Pub Date : 2023-11-16DOI: 10.1177/00914509231214344
Edgar Guerra, Guus Zwitser
The present study offers an outlook on the current situation of civil society organizations (CSOs) in the field of harm reduction in Mexico. Analyzing Mexican harm reduction civil society organizations (HRCSOs) is necessary for three reasons: because they have historically represented a sensible alternative to drug policy proposals that emanate from the logic of the State; because they have the organizational and cognitive potential and the legitimacy to protect illicit substance users (with or without problematic use) from the risks and harms that drug policies may pose to this population; and because they are in a crisis that not only threatens the viability of their healthcare projects aimed at vulnerable populations but also, potentially, their own existence. The present article seeks to answer two questions—one descriptive and one explanatory: (a) What are the characteristics of Mexican CSOs that work in the field of harm reduction? (b) How do these organizations operate in a complex and dangerous environment? To answer these questions, the study uses data on the organizations’ structures and dynamics that were obtained through 20 semistructured interviews that were conducted with members of these organizations. The article describes HRCSOs on three levels: (a) the individual that establishes a radical habitus and acquires the identity of a harm reduction activist through identity construction; (b) the collective of activists that, through the creation of trust, becomes an HRCSO with its structures, programs, and resources; and (c) the harm reduction social movement that, through cooperation and conflict, becomes a field of activism. The study seeks to have two contributions to literature: (a) providing a preliminary mapping of the anatomy of HRCSOs and the field in which they operate; and (b) sensitizing society and decision-makers on the transcendence of these organizations for social and political life.
{"title":"Civil Society Organizations and Harm Reduction Policy: The Mexican Case","authors":"Edgar Guerra, Guus Zwitser","doi":"10.1177/00914509231214344","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/00914509231214344","url":null,"abstract":"The present study offers an outlook on the current situation of civil society organizations (CSOs) in the field of harm reduction in Mexico. Analyzing Mexican harm reduction civil society organizations (HRCSOs) is necessary for three reasons: because they have historically represented a sensible alternative to drug policy proposals that emanate from the logic of the State; because they have the organizational and cognitive potential and the legitimacy to protect illicit substance users (with or without problematic use) from the risks and harms that drug policies may pose to this population; and because they are in a crisis that not only threatens the viability of their healthcare projects aimed at vulnerable populations but also, potentially, their own existence. The present article seeks to answer two questions—one descriptive and one explanatory: (a) What are the characteristics of Mexican CSOs that work in the field of harm reduction? (b) How do these organizations operate in a complex and dangerous environment? To answer these questions, the study uses data on the organizations’ structures and dynamics that were obtained through 20 semistructured interviews that were conducted with members of these organizations. The article describes HRCSOs on three levels: (a) the individual that establishes a radical habitus and acquires the identity of a harm reduction activist through identity construction; (b) the collective of activists that, through the creation of trust, becomes an HRCSO with its structures, programs, and resources; and (c) the harm reduction social movement that, through cooperation and conflict, becomes a field of activism. The study seeks to have two contributions to literature: (a) providing a preliminary mapping of the anatomy of HRCSOs and the field in which they operate; and (b) sensitizing society and decision-makers on the transcendence of these organizations for social and political life.","PeriodicalId":35813,"journal":{"name":"Contemporary Drug Problems","volume":"1 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-11-16","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"139270129","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2023-11-15DOI: 10.1177/00914509231214342
Chloe Span, Baillee Farah, Nathan Ivetìc, Oisin Stronach
Background: Discourses around MDMA are often predominantly concerned with identifying risk and characterizing harm. Reluctance from Australian governments to reform drug policy and implement harm reduction services has created a policy and service gap, and it is therefore pertinent to consider how people who use MDMA mediate potential harms, and how this knowledge can inform approaches to drug use and policy reform. This community-led scoping review aimed to identify Australian literature on the practices of harm reduction strategies by people who use MDMA. Methods: Seven topic-specific and multidisciplinary databases were searched in February 2023 in line with conventional scoping review methodology. Eligible articles were published from 2002 onwards, reported on the voices of people who use MDMA as primary evidence within the context of Australia, and included at least one strategy to reduce harm. Data were analyzed by drawing on conventional content analysis and thematic analysis frameworks. Results: Twenty-three peer-reviewed and gray literature sources were included. Five key themes were identified on how people mediate harms and enhance the pleasurable aspects of MDMA use: drug consumption practices, planning and preparation, testing drugs, accessing health services, and community care practices. Conclusion: The results suggest that people who use MDMA take care to identify and reduce unwanted harms. The way people who use MDMA make decisions around drugs is mediated by peer groups and online technologies, as well as broader social and cultural contexts of drug use and drug prohibition. More qualitative, participatory, and action research projects are recommended to accurately reflect the views and needs of people who use MDMA and meaningfully shape service reform.
