Judicial orders for compulsory psychiatric internment of adolescents in drug abuse situations experiencing social marginality conditions are analyzed. Essay is based on a Master's research in the Post-graduation Program of Social and Institutional Psychology of UFRGS, carried out in a public psychiatric hospital in Porto Alegre RS Brazil. Current study investigates how this kind of psychiatric internment is produced, taking into account the adolescent's social trajectories. The essay discusses judicial orders for psychiatric internment in guiding the adolescents to the health services and questions their effects in public politics and in subjectivity processes. Results show judicial orders with regard to psychiatric internment may be a form of punishment for young people and an access to health services.
Adolescents; judicial orders for psychiatric internment; drug usage