Internal justice system: one crack addict every two days.

Mines 247 According to the State Health Department, 210 people with some type of mental disorder have been hospitalized by court order since the beginning of the year in the state. Of this total, 166 are directly linked to the use of narcotics, especially crack cocaine.

Involuntary commitment is decided upon when the patient does not want to seek treatment or there is a lack of available beds in the public healthcare system. According to statistics, this type of measure does not translate into effective results in treating addiction.

In the capital, six cases of hospitalization were decided in court, at the initiative of family members, the Public Prosecutor's Office, or the patient themselves.

Check out the report below by the journalists. Paula Sarapu and Valquiria Lopes, from the newspaper State of Minas

In a state where crack cocaine is rampant among people of all ages, social classes, and professional categories – as evidenced last week by the arrest of a Military Police major for using the drug – cases of drug addiction overwhelmingly predominate in psychiatric hospitalizations ordered by the courts. Every two days, a crack or other drug user is admitted to hospitals in Minas Gerais by court order. According to the State Health Department, 210 people with mental disorders have been involuntarily hospitalized in the state since July 2011, an average of 19 per month. Of these patients, 79% are chemically dependent, especially on crack cocaine, representing an average of 15 cases per month.

According to the secretariat, there has been an increase in the number of cases of drug addicts listed as "first-time admissions," meaning those with no prior record of hospitalization. Data such as these require institutions responsible for addressing this challenge to adapt. One measure in this regard is to be launched today by the Special Commission for Combating Crack Cocaine, in the form of an action plan to evaluate involuntary and compulsory hospitalizations (see definitions in the table), establishing post-hospitalization follow-up for the addict and their family. Another measure will be the inspection of units that inadequately accommodate these patients.

The Mental Health Coordinator of the State Health Secretariat, Paulo Roberto Repsold, reveals that most court-ordered hospitalizations are related to crack cocaine use. He confirms the scarcity of acute care beds – those where the patient stays for a period of treatment – ​​and believes that hospitalization can often help stabilize addicts suffering from intoxication and withdrawal symptoms, who require emergency treatment because, during these crises, users pose a risk to others and to themselves.

“When a judge needs to order hospitalization, it’s because there’s a problem. Either a lack of available beds, or a lack of willingness on the part of the addict, who isn’t even capable of deciding on it. In cases of withdrawal, for example, they lose their capacity for discernment because they become enslaved by the drug. It’s a fallacy to say that an addict should only be treated if they want to, because this is a corrosive disease from a psychological, physical, financial, and social point of view,” he argues.

Today, there are 80 patients hospitalized in the state, while 130 are receiving outpatient care or do not require treatment. According to Paulo Roberto, in the public and private units of Minas Gerais that serve the Unified Health System (SUS), there are 1,000 beds for long-term patients, remnants of psychiatric hospitals, and 1.350 acute care beds. “The turnover is quite high, but the hospital is never empty. This is a challenge that the government recognizes, because in the last 20 years there has been a progressive extinction of psychiatric beds and hospitals, without anyone imagining that a disease of this type, which requires this type of care, would emerge,” explains Paulo Roberto.

In the capital, since last year, six cases of hospitalization of addicts have been decided in court, the majority, five, this year alone. According to the Municipal Health Department, four lawsuits were filed by third parties (family members or guardians of the patients), one by the Public Prosecutor's Office, and another by the patient himself, who resorted to the Judiciary to guarantee his hospitalization even before seeking care in the SUS (Unified Health System) network in Belo Horizonte. The department, in a statement, says that it invests in alternative services and, as required by law, adopts hospitalizations as a last therapeutic resort.

In fact, hospital admission, especially when determined against the patient's will, is far from being a consensus solution. Besides statistics that indicate this approach is not very effective in treating addiction, there is also resistance from those who fear that the solution could be adopted as a kind of "social cleansing," violating the rights of users.