{"title":"A Scoping Review of Australian Literature on People Who Use MDMA and Their Harm Reduction Practices","authors":"Chloe Span, Baillee Farah, Nathan Ivetìc, Oisin Stronach","doi":"10.1177/00914509231214342","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/00914509231214342","url":null,"abstract":"Background: Discourses around MDMA are often predominantly concerned with identifying risk and characterizing harm. Reluctance from Australian governments to reform drug policy and implement harm reduction services has created a policy and service gap, and it is therefore pertinent to consider how people who use MDMA mediate potential harms, and how this knowledge can inform approaches to drug use and policy reform. This community-led scoping review aimed to identify Australian literature on the practices of harm reduction strategies by people who use MDMA. Methods: Seven topic-specific and multidisciplinary databases were searched in February 2023 in line with conventional scoping review methodology. Eligible articles were published from 2002 onwards, reported on the voices of people who use MDMA as primary evidence within the context of Australia, and included at least one strategy to reduce harm. Data were analyzed by drawing on conventional content analysis and thematic analysis frameworks. Results: Twenty-three peer-reviewed and gray literature sources were included. Five key themes were identified on how people mediate harms and enhance the pleasurable aspects of MDMA use: drug consumption practices, planning and preparation, testing drugs, accessing health services, and community care practices. Conclusion: The results suggest that people who use MDMA take care to identify and reduce unwanted harms. The way people who use MDMA make decisions around drugs is mediated by peer groups and online technologies, as well as broader social and cultural contexts of drug use and drug prohibition. More qualitative, participatory, and action research projects are recommended to accurately reflect the views and needs of people who use MDMA and meaningfully shape service reform.","PeriodicalId":35813,"journal":{"name":"Contemporary Drug Problems","volume":"BME-29 2","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-11-15","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"139274556","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2023-11-03DOI: 10.1177/00914509231210928
Victoria Kostadinov, Natalie Skinner, Vinita Duraisingam
Introduction: Little data exists examining workers with lived/living experience of alcohol and other drug (AOD) use who are not in designated peer roles. The prevalence of these workers within the national workforce, and their levels of wellbeing, are currently unknown. The current study therefore explored the prevalence, characteristics, and predictors of wellbeing among workers with different types of lived experience (personal vs family/other) compared to those without any reported lived experience. Methods: A cross-sectional survey was conducted of the Australian AOD workforce. Group differences were explored on variables of interest via frequency statistics, χ 2 tests of independence, multivariate analysis of variance, and linear regression. Results: Of the 986 AOD workers in direct client service roles, 2.4% were in a designated peer role, but 67.2% reported lived experience (34.5% personal lived experience and 32.8% family/other lived experience). Substantial proportions had not disclosed their lived experience to their workplace (27.4% with personal lived experience and 43.3% with other lived experience). Wellbeing (i.e., levels of burnout and engagement) did not differ significantly between groups. Predictors of wellbeing across all three groups included age, work intensity (e.g., heavy workloads), and finding work to be personally meaningful; additional differences between groups were also identified. Discussion: More than two-thirds of AOD workers in Australia have some form of lived experience, however this is not reflected in the number of peer roles. Initiatives that reach all workers with lived experience are required to safeguard their wellbeing, enhance recruitment and retention, and support best practice.
