Overview of drug laws and legislative trends in Brazil.
Brazil is debating reform of current drug legislation. Changes to the Criminal Code are being discussed in Senate and the debate includes new articles on drugs. Several legal bills to reform the existing drug law are waiting to be reviewed. The most polemic debate is about the application of forced treatment on crack users. Under the government of Dilma Rousseff, Brazil is increasingly becoming a regional reference on security issues. The country is taking on regional tasks in the monitoring and tracking of coca crops and cocaine trafficking, using high level technology and involving both police and military forces to play a predominant role.
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Ten years ago this week, Brazil passed a law intended to distinguish dangerous drug traffickers from simple drug users. By replacing jail sentences for users of any illegal drug with penalties such as community service, and increasing penalties for drug trafficking, the new law aimed to reduce the number of people detained for drug possession and weaken criminal organizations that smuggle and sell drugs. None of that happened. In 2005, 9 percent of those in prison were detained on drug charges -- now it's 28 percent, and among women, 64 percent.
When national and local public safety personnel in Latin America want to turn away from "mano dura" approaches to the problem of alarmingly high rates of crime and violence, they frequently look to examples of apparently successful violence reduction strategies from other countries in the region. A example of this process is the effort to expand the Police Pacification Units (Unidades de Polícia Pacificadora, UPPs), established in Rio de Janeiro in 2008 and inspired in part by violence reduction strategies in Medellín, to new communities.
Despite the growing attention surrounding crack cocaine use in Brazil, little is understood about crack users' histories, use patterns and the interplay of drug-use behaviors, settings, and access/barriers to care. Qualitative studies seldom cross-compare findings regarding people who use crack from different settings. This study aims to explore the insights of regular crack users in two major Brazilian cities and to examine how social and contextual factors, including stigma and marginalization, influence initial use and a range of health and social issues.