Brazil

Assessing drug use, health & social outcomes of marginalized crack users, and developing bilateral follow-up studies on interventions for crack users in Canada & Brazil

The proposed project builds on pre-existing active collaboration efforts between the lead applicant with the Brazilian partners, and focuses on the acute and prevalent public health and community safety problem of ‘crack use’ in Brazil and Canada. Specifically, the project consists of two collaborative activity components:

1. joint analysis of existing, multi-site data (generated by the collaborators by way of a previous joint study) of crack users in three Brazilian cities – focusing on regional and gender-based differences in drug use and health characteristics; predictors of physical and mental health outcomes, and criminal involvement among crack users; and
2. the development of two follow-up grants on crack use epidemiology and treatment interventions in Canada and Brazil.

Grant #1 will use a multi-site approach to investigate substance use pathways and drug use patterns of crack users, and grant #2 will explore the feasibility and impact of potential pharmacotherapeutic interventions to reduce drug use and health problems among crack users in both countries. The project efforts will substantially expand the evidence basis towards understanding crack use in both countries, and inform policy and program interventions, while crucially strengthening research and training collaborations (including grad students).