The War on People who Use Drugs: The Harms of Sweden’s Aim for a Drug-Free Society

Description

This book explores the outcomes of Sweden’s aim to create a ‘drug-free society’ on the lived realities, health, and welfare of people who use drugs, and on the dynamics of Swedish drug use. Drawing on a wealth of empirical data, including extensive interview testimony and participant observation from years of fieldwork conducted in Sweden, the book debunks the widely-believed myth that Sweden is a progressive, liberal, inclusive state. In contrast to its liberal reputation, Sweden has criminalised the use of drugs and allows for compulsory treatment for those with drug dependencies. The work argues that Swedish law and policy cannot be demonstrated to have decreased drug use as intended, with the law used instead as a means with which to displace people who use drugs from public spaces in Sweden’s cities. And where the law has failed in its ambition to decrease drug use, Swedish law and policy have increased and exacerbated the problems, dangers, and harms that can be associated with it. People who use drugs in Sweden experience considerable and endemic difficulties with health, violence, abuse, and social exclusion, stigma, and discrimination as a result of Sweden’s drug laws, policies, and discourses. Cover......Page 1 Half title......Page 2 Title Page......Page 4 Copyright Page......Page 5 Table of Contents......Page 6 List of figures......Page 9 Acknowledgements......Page 10 Glossary, acronyms, and abbreviations......Page 12 Introduction......Page 14 Eugenics, social engineering, sterilisations, containment, and control......Page 15 The foci of my research......Page 17 Moving into the People’s Home......Page 18 Meeting respondents......Page 19 Interviews, consent, and confidentiality......Page 20 Presentation of research......Page 21 A brief (but important) note on language......Page 22 Overview of this book......Page 23 Moral panic in the People’s Home: racism, HIV/AIDS, and drugs......Page 28 Criminalising use......Page 31 Compulsory care......Page 33 International models: war on drugs vs drug law reform......Page 35 Creating consensus......Page 37 The roles of RNS, FMN, and RFHL in achieving consensus......Page 38 Absence of divergent voices......Page 40 Exclusions of drug users......Page 41 Summary: moral panic, consensus, and silencing......Page 43 Sending a signal and political posturing......Page 46 Drug use as disease, drug users as vectors......Page 48 Drug users: pathologisation and infantilisation......Page 51 Swedish conflations......Page 54 Alcohol......Page 56 Snus......Page 59 Summary: pathologisation and demonisation of drugs and people who use them......Page 61 Which drugs?......Page 63 Levels of drug use......Page 64 Levels of alcohol consumption......Page 66 Making contact......Page 67 A displacement of drug dealing and of people who use drugs......Page 69 Broader projects of displacement and social engineering......Page 71 Summary: drug difficulties, displacement, containment, and control......Page 74 The need for harm reduction......Page 76 Harm reduction strategies......Page 77 Opposition to harm reduction......Page 78 Opposition to needle and syringe programmes......Page 81 Injection paraphernalia availability......Page 85 Safer drug use......Page 88 Information on blood-borne infections......Page 89 Opposition to substitution therapy......Page 90 The Malmö model – a second ‘Swedish model’?......Page 92 Summary: variability of services and harm exacerbation......Page 94 5. Experiences of service and healthcare provision......Page 98 Spatial segregation......Page 99 Social services......Page 102 Gaining access......Page 104 Disciplining and conditionality......Page 106 High threshold substitution therapy: barriers to seeking assistance......Page 110 Compulsory treatment......Page 112 Disseminating dominant discourse: biopower, geopower, discipline......Page 113 Summary: conditionality and discipline......Page 114 Stigma......Page 116 Arrests and fines......Page 119 Disincentives to seek assistance: losing child custody, compulsory care, criminalisation......Page 121 High threshold methadone......Page 123 Illegal needles, needle sharing, and needle reusing......Page 124 Blood-borne infections......Page 126 Ineligibility for hepatitis C treatment......Page 128 People who use drugs and the Swedish police and security forces......Page 130 Good intentions?......Page 131 Difficulties in reporting crime......Page 132 Violence......Page 133 Summary: exacerbated harm, danger, and violence for people who use drugs......Page 134 Silencing; pathologisation; displacement......Page 136 The outcomes of law and policy: service provision, harm exacerbation, and violence......Page 138 Sweden’s ‘drug-free society’: a utopian solution for all the world?......Page 140 In summary: Sweden’s war on people who use drugs......Page 141 Bibliography......Page 142 Index......Page 154