Health News
Brazil: 2.2 billion dollars to fight "crack epidemic"
Dec 7, 2011, 21:05 GMT
Brasilia - Brazilian authorities will devote 2.2 billion dollars to fighting and preventing the use of crack cocaine, Health Minister Alexandre Padilha said Wednesday.
'We have to admit that we are technically facing a crack epidemic in our country,' Padilha said.
He noted that the number of people treated in Brazil's public hospitals for abusing alcohol and drugs increased ten-fold 2003-11 and has now reached some 250,000 cases a month.
Brazil, a country of over 200 million people, plans to invest about 372 million dollars in the creation of health centres to treat substance abusers.
The government of Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff also plans to work with private drug rehabilitation organizations and to create by 2014 a total of 308 'street health centres' from which doctors, psychologists and nurses will seek out addicts and evaluate the need to admit them into hospitals.
At the same time, Brazilian authorities said they plan to intensify intelligence and police efforts against drug traffickers.
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