Informal NGO Treats Crack Addicts with Lime and Coffee

07/15/2015 - 09h39

An informal NGO, which is treating people suffering from crack dependency with lime and coffee, is at risk of being evicted from its premises. If the eviction goes ahead, it will be forced to put 60 recovering addicts back out on the streets.

The organization Projeto Crack Zero has two addresses in the south of São Paulo: one home to 20 addicts in Ipiranga, which it has borrowed, and another in Sacomã, which it has occupied illegally.

The occupation is home to 60 people: men, women - two of whom are pregnant - and children. There are also elderly residents who have sought help with their addictions.

The conditions at the occupation are precarious. Luciano Celestino da Silva, 39, is the head of the NGO. He is a former community leader of Heliópolis, a local favela. He says that their method comes from experience.

All patients wake up at 7am. They are not permitted to sleep during the day and they must attend appointments with the Brazilian National Health Service (SUS, in its Portuguese acronym). In addition, they are only allowed out with a supervisor - typically another patient at a more advanced stage of treatment.

José Allan Rosa de Melo, 33, spent nine months with the NGO. He says he was given the all clear by the SUS and today he works as a driver with a small distributor.

The food is all donated. Every week the residents receive the donations at the Zona Cerealista, in the center of São Paulo. For Silva, coffee and lime are essential. "Lime helps with the withdrawal symptoms, and coffee cleanses the system," he says.

The residents agree. They say that during the worst moments, they drink a broth made of pure lime, which helps to calm them down.

But for Ivan Mario Braun, a psychiatrist at the University of São Paulo's Hospital das Clínicas, research in the field shows no record of coffee and lime ever being of use in treating crack addiction.

Translated by TOM GATEHOUSE

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	Apu Gomes/Folhapress
	The organization Projeto Crack Zero treats people suffering from crack dependency with lime and coffee