Drugs, poverty and institutionalized violence in Brasil today

Drogas, pobreza y violencia institucionalizada en el Brasil contemporáneo

With the growth of poverty in Brasil, drugs are often a way of justifying police repression directed towards the poorest strata of the population. The accusation of drug dealing is the shortest way to repression, which goes from direct elimination to imprisonment. It also justifies invasions of homes in the poorest sections of the city. The populations of prisons are changing due to a considerable growth of crimes associated with drugs, replacing crimes against property, which used to be the main reason for imprisonment a few years ago. A similar change is also observed in the population of penal psychiatric hospitals, from other forms of mental disease to those related to drug addiction. As neither the use nor the commerce of drugs seems to be affected by these actions of the police apparatus, its real political purpose should be analyzed. New justifications and methods of institutionalized violence seem to be at work, having as its target, the poorest sectors of society.