Objective:

To reveal the experiences of community health agents in the care of drug users.

Materials and methods:

Study based on Merleau-Ponty phenomenology carried out in the first semester of 2018 in a medium-sized municipality in the interior of the state of Bahia, Brazil. Seven community health agents participated in the study, which included three focus group meetings. The experiential descriptions were recorded, transcribed, and submitted to ambiguity analysis.

Results:

Participants reported experiencing a conflictive condition since they recognize the need to assist drug users while at the same time they are overrun by a feeling of helplessness that makes it difficult for them to practice care. Such feeling seems to be motivated by broad and complex issues, such as prejudices toward drug users and living with the scrapping of primary health care.

Conclusions:

Community health agents experience demotivation toward drug users' care due to different and complex issues, ranging from the association of drug consumption with immorality, violence and drug trafficking, up to living with the scrapping of drugs in the family health strategy and the precariousness of the community health agent category.

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