Crack cocaine is king in Brazil: What Sao Paulo is doing about it

The Globe and Mail (Canada)
Saturday, April 26, 2014

crack-sao-paulo2São Paulo's Cracolândia has been here for 15 years. Its population hovered around 1,500. The city recently took over a collection of flophouses around Cracolândia – businesses whose clientele had fled along with most regular commerce in the neighbourhood – and set 400 addicts up in long-term accommodation. They also pitched a big tent on the edge of the fluxo, the shifting mattress camp on the streetcorner where addicts squat, hung up the Braços Abertos (Open Arms) banner and deployed an army of social workers