Sao Paulo crack addicts rounded up
2013-01-22 15:01
Sao Paulo - About 50 Brazilian health officials and law enforcement agents
are rounding up crack addicts in the city of Sao Paulo and forcibly putting
them in treatment if deemed necessary.
The measure comes as many Brazilian
cities face a crack epidemic like that the US saw in the 1990s.
Sao Paulo authorities must conduct a
simple health examination of addicts during Monday's sweep, and then get a
judge's approval to force somebody into treatment.
Similar action has already taken place in
Rio de Janeiro, which like Sao Paulo has seen areas of the city turned into
chaotic "cracklands" where addicts roam the streets and use the drug
night and day.
By early afternoon, Sao Paulo health
officials had yet to say if they had forced anyone into treatment.
- AP
