Crack has become a major problem throughout Brazil, as addicts turn alleys into drug dens. (Mauricio Lima/AFP/Getty Images)

RIO DE JANEIRO, Brazil – Crack has the same active ingredient as cocaine, but as it is smoked, the lungs absorb it quickly and send the toxins directly to the brain. The drug causes anxiety, feelings of persecution, insomnia, loss of appetite and hyperactivity.

In the second and last segment of Infosurhoy.com’s look at Brazil’s fight against the deadly drug, the focus shifts to the families seeking treatment for their relatives’ addictions.

Though crack addicts receive treatment from the public health system, the increase in the number of users has made it difficult for clinicians to hospitalize them for long periods of time to give them the help they need.

Case in point: Bruno Kligierman de Melo.

The 26-year-old strangled his friend, Barbara Calazans, 18, to death in his Flamengo apartment in Rio on Oct. 24 of last year.

Melo had been addicted to crack for at least six years and had been hospitalized at a private clinic at least five times, according to his father. His last stint in rehab was in May of last year. Melo stayed in the clinic for 15 days before he was discharged.

The reason? It wasn’t because he was totally clean. It was because his insurance plan covered 15 days of treatment.

Melo didn’t stay clean for long, going back to the deadly drug – a solid, smokable form of cocaine – after the death of his mother.

Melo’s father, entertainment producer Luiz Fernando Prôa, tried to get his son hospitalized for his addiction. But he failed to get his son admitted to any medical center.

Why? Because Melo didn’t want to be a patient – and Brazilian hospitals, clinics and care centers accept only drug addicts who enter treatment voluntarily.

“Clinics accept only those addicts who come in on their own feet,” Prôa says. “When they are accepted, they can be hospitalized for only15 days. That does not help. The addict does not become a saint overnight.”

Melo doesn’t remember the fatal night of Oct. 24. He called his father, who called the police, who ultimately escorted him to the Roberto Medeiros psychiatric hospital, a unit at the Bangu complex, a maximum-security prison in Brazil. His trial is scheduled for Feb. 4.

“I’ve talked a lot to him,” Prôa said in an interview with O Globo. “I say: ‘If you’re still alive, if God has given you this chance and you’ll have this debt to pay toward life,…do your share. Serve your time and [be an example] to save lives. That’s the only way to reestablish your name and prove your true nature.’”

According to research at Núcleo de Estudos e Pesquisas em Atenção ao Uso de Drogas (Nepad), crack users generally are younger than Melo, averaging 21.6 years of age, as opposed to 30.5 for cocaine users. Crack users also have a lower income and education level than cocaine users, according to the research.

And then there’s the study of Bernardo Cruz, a psychologist at Nepad. In 2005, he treated 200 patients addicted to cocaine – and only one used the drug in the form of crack. Three years later, more than half (114) of the same number of patients were addicted to crack.

“The perverse factor is that even with less money, those who use crack spend more,” Cruz explains, “because, despite being cheaper, crack effects are more intense and momentary.”