The digital book “Pesquisa Nacional sobre o uso de crack – Quem são os usuários de crack e/ou similares do Brasil? Quantos são nas capitais brasileiras?”, organized by the researchers of the Health Information Laboratory (Lis/Icict), Francisco Inácio Bastos and Neilane Bertoni, is already available.

The book, resulting from the partnership between the Brazilian Department of Policies on Drugs (Senad) and Fiocruz, brings a broad investigation, which tried to outline the profile of crack users in Brazil and estimate the proportion of that population in the 26 capitals and the Federal District. The survey, considered as the world largest on the matter, will serve to guide the government and social policies for dealing with the population using crack and other similar drugs.

Two innovations in the methodologies were incorporated to the survey: the Time Location Sampling (TLS), which enabled accessing the crack and/or similar (coca paste, merla and oxy, which are consumed in pipes, cans and cups, or in other similar apparatus, just as crack) users floating population in the drug use scenes, and the Network Scale-up Method (NSUM), through home inquiry, which enabled the estimates of the number of users in the country. In all, 32,359 people were interviewed (24,977 in home inquiry and 7,381 users in the use scenes).

The methodologies used enabled a more accurate assessment about who and how many are the users, for, then, the authorities and specialists – governors and people acting directly on the issue – to be able to determine what are the best public policies aimed at that audience.One of the stand-outs of the survey is showing that crack cannot be seen as the only drug existing in Brazil with potential to damage the population, as other illicit drugs, like cocaine, for example, are also present in the daily routine of Brazilians. Even so, in addition to bringing numbers about the real situation of crack in the country, the “Pesquisa Nacional sobre o uso de crack” reveals that the social vulnerabilities affect the user – young adults, men and women – most with low instruction and black or brown people, showing that the use of crack in Brazil is, currently, a social problem.

As per the survey conclusions “in the full handling of crack abuse, the health care services offer is not sufficient, being the offer of social efforts totally strategic, from the simplest service of reception and offer of meal and personal hygiene, to the programs aiming at effectively emancipating and offering conditions for a dignified life in a broad dimension.”

Visit the website and download the book. 

Source: Ascom/Icict