{"title":"Workers with Lived and Living Experience: Characteristics and Wellbeing in the Australian AOD Sector","authors":"Victoria Kostadinov, Natalie Skinner, Vinita Duraisingam","doi":"10.1177/00914509231210928","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/00914509231210928","url":null,"abstract":"Introduction: Little data exists examining workers with lived/living experience of alcohol and other drug (AOD) use who are not in designated peer roles. The prevalence of these workers within the national workforce, and their levels of wellbeing, are currently unknown. The current study therefore explored the prevalence, characteristics, and predictors of wellbeing among workers with different types of lived experience (personal vs family/other) compared to those without any reported lived experience. Methods: A cross-sectional survey was conducted of the Australian AOD workforce. Group differences were explored on variables of interest via frequency statistics, χ 2 tests of independence, multivariate analysis of variance, and linear regression. Results: Of the 986 AOD workers in direct client service roles, 2.4% were in a designated peer role, but 67.2% reported lived experience (34.5% personal lived experience and 32.8% family/other lived experience). Substantial proportions had not disclosed their lived experience to their workplace (27.4% with personal lived experience and 43.3% with other lived experience). Wellbeing (i.e., levels of burnout and engagement) did not differ significantly between groups. Predictors of wellbeing across all three groups included age, work intensity (e.g., heavy workloads), and finding work to be personally meaningful; additional differences between groups were also identified. Discussion: More than two-thirds of AOD workers in Australia have some form of lived experience, however this is not reflected in the number of peer roles. Initiatives that reach all workers with lived experience are required to safeguard their wellbeing, enhance recruitment and retention, and support best practice.","PeriodicalId":35813,"journal":{"name":"Contemporary Drug Problems","volume":"27 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-11-03","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"135868591","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2023-10-18DOI: 10.1177/00914509231208092
Simon Flacks
The use of alcohol and other drugs (AOD) by parents is a significant public policy concern, both in the UK and other jurisdictions such as Australia. Concern about the potential risks posed to children is also paramount in family court decisions, where AOD consumption is framed as a child protection issue in itself. There is a need, however, for more critical inquiry into the ways in which parental use is understood and conceptualised in family court practice. Based on interviews with social workers, lawyers and judges who have worked in Family Courts in England and Wales, the aim of this paper is to pay closer attention to the constitution of parental substance use as a child protection problem. Using methodological tools devised by Bonham and Bacchi (2016), and adopting their poststructural approach to interview analysis, the aim was to pay close attention to the ways in which “reality” was made in and through participant accounts. The focus on the granularity of what, precisely, was said in the interviews unveiled some valuable insights into the ways in which parental subject positions were produced and maintained. For example, the ‘traumatised’ parental substance user was a recurring motif which, while rooted in a more empathetic understanding of the challenges faced by parents, could – I suggest – have unintended consequences.
{"title":"Parental Substance Use as a Child Protection Problem: A Poststructural Interview Analysis","authors":"Simon Flacks","doi":"10.1177/00914509231208092","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/00914509231208092","url":null,"abstract":"The use of alcohol and other drugs (AOD) by parents is a significant public policy concern, both in the UK and other jurisdictions such as Australia. Concern about the potential risks posed to children is also paramount in family court decisions, where AOD consumption is framed as a child protection issue in itself. There is a need, however, for more critical inquiry into the ways in which parental use is understood and conceptualised in family court practice. Based on interviews with social workers, lawyers and judges who have worked in Family Courts in England and Wales, the aim of this paper is to pay closer attention to the constitution of parental substance use as a child protection problem. Using methodological tools devised by Bonham and Bacchi (2016), and adopting their poststructural approach to interview analysis, the aim was to pay close attention to the ways in which “reality” was made in and through participant accounts. The focus on the granularity of what, precisely, was said in the interviews unveiled some valuable insights into the ways in which parental subject positions were produced and maintained. For example, the ‘traumatised’ parental substance user was a recurring motif which, while rooted in a more empathetic understanding of the challenges faced by parents, could – I suggest – have unintended consequences.","PeriodicalId":35813,"journal":{"name":"Contemporary Drug Problems","volume":"215 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-10-18","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"135888543","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2023-10-17DOI: 10.1177/00914509231204945
Mads Bank, Morten Nissen, Steven D. Brown
In this article, we propose that the perpetual difficulties in drug treatment can be understood as a consequence of how a binary opposition of order and disorder continues to structure drug discourses and treatment practices. When drug use is seen as a disorder of addiction, recovery becomes reduced to movements between fixed points benchmarked against preexisting standards. This obscures how recovery could be understood as a process of self-differentiation where subjects develop new norms to adapt to changing life circumstances. In the article we draw on empirical material from a Copenhagen drug-treatment facility for young drug users, to analyze how change and development can be facilitated through a fundamental institutional “movability.” Drawing on the philosophy of change of Henri Bergson, the assemblage approach of Deleuze and Guattari, and the aesthetic theory of Jacques Rancière, we analyze how a particular assemblage of discourses, the organization of treatment and aesthetic spaces disrupt existing orders and open for different possibilities for participation and development for young drug users. In particular, we turn the attention to how aesthetic spaces and sensuous processes can counter stigmatization by overcoming the frame of “treatment” and the affective experiences associated with the categorization as a “drug-user” and facilitating the development of care as new ways of becoming and being-together.
