…
  
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- Lamarr01
  Posted on December 31, 2012 at 11:41pm
  In America crackheads don’t have to humiliate themselves by working. They can sell their food stamps and their children’s welfare check to get the drugs they need. The drug dealer in the picture has a high-capacity magazine. America is much more advanced and will only allow a maximum of a 10 round magazine. The poor pregnant woman should try to fly into Miami to have her baby delivered free of charge and the baby will be an automatic American citizen.
  
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Chromo200
Posted on December 31, 2012 at 7:37pm
“Studies suggest the approach can work: 47 percent of the crack users surveyed in Sao Paulo said they’d welcome treatment”. The study does not say how many stay off the drugs .. Sure they welcome the treatment since they get more drugs .. “But even as Bobo endorsed the city’s approach, a friend was stepping over to the drug stand for more cocaine. Bobo asked for $5 worth of drugs – cocaine for now, crack for later.. ”

Not sure what the solution is, just that programs like this don’t work getting people off drugs. They just enable people. Although they d provide healthier life style .. food, medicine, place to stay.

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chips1
Posted on December 31, 2012 at 7:36pm
Hey!!! That’s Toad!! I wonder if he knows Milner was killed by a drunk driver.

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Mr.Fitnah
Posted on December 31, 2012 at 7:28pm
Napalm .
It cures crack addiction.

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- BODYBAG
  Posted on December 31, 2012 at 7:39pm
  It smells — like —- like —- Victory.
  
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wildchild
Posted on December 31, 2012 at 7:26pm
And I thought forced sterilization was needed here!

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- Lamarr01
  Posted on December 31, 2012 at 11:50pm
  Forced sterilization violates the freedom to choose. After being sterilized, a drug addict should be able to choose between crack, meth or heroin.
  
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- cmonnow
  Posted on January 1, 2013 at 11:48pm
  WildChild – do a little research into our country’s history and you will find that we have been a leader in forced sterilization. A shameful past, that derived from our slave holding tradition. It’s incredibly sad, but not at all surprising, to come to this site and read so-called freedom loving people call for such things. Sad and disgusting.
  
  Report this comment
civilwarcometh
Posted on December 31, 2012 at 7:24pm
So i guess we no where the obamas will take their next vacation…

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- Walkabout
  Posted on December 31, 2012 at 10:03pm
  I am sure Rio is quite safe. If you don’t stray 5 or 10 streets in the wrong direction. If you are not oblivious. If you travel on a few main streets at night (maybe) & don’t stray. If you have Secret Service.
  
  Report this comment

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