In Brazil, policies and public opinion on issues related to illicit drugs occur mainly through criminal repression. This view, which translates into the “war on drugs”, has tragic consequences, especially for the populations of poor areas. In recent years, this issue has found a visible and mediatic symbol, in the presence of free spaces of crack consumption, the so-called “cracolândias”, defined through stereotypes and transformed into scapegoats for complex social problems.
As of 2012, the “crack issue” became part of the concerns of Maré residents in a more noticeable way when, as a result of the installation of the Manguinhos and Jacarezinho UPP, crack users migrated to Av. Brasil, near Parque União. About 500 people started to circulate among the various consumption scenes at the locality.
The presence of users on a high-traffic road drew the attention of the press and provoked interventions by the Municipal Public Order Secretariat. Users were transferred “inside” the favela and settled in Parque Maré, where a group of approximately 80 people remains today. The place was constituted as a consumption scene, the “cracolândias” of Flávia Farnese”, as it is known.
Aiming to understand the relationships and dynamics established by the group and start a dialogue process on the topic of drugs in Maré, a team from Redes da Maré started to go to the place regularly. The partnership with the Residents’ Association of Parque Maré, which was already carrying out mediation work with crack users, was essential for this approach.
Throughout the initiative, activities were proposed to interfere in the group's daily life, creating spaces for dialogue, production and reflection. We highlight the pinhole photographic meetings with the photographer Tatiana Altberg; film screenings with Cineminha no Beco, by Bhega Silva; and the making of the short film “Cena”, by the Olhares da Maré Film School (Ecom).
In the space of Flávia Farnese, a community has been forming for almost three years, organized around the use of crack, but also based on affective relationships and collective trajectories, marked by extreme vulnerability and exposure to innumerable violence. A community where people have built living arrangements, and where there are relationships and conflicts, rules and transgressions, violence and solidarity, fears and desires. Many of them did not reach the space because of crack, but for various personal, economic and social reasons, and found support there to survive.
A survey shows that about 40% of those who are in “cracolândia” are born and raised or have some family link in Maré. Of these, most goes to their family home that offers food, rest and, in some way, a better quality of life. A mother confesses: "It is very tiring to know that he is there and that I have to receive him every day, but worst of all is that the family itself and my neighbors judge me for that". The testimony reports one of the dramas experienced by crack users and their families: the stigma related to “being a crackhead”.
It is common the perception of the users themselves regarding the prejudice that the population, in general, has: “The crackhead is considered garbage, people do not see us as people”, says one of the interviewees. "It is sad when we pass, people cross to the other side of the street, they are afraid of being mugged, not everyone here is a tramp", comments another resident. This perception of the ‘crackhead’ as 'non-people', potentially criminal, guided only by the desire for the drug, is far from the profile of the people we met during these months. Most of them do not resort to illegal activities to obtain income, but develop a set of informal activities to satisfy their needs. Many express desires similar to those of most Brazilians: more opportunities, more respect, housing, employment, better relationship with the family. Also, for some, stopping or decreasing drug abuse.
We observed the need for an intervention aimed at the care and guarantee of the rights of drug users. In this sense, new public policies have been formulated, with the harm reduction approach, allowing priority to be placed on the care and enforcement of rights for this population, such as access to health and social protection network. This is the premise of institutions that provide direct assistance in the scenes, such as the Consultório na Rua, CAPSad and Proximidade.
We hope that this will be the beginning of a progressive and collective change in Maré, so that the “cracolândias” do not suffer from the same abandonment to which the favelas have historically been relegated, through labels and stigmas that make it impossible to build sustainable public policies. One more step so that the “cracolândias” do not continue to be spaces that few see.
This initiative that combined research, intervention and institutional articulation was carried out between January and July 2015, in partnership with the Centro de Estudos de Segurança e Cidadania (CESeC), o Núcleo Interdisciplinar de Ação e Cidadania (NIAC/ UFRJ), e apoio da Open Society Foundation.
CAPSad
The Center for Psychosocial Care for Alcohol and Other Drugs (CAPSad) III Miriam Makeba, opened in 2014, is a municipal mental health service, focused on comprehensive care for people with problems due to the use of alcohol and other drugs. The work is guided by the logic of psychosocial care and harm reduction, so that it privileges personal bonds and subjective relations with the territory.
Caps has a multidisciplinary team that includes psychologists, doctors, nurses, occupational therapist, music therapist, social workers, nursing technicians. With this, it offers a range of different forms of care, such as individual and group care, workshops, medication, socializing, overnight stay for patients in crisis, cultural activities, home visits and drug use scenes visits. There is also a service for families, always on Mondays. CAPSad III Makeba receives every person who comes to the institution with a demand for treatment. A.P. 3.1 coverage area corresponding to the neighborhoods of Ilha do Governador, Manguinhos, Bonsucesso, Maré, Ramos, Complexo do Alemão, Olaria, Penha, Brás de Pina, Jardim América, Cordovil, Vigário Geral and Parada de Lucas.
Address: João Torquato St. 248 - Bonsucesso. Tel: 3889-8441 / 99721-4209. 24h service.
CENA
Concept used in the social sciences to refer to spaces of social interaction and to study dynamics, contexts and social groups delimited in a specific space.
HARM REDUCTION
Policies, programs and practices that aim to reduce economic, social and health consequences, caused by the use of legal or illegal psychoactive drugs, without having abstinence as a prerequisite
CONSULTÓRIO NA RUA
Multidisciplinary mobile health team that assists people living on the streets, working in an integrated way with the health and social assistance network.
Address: Av. Dom Helder Câmara, 1390 - Manguinhos. Tel: 2201-4476
PROXIMIDADE
Municipal Social Development Secretariat project, opened in 2014, to meet the policy of social assistance aimed at people who are in scenes of drug use.
Address: Regeneração St nº 654 - Bonsucesso. Tel: 99890-9143
Lidiane Malanquini
Coordinator of the Right to Public Security and Access to Justice axis at Redes da Maré
Maïra Gabriel Anhorn
Coordinator of the Territorial Development axis of Redes da Maré
Eliana Sousa Silva
Director and founder of NGO Redes da Maré, researcher in public security and visiting professor at the Institute of Advanced Studies at USP
