Brazil & Southern Cone - January 2013 (ISSN 1741-4431)

Crack cocaine usage has surged in Brazil over the past six years, with a recent study by the Universidade Federal de São Paulo putting the nationwide figure of users at over a million. A new programme in the state of São Paulo represents an attempt at a radical solution. On 21 January, city officials in began rounding up crack addicts from the street and forcing them to seek treatment.

Under referral from the Centre for Alcohol, Tobacco and Other Drugs (Cratod), a division of the state health ministry, the scheme mandates voluntary, involuntary or compulsory rehabilitation treatment. Under the involuntary rules, an addict’s relatives can phone a hotline to ask for their relative to be admitted. A Cratod team, comprising a judge, a prosecutor and a member of Brazil’s bar association (OAB), then decide on admission. Under the compulsory scheme, a doctor must determine whether the addict should be forcibly admitted.

The programme got off to a confused start, with some of the judges involved being unclear about the rules surrounding the process. At the time of going to press (two days into the scheme), no applications for compulsory detention had been submitted. There were 51 voluntary and involuntary applications. The state’s health officials say they have 700 beds available at clinics across the city; a further 1,100 will be available next year.

State Governor Geraldo Alckmin, of the opposition Partido da Social Democracia Brasileira (PSDB), is the driving force behind the programme, which is opposed by the mayor of São Paulo, Fernando Haddad, of the ruling Partido dos Trabalhadores (PT). Speaking on 21 January, Alckmin insisted that drug addiction was a public health problem that required answers from the state. Haddad said he would respect the legislation but stated that he believed compulsory admissions were a step too far.

Rio de Janeiro has a similar system in place, but at the moment its implementation is limited to minors. The controversial nature of the intervention was underlined earlier this month when a 10 year-old boy was run over and killed by a car while running away from a drug sweep by police and social workers.

In February, congress is to due vote on a bill that toughens penalties for drug trafficking and calls for forced treatment for crack addicts all over the country.

• Racism in Brazil

The first black elected to chair the Tribunal Superior do Trabalho (TST), the country’s top labour court, Carlos Alberto Reis Paula, gave a newspaper interview on 20 January in which he describe Brazil as “racist and discriminatory”. The interview was published a day after a poll showing that only 8.9% of congressional deputies is black. Well over half of the Brazilian population is black. Of the 26 mayors who took office at the beginning of 2013, only one is black.