{"title":"The Twin Dangers of Order and Disorder: Rethinking the Relationship Between Movement and Change in Drug Treatment","authors":"Mads Bank, Morten Nissen, Steven D. Brown","doi":"10.1177/00914509231204945","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/00914509231204945","url":null,"abstract":"In this article, we propose that the perpetual difficulties in drug treatment can be understood as a consequence of how a binary opposition of order and disorder continues to structure drug discourses and treatment practices. When drug use is seen as a disorder of addiction, recovery becomes reduced to movements between fixed points benchmarked against preexisting standards. This obscures how recovery could be understood as a process of self-differentiation where subjects develop new norms to adapt to changing life circumstances. In the article we draw on empirical material from a Copenhagen drug-treatment facility for young drug users, to analyze how change and development can be facilitated through a fundamental institutional “movability.” Drawing on the philosophy of change of Henri Bergson, the assemblage approach of Deleuze and Guattari, and the aesthetic theory of Jacques Rancière, we analyze how a particular assemblage of discourses, the organization of treatment and aesthetic spaces disrupt existing orders and open for different possibilities for participation and development for young drug users. In particular, we turn the attention to how aesthetic spaces and sensuous processes can counter stigmatization by overcoming the frame of “treatment” and the affective experiences associated with the categorization as a “drug-user” and facilitating the development of care as new ways of becoming and being-together.","PeriodicalId":35813,"journal":{"name":"Contemporary Drug Problems","volume":"56 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-10-17","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"136032712","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2023-10-06DOI: 10.1177/00914509231206861
{"title":"Erratum to ‘“Looking After Yourself Is Self-Respect”: The Limits and Possibilities of Men’s Care on a Night Out’","authors":"","doi":"10.1177/00914509231206861","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/00914509231206861","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":35813,"journal":{"name":"Contemporary Drug Problems","volume":"32 1","pages":"558 - 558"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-10-06","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"139322483","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2023-10-06DOI: 10.1177/00914509231206859
{"title":"Erratum to “Young People Who Use Drugs Views Toward the Power and Authority of Police Officers”","authors":"","doi":"10.1177/00914509231206859","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/00914509231206859","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":35813,"journal":{"name":"Contemporary Drug Problems","volume":"66 1","pages":"556 - 556"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-10-06","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"139322366","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2023-10-06DOI: 10.1177/00914509231206860
{"title":"Erratum to “Ganja and the Laws of Men: Cannabis Decriminalization and Social (In)Justice in Jamaica”","authors":"","doi":"10.1177/00914509231206860","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/00914509231206860","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":35813,"journal":{"name":"Contemporary Drug Problems","volume":"54 1","pages":"557 - 557"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-10-06","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"139322436","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2023-10-03DOI: 10.1177/00914509231204947
Trent Bax
As part of an interview-based qualitative study on the life-course of people who formally used methamphetamine in Aotearoa-New Zealand, this paper uses Deleuze and Guattari's rhizomatic perspective to trace the specific effects and particular relations involved in methamphetamine use. The methamphetamine-using trajectory for the 42 former users is a multifaceted and constantly fluctuating process involving multiple entries, exists, pathways, and restarts. By amplifying and enlightening the user, methamphetamine use begins by liberating desire through sending the user “out the gate,” but long-term high-dose use can end up constraining and repressing subjectivity and cyclically producing adverse psychological, emotional, interpersonal, and social effects. As a metamorphic process that produces transformative change, long-term high-dose methamphetamine use is a nonlinear rollercoaster ride that typically leads to a downward spiral whereby life stagnates, shrinks, or regresses. By undermining productive and transformative connections, the life of the long-term high-dose methamphetamine user typically—but not inevitably—involves revolving instead of evolving. Against a linear and deterministic popular media-generated narrative about methamphetamine use, a rhizomatic perspective emphasizes the potential for transformation by focusing upon the situational and interactional processes involved in users who undergo complex and varied temporary changes. From Deleuze and Guattari's perspective, disentangling from long-term high-dose methamphetamine use requires activating new relationships and possibilities for desire by forming meaningful biopsychosocial connections.
