Brazil's Crack Dealers Urged To Give Up Trade (VIDEO)

WATCH: One Lawyer's Epic Battle Against Crack

In Rio's infamous favelas, one determined lawyer is waging a battle to fight the crack epidemic that plagues Brazil's second-largest city.

Flávia Pinheiro Froes frequently visits Rio's so-called Crackolandias, trying to convince drug dealers to give up the crack trade. "Crack is the lowest point of misery," she explains. "From a social standpoint, it causes more damage to society than other drugs."

According to the country's Institute of Public Policy of Drug and Alcohol, Brazil became the world's biggest crack market 2012. Pinheiro Froes explains that the street drug interests dealers so much because it generates quick profits. While cheaper and less profitable than cocaine, crack sells fast.

Some indications, however, suggest Pinheiro Froes' project may be having an effect. Independent of the lawyer's advocacy efforts, two prominent drug traffickers have given up selling crack because of the devastating effect on society, Al Jazeera reports.

"There is a lot of profit to be made on crack," Rodrigo, one of the traffickers told the network. "But crack also brought destruction in our community as well, so we're not selling it anymore. Addicts were robbing homes, killing each other for nothing inside the community. We wanted to avoid all that, so we stopped selling it."

Take a look at Flávia Pinheiro Froes' fascinating story in the video above.

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