Crack dealers in a Brazilian project decide to stop selling crack

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villian

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Rio de Janeiro, Brazil - Under a footbridge, when night falls and it's pitch black, the only light that emanates is from flames given off from a few cigarette lighters and a couple candles.

On the dirt floor trash is scattered about, including condoms and plastic water cups with holes punched in the bottom to be used as rudimentary pipes; the pungent stench of urine hangs in the air.

It's filthy, but nobody seems to notice. The couple dozen people here on the ground are all too fixated on taking their next hit of crack cocaine.

This scene plays out inside the Antares slum - or favela as it is known in Brazil - in the industrial outskirts of Rio de Janeiro.

There are men, women, and even children, all using.

Paulo, a middle-aged man and father of three young children, is hunched over and inhaling a hit.

"I use crack every day, almost every hour," he said without hesitation. "This is a drug you fall in love with the first time you use it."

The Antares favela is under the command of dozens of machine gun wielding young men from a faction of the Comando Vermelho drug gang.

It's generally considered a no-go area for police.

A night-time visit inside the drug den in the slum reveals a troubling scene but points to a larger picture of how crack has become a security and public health epidemic in Brazil, spreading to all corners of the country and infiltrating all economic classes.

But since a rock of crack can be purchased for only R$5 (less than $3 USD), the most desperate and downtrodden users tend to congregate by the hundreds in and around Rio's favelas, where it can be easily purchased.


That is partially why, in an unprecedented move, some drug traffickers have unilaterally decided to stop selling crack in the favelas they control.

In both Mandela and Jacarezinho favelas - combined home to more than 100,000 residents - crack can no longer be purchased. Two drug bosses, who control each favela, gave the orders to halt sales.

A dirt road bordering Mandela favela that previously was known to be one of Rio's largest concentrations of users (known as "cracolanidias" in Brazil) is where hundreds of users and sellers would congregate day and night.

The road is now clear of any signs of users or sellers.

"I am not going to lie to you, there is a lot of profit to be made on crack," said Rodrigo, a top trafficker in Mandela who used to manage all the crack operations, told Al Jazeera. He asked that his real name not be used. "But crack also brought destruction in our community as well, so we're not selling it anymore. Addicts were robbing homes, killing each other for nothing inside the community. We wanted to avoid all that, so we stopped selling it."

The traffickers in Mandela, like Rodrigo, readily admit they still sell marijuana and powder cocaine and were happy to show it to Al Jazeera. Business was good for those drugs; bags of money sat out on tables at sales points in the slum.

But those other drugs, they said, don't seem to cause the same social problems in the favelas they control.
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AlJazeera said:
The traffickers in Mandela, like Rodrigo, readily admit they still sell marijuana and powder cocaine and were happy to show it to Al Jazeera. Business was good for those drugs; bags of money sat out on tables at sales points in the slum.
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Oh no! Now crackheads will have to add water and baking soda. How will they cope8)?
 
crimsonjunk said:
I always admired the Latin American sense of community and family. Its something that is not present in American culture
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you should visit! Any of the countries would do. Even Cuba. People are so open and friendly and shameless in Latin America. Too bad the economies are so shit.
 
Holy fuck. Just when I thought the US and its associated government agencies couldnt get any dumber..
 
I don't know if this figure is correct or not but I read or heard somewhere than only 7% of people that try crack become addicted. I'm not sure if this means lifelong addiction or not but if its correct, the quote "This is a drug you fall in love with the first time you use it." is incorrect.
 
I never became addicted to crack (heroin is a different story). I never understood what was so great about it (I guess cuz I shot heroin and smoked meth first?) Felt like I was wasting money for such a short high.
 
LogicSoDeveloped said:
I don't know if this figure is correct or not but I read or heard somewhere than only 7% of people that try crack become addicted. I'm not sure if this means lifelong addiction or not but if its correct, the quote "This is a drug you fall in love with the first time you use it." is incorrect.
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I'd say it's relative, 'falling in love' with a drug isn't the same as becoming deeply addicted to it. It's probably a bit of a generalization on the part of the dude though.
 
I can see how ppl would fall in love with it, the high is quite pleasureable, but the come down and cravings are terrible. the handful of times ive smoked it i would always have dope to shoot to come down, but the times i didnt after about a minute from the first hit i would find myself saying over and over why did i do this?? i feel like shit!! just the rush alone is so strong that someone who likes stims would probably get addicted more easily than someone who has more of a taste for downers.
 
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