This article seeks to re-discuss the process of exclusion caused by drug addiction treatments in Brazil and describes current forms of treatment that focus on the social integration of users. Furthermore, the authors show that failure to comply with public policies in the area, unrealistic beliefs of the population in miraculous cures and their unfamiliarity with alternative forms of treatment and the legislation, are repeating, in new garb, the age-old segregation of persons suffering from such dependence. Among other realities are frequent and unnecessary hospitalization, sometimes by court order and without due process of law.
Addiction; treatment; compulsory hospitalization; involuntary hospitalization