Rio de Janeiro mayor repeats harmful tropes with plan to treat unhoused drug users

The mayor of Rio de Janeiro, Eduardo Paes, sparked widespread backlash when he recently suggested that the city hall would pursue a policy of forcing drug users living on the streets into treatment.

“I have already asked [Health] Secretary Daniel Soranz to prepare a proposal so that we can implement the compulsory hospitalization of drug users here in Rio,” Mr. Paes wrote on X (formerly Twitter). “It is no longer acceptable that in different areas of our city there are people on the streets who don’t accept any kind of help and … end up committing crimes.”

The announcement sparked an immediate outcry from voters, leftist politicians, medical professionals and human rights advocates. 

Experts widely condemn involuntary commitment for addiction treatment as inefficient and unethical. “A fundamental element of treatment is the participation of the person being treated. You can’t treat someone [for a substance use disorder] passively,” explains Marcelo Santos Cruz, a psychiatrist and coordinator of the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro’s Study and Assistance Program for Drug Use Disorders (PROJAD). 

In response to Mr. Paes, the Federal Prosecutor’s Office and the Public Defender’s Office issued a joint technical note emphasizing that the involuntary treatment of homeless people with a substance use disorder is not only a human rights violation that amounts to social cleansing, but also violates local and national laws.  

The mayor was also called out online for using the term “drug users” in a way that implicitly associates substance abuse with poverty and crime, thus criminalizing all vulnerable people without homes.

“This absurdity leaves me speechless. We know that [this measure] will only affect the poor and black population, [while] rich drug users, even those involved in criminal practices, will remain untouchable in their penthouses,” wrote left-wing state lawmaker Dani Balbi...