At the present time, drug abuse by adolescents is considered to be a serious public health issue, with potentially harmful consequences for the "peculiar conditions of a person in development". The present work aims to investigate three public institutions that accept adolescents for drug abuse treatment. The findings were compared to the adopted public policies that serve as justification for the conception of these services and investigate whether these policies practice what they preach. The Ethnographic Description was used as the method of investigation, followed by a Content Analysis of the informal dialogue, document checks, and interviews with professionals and adolescents at the locations under review. The results indicate a mismatch between what is prescribed by public policies and the actual reality of the services provided, emphasizing the importance of interventions that take the peculiarities of adolescence and individuality into account.
Adolescence; Drug-addiction; Public policies