The scenario of hundreds of crack users that marked the center of São Paulo for years no longer exists. Compared to the turbulent days of the recent past, the region today experiences apparent stagnation, without gas bombs, rubber bullets, raids, protests, shootings and deaths.
However, it is not possible to say that Cracolândia is finished. The large metropolitan area has given way to smaller areas, with circular concentrations of addicts who still use the drug in the region.
Videos made by Leaf in Apa Street and Glete Avenue in recent weeks confirm that the open drug scene continues in full swing, with sales and consumption on the sidewalks.
The situation contrasts with the speech of Governor Tarcísio de Freitas (Republicans), who insists that Cracolândia is finished – a statement that had already been made, without being confirmed, by João Doria, when he was mayor.
“When we say that Cracolândia is finished, it is because the scenario we had of free sale and use of drugs, of free territory, no longer exists. You just have to go to the center and see,” the governor said on November 13.
Asked about spraying users, Tarcísio replied: “It has always happened and it will continue to happen, as in any large center.” In an interview with Leaf In December, the new Secretary of State for Public Security, Osvaldo Nico Gonçalves, declared that the end of Cracolândia was the department’s greatest achievement under the administration.
The governor’s statement is contested by prosecutor Arthur Pinto Filho, of the public health prosecutor’s office of the public prosecutor’s office in the capital of São Paulo.
“It is by no means over. It has dispersed throughout the city, it has atomized. Today, they remain in small mobile groups. Why? Because when the GCM (Metropolitan Civil Guard) notices a small group of people, they arrive and disperse the people again, and they go to other places,” he reports.
Contacted by the report, the State Secretariat of Public Security confirmed the end of Cracolândia. “The area formerly known as ‘cracolândia,’ which for decades concentrated up to 2,000 people simultaneously in the so-called open drug scene, no longer exists,” the ministry said in a statement.
For the government, what is “observed are small passing groups, constantly monitored by security forces and accompanied by health and social development teams, with individualized and humanized approaches aimed at the social reintegration and treatment of this population.”
In turn, the São Paulo city hall uses a more moderate tone, without declaring the end of Cracolândia.
The management of Ricardo Nunes (MDB), also in a note, affirms that it works continuously to offer treatment and accommodation to homeless and vulnerable people, in addition to maintenance and security actions, combating drug trafficking and other crimes.
“Social assistance teams visit the points of temporary or periodic occupation daily to actively search for this population, and 40 teams from the Consultório na Rua provide health care. In these points, routine approaches are carried out by 1,600 health and social assistance workers,” specifies the administration.
In May, the main gathering on Rua dos Protestantes, which sometimes brought together between 300 and 400 people, dispersed.
For the government, the sudden disappearance of the urban area is the result of continuous and integrated work, between the State and the town hall, with the action of the areas of security, health and social assistance.
“The strategy adopted involves the financial stifling of drug trafficking, the arrest of leaders of organized crime and the expansion of social and health care,” specifies the secretariat.
From the start of his mandate, Tarcísio demonstrated that he would prioritize Cracolândia. A large number of military police began operating in the area – by car, motorcycle, on foot, on horseback and with the support of the Águia helicopter, a much higher presence than in other areas of the city.
One of the main attempts to solve the problem was to bring Cracolândia to the nearby Gato favela, Bom Retiro, in July 2023. One Saturday evening, drug addicts were escorted to the location. The strategy failed: a few hours later, the entire group returned to the area around Rua dos Protestantes.
Protestantes was the last address blocked for vehicles due to the crowds. A walk in the Campos Elíseos neighborhood, however, shows that crack consumption continues to be intense. At night, the addicts become even more visible, lit by the flames of their pipes in the dim light.
On the night of December 22, a Monday, a group of around thirty users occupied the sidewalks of Apa and General Júlio Marcondes Salgado streets. At the same time, around 8:30 p.m., another group arrived on Vitorino Carmilo Street, a few meters from the 77th DP (Santa Cecília), one of the most important points of concentration in recent days.
On Friday afternoon (19), around thirty users were on the sidewalk of Alameda Glete, between Rua Conselheiro Nébias and the Princesa Isabel terminal.
Homogeneous groups are only a reflection of dispersion. In Campos Elíseos, addicts consume crack in various ways, especially in the late afternoon when businesses close.
Among the places where the report identified users are Rio Branco and Duque de Caxias avenues, Barão de Limeira and Barão de Campinas avenues, and Vitória and dos Gusmões streets. Outside the neighborhood, there are also concentrations on Rua Professor Laerte Ramos de Carvalho, in Bela Vista, and on Travessa dos Estudantes, in Sé.
Users are expelled at any time by military police and GCM vehicles. The police and guards don’t even get out of their cars: just approaching or hearing the siren prompts addicts to get up, collect their belongings and walk around until they find a new place.
The prosecutor criticizes the strategy. “It’s terrible, because the social assistance and health staff can’t find anyone else. The health facilities they had at the center are closing. Unfortunately, it’s not over,” he says.
Pinto Filho analyzes the current situation as one of absolute abandonment. “It’s made people’s situation worse. Look: they’re going into hospitals and therapeutic communities and coming out the same way they came in, no job, no income, no housing. And what happens to them? They go back to the streets, which is the only place they have.”
For the developer, a lot of money is being spent without presenting a solution to the problem.
Psychiatrist Flávio Falcone, who has worked in Cracolândia for more than a decade in the field of harm reduction, also criticizes the current situation.
“It’s the same dispersal movement with the police apparatus. There is practically a police car on every street corner. But they are still dispersed. Obviously, it’s not over. It’s a strategy to clean up the territory. There is no longer this traditional crowd, but the problem continues.”
About The Author
