The impact of a police drug crackdown on drug injectors' ability to practice harm reduction: A qualitative study

To link to full-text access for this article, visit this link: http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.socscimed.2004.12.030 Byline: Hannah Cooper (a), Lisa Moore (b), Sofia Gruskin (c), Nancy Krieger (d) Keywords: Law enforcement; Substance-related disorders; Social geography; Qualitative methods; Social inequality; USA Abstract: This paper employs qualitative methods to explore the ramifications of a police drug crackdown on drug injectors' ability to practice harm reduction. Between August and December 2000, we conducted open-ended interviews with 40 illicit-drug-injecting residents of a New York City police precinct undergoing a crackdown. Interview topics included participants' experiences with police in the precinct and their drug use practices. Grounded theory methods were used to analyze resulting transcripts. Because place emerged as a salient analytic category, we also drew on elements of social geography to interpret results. The analysis suggests that particular crackdown tactics, notably frequent police searches of participants' bodies and elevated surveillance of the precinct's public spaces, reconfigured participants' experiences of their bodies and the public spaces comprising the precinct in ways that adversely affected their capacity to engage in harm reduction. Frequent police searches, for example, discouraged participants from carrying the injection equipment they needed to ensure that they could inject with a sterile syringe. Constant monitoring of local public spaces made it difficult for homeless women and men to inject safely. Simultaneously, participants expressed support for police actions that reduced public drug activity. Given these findings, we recommend the implementation of strategies, designed by partnerships of community groups and governmental and non-governmental organizations, which reduce public drug activity without imperiling injectors' health. Possible strategies include improving access to treatment and establishing safe injection spaces. Author Affiliation: (a) Medical Health and Research Institution/National Development and Research Institutes, Inc., 71 West 23rd Street, 8th Floor, New York 10010, USA (b) Department of Health Education, San Francisco State University, USA (c) Department of Population and International Health, Harvard School of Public Health, USA (d) Department of Society, Human Development, and Health, Harvard School of Public Health, USA