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Substance Use Stigma and Community Drug Checking: A Qualitative Study Examining Barriers and Possible Responses

Background: Community drug checking is an emerging response to the overdose crisis. However, stigma has been identified as a potential barrier to service use that requires investigation. Methods: A qualitative study explored how best to implement drug checking services to the wider population includ...

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Autores principales: Davis, Samantha, Wallace, Bruce, Van Roode, Thea, Hore, Dennis
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: MDPI 2022
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9740784/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/36498052
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/ijerph192315978
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author Davis, Samantha
Wallace, Bruce
Van Roode, Thea
Hore, Dennis
author_facet Davis, Samantha
Wallace, Bruce
Van Roode, Thea
Hore, Dennis
author_sort Davis, Samantha
collection PubMed
description Background: Community drug checking is an emerging response to the overdose crisis. However, stigma has been identified as a potential barrier to service use that requires investigation. Methods: A qualitative study explored how best to implement drug checking services to the wider population including those at risk of overdose. A secondary analysis of 26 interviews with potential service users examine how stigma may be a barrier to service use and strategies to address this. A Substance Use Stigma Framework was developed to guide analysis. Results: Drug checking is operating in a context of structural stigma produced by criminalization. People fear criminal repercussions, anticipate stigma when accessing services, and internalize stigma resulting in shame and avoidance of services. A perceived hierarchy of substance use creates stigma results in stigma between service users and avoidance of sites associated with certain drugs. Participants frequently recommended drug checking to be located in more public spaces that still maintain privacy. Conclusions: Criminalization and societal views on substance use can deter service use. Strategies to mitigate stigma include employment of people with lived and living experience from diverse backgrounds; public yet private locations that preserve anonymity; and normalization of drug checking while decriminalization could address the root causes of stigma.
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spelling pubmed-97407842022-12-11 Substance Use Stigma and Community Drug Checking: A Qualitative Study Examining Barriers and Possible Responses Davis, Samantha Wallace, Bruce Van Roode, Thea Hore, Dennis Int J Environ Res Public Health Article Background: Community drug checking is an emerging response to the overdose crisis. However, stigma has been identified as a potential barrier to service use that requires investigation. Methods: A qualitative study explored how best to implement drug checking services to the wider population including those at risk of overdose. A secondary analysis of 26 interviews with potential service users examine how stigma may be a barrier to service use and strategies to address this. A Substance Use Stigma Framework was developed to guide analysis. Results: Drug checking is operating in a context of structural stigma produced by criminalization. People fear criminal repercussions, anticipate stigma when accessing services, and internalize stigma resulting in shame and avoidance of services. A perceived hierarchy of substance use creates stigma results in stigma between service users and avoidance of sites associated with certain drugs. Participants frequently recommended drug checking to be located in more public spaces that still maintain privacy. Conclusions: Criminalization and societal views on substance use can deter service use. Strategies to mitigate stigma include employment of people with lived and living experience from diverse backgrounds; public yet private locations that preserve anonymity; and normalization of drug checking while decriminalization could address the root causes of stigma. MDPI 2022-11-30 /pmc/articles/PMC9740784/ /pubmed/36498052 http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/ijerph192315978 Text en © 2022 by the authors. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).
spellingShingle Article
Davis, Samantha
Wallace, Bruce
Van Roode, Thea
Hore, Dennis
Substance Use Stigma and Community Drug Checking: A Qualitative Study Examining Barriers and Possible Responses
title Substance Use Stigma and Community Drug Checking: A Qualitative Study Examining Barriers and Possible Responses
title_full Substance Use Stigma and Community Drug Checking: A Qualitative Study Examining Barriers and Possible Responses
title_fullStr Substance Use Stigma and Community Drug Checking: A Qualitative Study Examining Barriers and Possible Responses
title_full_unstemmed Substance Use Stigma and Community Drug Checking: A Qualitative Study Examining Barriers and Possible Responses
title_short Substance Use Stigma and Community Drug Checking: A Qualitative Study Examining Barriers and Possible Responses
title_sort substance use stigma and community drug checking: a qualitative study examining barriers and possible responses
topic Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9740784/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/36498052
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/ijerph192315978
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