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Cocaine’s lethal leftovers take violent grip on slum children
By Ramita Navai in Buenos Aires
April 28 2008
Marisa has been locked in a small, windowless room for the past three days. The 14-year-old girl is angry but says that she understands why her mother, Blanca, has refused to let her out. “If I walk out that door, I’ll smoke paco.”
The use of paco, a smokeable cocaine residue, has risen in the slums of Buenos Aires, is behind a drugs epidemic and drug-induced violence. Doctors have said that it is more addic-tive than crack and can cause brain damage within six months. It is so toxic and low-grade – it is made from the chemical leftovers from when coca leaves are turned into cocaine – that traffickers used to throw it away.
“You won’t find a young person who doesn’t smoke paco here,” Blanca said. “It is tearing our community apart.”
Marisa and Blanca live in Ciudad Oculta, a violent, overcrowded, sprawling slum on the outskirts of Buenos Aires. Here the sweet, thick smell of paco wafts out of almost every shack and from every street corner.
“You won’t find a young person who doesn’t smoke paco here,” Blanca said. “It is tearing our community apart.”
Marisa and Blanca live in Ciudad Oculta, a violent, overcrowded, sprawling slum on the outskirts of Buenos Aires. Here the sweet, thick smell of paco wafts out of almost every shack and from every street corner.
Marisa said that all her friends smoked paco. Until her mother locked her up she used to smoke up to 30 hits a day and robbed to fund her habit.