Understanding an epidemic

A recent blog post from the Open Society Institute cites a staggering figure: Over 90% of Rio de Janeiro’s homeless are addicted to crack.

This figure is shocking, even for a city as beset by social problems as Rio. (Though reliable data on drug use and homeless populations in other major cities has proven difficult to find, particularly for the developing world, I was able to track down a few studies of homeless populations in North American cities. In Toronto, for example, crack usage rates were found to be around 50%.)

What might account for this outlier? According to the 2010 UN World Drug Report, overall crack-cocaine use was on the rise in Brazil and in the rest of South America, but, as a global survey, the report doesn’t examine deeply the ballooning rates of drug use in urban centers such as Rio. Nor do I think that income inequality alone explains the phenomena, especially since homelessness does not necessarily correlate with a rise in drug use.

Brazil has long been at the forefront of harm reductionist drug policies, which bodes well for its future combating drug abuse. And, as OSI’s Kasia Malinowska-Sempruch points out, the city is taking sensible steps towards addressing its drug problem through joint efforts with community NGOs. I’d interested in uncovering how Rio reached this point in the first place, and whether or not there are lessons which can be applied in other cities across Brazil.