Brazil's Drug Epidemic: Welcome To 'Crackland'
Brazilian health officials say an epidemic is taking hold – an outbreak of crack cocaine use nationwide, from the major cities on the coast to places deep in the Amazon.
It's an image at odds with the one Brazil wants to project as the country prepares to host soccer's World Cup in 2014 and the Summer Olympics two years later. But it has become too big to ignore.
The Luz district of central Sao Paulo was once grand, with its old train station and opulent buildings. Now, this neighborhood is known as Cracolandia – Crackland.
And on a recent night, skeletal figures in tattered, dirty clothes emerge – mostly men, but some women. They're glassy eyed and jumpy and looking for a quick fix, oblivious to the police helicopters overhead.
The only buffer between them and the rest of society this evening is Isabel Campos, a health worker who tries to convince addicts to seek help.
"They're here all day," she says, "smoking crack."
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