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Crack Ban in Rio is All About Community
Thursday 30th August 2012 | Osh
By Sarah Bradley
Beauty comes in many forms, but a recent development in a shantytown in Brazil achieves beauty in such a very unexpected entirely strange yet sweet way.
The Mandela slum and its surrounding shantytowns in Rio De Janeiro has been Rio’s main outdoor drug market, and a “cracolandia” (crackland), for about six years – ever since crack was introduced.
But now, although you can still get marijuana and cocaine there, crack is no longer available. This is not a move by the police, this is a decision that has been made by the drug dealers themselves. It is intended to improve the community, and is expected to be repeated to a city-wide level within two years.
Previously, crack users flocked to this area, looking to buy the rocks, they would smoke and then hang around until their next hit, many addicts lived in cardboard shacks and filthy blankets. The decision to remove crack from trade in the area will hopefully reduce this behaviour, and generally improve the situation.
Maybe David Cameron has something to learn from Brazilian drug dealers when it comes to a ‘Big Society’.