{"title":"Out the Gate: Towards a Rhizomatic Understanding of Methamphetamine Use in Aotearoa-New Zealand","authors":"Trent Bax","doi":"10.1177/00914509231204947","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/00914509231204947","url":null,"abstract":"As part of an interview-based qualitative study on the life-course of people who formally used methamphetamine in Aotearoa-New Zealand, this paper uses Deleuze and Guattari's rhizomatic perspective to trace the specific effects and particular relations involved in methamphetamine use. The methamphetamine-using trajectory for the 42 former users is a multifaceted and constantly fluctuating process involving multiple entries, exists, pathways, and restarts. By amplifying and enlightening the user, methamphetamine use begins by liberating desire through sending the user “out the gate,” but long-term high-dose use can end up constraining and repressing subjectivity and cyclically producing adverse psychological, emotional, interpersonal, and social effects. As a metamorphic process that produces transformative change, long-term high-dose methamphetamine use is a nonlinear rollercoaster ride that typically leads to a downward spiral whereby life stagnates, shrinks, or regresses. By undermining productive and transformative connections, the life of the long-term high-dose methamphetamine user typically—but not inevitably—involves revolving instead of evolving. Against a linear and deterministic popular media-generated narrative about methamphetamine use, a rhizomatic perspective emphasizes the potential for transformation by focusing upon the situational and interactional processes involved in users who undergo complex and varied temporary changes. From Deleuze and Guattari's perspective, disentangling from long-term high-dose methamphetamine use requires activating new relationships and possibilities for desire by forming meaningful biopsychosocial connections.","PeriodicalId":35813,"journal":{"name":"Contemporary Drug Problems","volume":"85 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-10-03","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"135696623","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2023-10-03DOI: 10.1177/00914509231204963
Lillian Bruland Selseng, Margaret Stroebe, Sari Kaarina Lindeman, Kari Dyregrov
Drug-related deaths (DRDs) are a major societal challenge. People who use drugs are at particular risk of witnessing DRDs, and of losing people close to them to a DRD, and experiencing an overdose or other health issues themselves. People who experience sudden, unexpected, and stigmatized deaths, such as DRDs, are found to struggle more afterward than when the death is more natural and expected. Additionally, people who use drugs are more likely to experience a complicated grieving process following the loss of someone. Despite this, knowledge about the connections between a person's own drug use and reaction following bereavement from a DRD is scarce. This article makes a start at filling this knowledge gap. Based on interviews with people who used drugs and were bereaved following DRDs, the article explores how the bereaved spoke about the relationship between their drug use and losing a close friend or intimate partner to a DRD. We present four types of stories about the relationship between grief following DRDs and drug use. Informed by the Dual Process Model of Coping with Bereavement, we discuss the stories and highlight how drug use is used to handle emotional overload, how drug use leads to uncommon expressions of grief, and how the relationship between grief and drug use may lead to an avoidance of the reality of loss. We point out that drug use and grief are strongly intertwined and how stigma associated with DRDs and drug use creates obstacles to openness and relating to social networks in support processes.
{"title":"Grieving a Drug-Related Death in the Context of One's Own Drug Use: An Exploratory Study","authors":"Lillian Bruland Selseng, Margaret Stroebe, Sari Kaarina Lindeman, Kari Dyregrov","doi":"10.1177/00914509231204963","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/00914509231204963","url":null,"abstract":"Drug-related deaths (DRDs) are a major societal challenge. People who use drugs are at particular risk of witnessing DRDs, and of losing people close to them to a DRD, and experiencing an overdose or other health issues themselves. People who experience sudden, unexpected, and stigmatized deaths, such as DRDs, are found to struggle more afterward than when the death is more natural and expected. Additionally, people who use drugs are more likely to experience a complicated grieving process following the loss of someone. Despite this, knowledge about the connections between a person's own drug use and reaction following bereavement from a DRD is scarce. This article makes a start at filling this knowledge gap. Based on interviews with people who used drugs and were bereaved following DRDs, the article explores how the bereaved spoke about the relationship between their drug use and losing a close friend or intimate partner to a DRD. We present four types of stories about the relationship between grief following DRDs and drug use. Informed by the Dual Process Model of Coping with Bereavement, we discuss the stories and highlight how drug use is used to handle emotional overload, how drug use leads to uncommon expressions of grief, and how the relationship between grief and drug use may lead to an avoidance of the reality of loss. We point out that drug use and grief are strongly intertwined and how stigma associated with DRDs and drug use creates obstacles to openness and relating to social networks in support processes.","PeriodicalId":35813,"journal":{"name":"Contemporary Drug Problems","volume":"24 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-10-03","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"135695790","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
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