Lost childhood: the chaos of drugs in Brazil

Crack consumes about 600 thousand young lives and leaves another 25 thousand facing high death risks.

Saint Cecilia subway station, downtown São Paulo. A young boy is at the exit of the station on his knees, begging for money. His shirt is torn and completely wet. Visibly intoxicated, the boy runs his hand across his nose, rubbing the dripping blood all over his face, clothes and floor. As people walk by, all they do is look down on him and nod their head.

Just like him, there are dozens of youths roaming the streets of downtown São Paulo, walking around looking like zombies. If this young boy gets help, he may be able to survive long enough to see his 19th birthday. Especially since the Adolescent Homicide Index (IHA) estimates that by 2012 about 33,000 people between the ages of 12 and 18 will be homicide victims. Among the causes of death is drug use and trafficking. The IHA also estimates that 13 young people die in this Country every day.

Throughout the cities’ streets, the number of children and adolescents meeting under viaducts and balconies to use all types of drugs is on a steady rise. According to the Ministry of Health, crack, the harshest drug of them all, consumes about 600 thousand young lives and leaves another 25 thousand facing high death risks.

There isn’t a lack for motives, since a major part of their problems, often involve their family. In many cases, unplanned pregnancies, poverty, abandonment and mistreatment push children away from their family and into the streets, where they’ll fall victim to other forms of violence and will be exposed to crime and addictions. According to the Ministry of Health, the cycle will only end in death, where 50.5% of the mortality rate among adolescents is a consequence of aggression and murder.

Showing good examples as parents is very important when raising children and would definitely be a solution to help reduce this alarming rate. Nevertheless, many still take their children with them to bars, practically insisting that their child’s first experience with alcohol be in their presence. A survey taken by the University of São Paulo (UNIFESP), reports that 46% of adolescents had their first alcoholic drink at home. Many parents ignore the fact that they need to be careful with alcoholic beverages because, although lawful, they’re still considered a drug. Still, it’s the preferred drug among young adolescents, with the starting age being approximately 12.5 years old.

The increasing use of this legal drug early on in life may or may not be due to hanging out with the wrong crowd or the lack of guidance and family structure. Sometimes parents aren’t a part of their child’s life, leaving them exposed to the hidden dangers behind music, artists, films and parties. This is often the excuse they use for their use of narcotics.

Perhaps the idea of our youth being gradually reduced to powder, alcohol, pills, tobacco and the pipe might be pessimistic but if the portrait of our future is that boy in the subway, it’s hard to think that the country’s future is in good hands if young people are deteriorating at such an early age. Society must rethink it’s concept of values and principles, so that its proselytizing and dogmatic views don’t control people’s minds and intelligence, making them believe that God is behind all of humanities miseries and misfortunes.