There are about 370,000 users of crack and similar (paste, merla and oxy) in the 26 capitals of Brazil and in the Federal District. The number was found in the largest and most comprehensive survey made about this drug in the world, the project “Crack-Vulnerabilidades”, developed by the Presidency of Fundação Oswaldo Cruz (Presidency/Fiocruz) and supported by Fiotec. The result was disclosed today by the Ministries of Justice and Health. The study shown also that those users represent 35% of the consumers of illicit drugs in the capitals of the country (except for marijuana), which are currently estimated in 1 million people.
Due to the existence of the so-called “crack lands”, there is a wrong perception that the use of the drug is higher in the great cities of the Southeast region. However, the study shown that the capitals of the Northeast region gather the largest number of users: 148,000. “Differently from other drugs, the crack is not limited to the poor communities and is present in open scenes of traffic and consumption in the mid class districts. This is a extremely dynamic set of scenes of drug use, whose mapping demands a permanent effort by researchers and members of the most affected communities”, said Francisco Inácio P. Monteiro Bastos, in an interview to Fiotec’s Communication in June 2012.
An alarming figure is that 14% of the crack users estimated in the survey – approximately 50,000 people – are underage. In this case, the Northeast also presents the highest quantitative: there are approximately 28,000 children and adolescents using the drug only in that region. In the South and in the Southeast regions together, there are 15,000 users under 18 years old.
The study listened to 25,000 people
The crack users were mapped under a methodology named Network Scale-up Method (NSUM), which is capable of estimating more precisely any hard-to-access populations, said to be “invisible”. This is an indirect method, i.e., there is no direct question to the respondent/interviewee about his/her own behavior, but about the behavior of other individuals belonging to his/her contact network, residing in the same municipality.
“Certainly there are great proportion use scenes very visible. However, this is not a general standard, or frequent in the country as a whole”, Francisco Inácio Bastos explained. This stage was held in 2012, with approximately 25,000 people, residing in the country capitals. Those people were visited in their homes and answered questions about their social networks (in general and with focus on users of crack and other drugs).
Epidemiologic inquiry mapped places visited by users and interviewed them
The project has also outlined an epidemiologic inquiry on the use of crack in Brazil. For such, direct interviews were made with 7,000 users of 18 years old or more in 112 municipalities, between 2011 and 2013. The researchers made a survey on the places visited for consumption of crack and similar drugs. Once the utilization scenes were mapped, distinct places, days in the week, shifts and times were selected randomly to be visited by the field teams for the research.
The interviews were made with regular drug users (at least 25 days in the last 6 months, according to the definition of the Pan American Health Organization - PAHO). Most of the interviewees is made of young adults, with average age of 30 years, male, single, with Elementary School complete or incomplete. About 40% of users are living in the streets and the most common way of attaining money reported was sporadic or autonomous works, corresponding to about 65%.
The inquiry has also shown the users’ motivation, the crack consumption related to other drugs, average time of use, intoxication, among other aspects. For accessing the full research, visit the website of the Ministry of Justice.
History
The project came from the Plan for Combat to Crack and other Drugs, of the federal government, and idealized by the National Department of Policies on Drugs (Senad). All stages of this research were coordinated by the researchers Francisco Inácio Bastos and Neilane Bertoni, both from Fiocruz, and were approved by the Ethics Committee of the National School for Public Health Sergio Arouca (Ensp/Fiocruz). Fiotec acted during the whole process. “Fiotec’s participation is essential. The project is broad and extremely complex, which makes its management a challenge for all participants – researchers, Fiocruz’s management, and, obviously, Fiotec”, said Francisco Bastos.
Picture: Wikipedia / Agência Brasil
