Abstract
The present study was based on an ethnography produced with a team from a Street Clinic in the city of Rio de Janeiro through their encounters with crack cocaine users. It describes: the functioning of the clinic based on principles; the consequences of this mode of functioning on those it seeks to help; and other knowledge about crack that emerged from the encounter between a health service and the people who use the drug. It was concluded that the Street Clinic establishes opportunities for drug users to transform their lives, and embraces increasingly heterogeneous lives. It can therefore expand access to the Sistema Único de Saúde (the Unified Health System), and offer a path for the system to become increasingly open to differences.
Homeless persons; Crack cocaine; Unified Health System