This paper attempts to understand the connections between poverty and drug traffic. The paper specifies the different economic,
social and institutional devices and changes that affect the matter in question and is based on primary data from several fieldwork researches as well as data
obtained from official sources - the Ministry of Health, the Police and the Judiciary. Data from the last source was obtained after a just completed three-year research project which compared the flux of lawsuits
concerning drug-related crimes in the system of Justice in two Brazilian cities: Rio de Janeiro and Campinas. The paper considers the historical background of the economic, social and political changes that compound the scenario in which violence and drug traffic thrive. Next, data obtained in an ethnographical fieldwork done in one housing estate of Rio de Janeiro, is presented as well as an interpretation of the findings of this data concerning the working of the Justice system.