Esben Houborg
Biographic Data
| ID | 355574 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Esben Houborg |
| GIVEN NAMES | Esben |
| FAMILY NAME | Houborg |
| SIGNATURE | HOUBORG E |
| AFFILIATIONS | Aarhus University |
| ORCID | 0000-0002-3212-6412 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 24 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 36 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 24 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2012 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2026 |
| H-INDEX | 4 |
Young adults’ sourcing and supply of opioids in a changing drug market
The study shows that young adults access opioids from a variety of sources that often start with sourcing opioids through social networks, especially during the early stages of use. These insights call for nuanced prevention strategies that move beyond individual consumer models and address the complex social dynamics of non-prescribed opioid access and use
Between decriminalization policy and police practice: Implementation of warnings for marginalized people dependent on drugs in Denmark
The study highlights persistent challenges in implementing the decriminalization policy, indicating the need for legislative clarity, consistent enforcement practices, and targeted education for law enforcement. Future research should monitor the impact of recent legislative amendments and explore strategies to address systemic barriers in drug policy reform
How is Harm Reduction Policy Implemented in Local Contexts? Three Examples From Denmark
Harm reduction is an important public health factor for people who use drugs. It is recommended by United Nations agencies and implemented in many countries around the world. In this article, we present a study of local harm reduction policies in Denmark. Historically, harm reduction has developed at the local level due to local stakeholders’ concerns about the health of people who use drugs. Therefore, it is a key site for studying harm reductio…
User perspectives on outreach opioid substitution treatment among street-entrenched people who use drugs in Denmark
Background The COVID-19 pandemic had many serious consequences for vulnerable populations, but it also gave rise to innovations and changes of established ways of providing services for such populations. In Copenhagen, Denmark outreach opioid agonist therapy (OAT) was such an innovation.Methods Based on qualitative interviews with 15 individuals who received outreach OAT this article describes this new service and presents OAT clients’ experience…
Sheltering the Drug Environment: An Ethnographic Study of Boundary Practices and Social Harms in a Partly Accepted Drug Market
People who use drugs and experience homelessness face disproportionate health and social harms and are often embedded in street-based drug markets. In welfare states, supported housing—including homeless shelters—is one strategy to address their needs. Yet such services typically prohibit drug use and supply, creating barriers for some potential clients. At times, however, homeless shelters allow certain drug-related practices, generating drug en…
Finally, We Had This Place That Was Ours: Micro-Territorialisations and Place-Belongingness Among Rural Young People in Denmark
This paper examines young people's 'micro-territorialisations' in rural settings, focusing on how they create and claim spaces within their communities. Based on 29 in-depth interviews with individuals aged 18-25, it builds on and extends Harris and Wyn's concept of 'micro-territories of the local' while incorporating Kärrholm's work on territorialisation to examine the relational and temporal dimensions of rural young people's place-making. The …
Care in an opioid substitution therapy daycentre
Care is getting increasing attention as important for harm reduction for people who use drugs (PWUD). As a contribution to the literature about the role that care can play in harm reduction, this article presents a study of the care provided at a daycentre for PWUD. Based on semi-structured interviews with PWUD and staff at the daycentre and field notes from researchers, the article shows how care is enacted through the social interaction between…
It has gotten a lot better, but it is still bad’: Experiences with the police among marginalized PWUDs in a context of depenalization
Based on a survey (n = 249) and qualitative interviews (n = 38) with marginalized people who use drugs (PWUDs) in Copenhagen, Denmark, we investigate the experiences of this group with the police in a context where drug possession had been depenalized in and around drug consumption rooms (DCRs). Our findings point to positive experiences with the police, especially with the local community police in the depenalization zone, who refrained from dru…
Data reuse across international contexts? Reflections on new methods for International Qualitative Secondary Analysis
This research note reports on five online workshops by an international team of scholars, the authors, with shared interests in drug (mis)use. The workshops comprise a novel form of collective international qualitative secondary analysis (iQSA) exploring the possibilities for, and value of, qualitative data reuse across international contexts. These preparatory workshops comprise the preliminary stages of a longer programme of methodological deve…
Trade-offs in Substitution Treatment: A Qualitative Study of an Opioid Substitution Therapy Clinic as an Enabling and a Risk-Environment
This article presents results from a study of clients’ experiences of attending an opioid substitution treatment clinic in Copenhagen, Denmark. The study is part of a research project about the everyday lives of marginalized people who use drugs in Copenhagen, their risk environments, and their access to formal and informal resources. Thirty-eight clients participated in structured interviews, covering topics concerning drug use, income, housing,…
Different Paths and Potentials to Harm Reduction in Different Welfare States: Drug Consumption Rooms in the United Kingdom, Denmark, and France
Different Paths and Potentials to Harm Reduction in Different Welfare States: Drug Consumption Rooms in the United Kingdom, Denmark, and France, an article from American Journal of Public Health, Vol 112 Issue S2
Drug Consumption Rooms: Welfare State and Diversity in Social Acceptance in Denmark and in France
Drug consumption rooms (DCRs) have the potential to have a positive impact on the opioid overdose crisis. DCRs could also potentially change the political environment for public health because they can affect the distribution of responsibility for harm reduction between the individual and society by collectivizing responsibility for harm reduction through welfare regimes. The methodology is based on 2 case studies—1 in Copenhagen, Denmark, and 1 …
Making up a new drug user from depenalization to repenalisation of drug users in Denmark
Problematisations in drug use policy, practice and research
Managing Coexistence: Resident Experiences of the Open Drug Scene and Drug Consumption Rooms in Inner Vesterbro, Copenhagen
The inner-city area of Inner Vesterbro in Copenhagen, Denmark, houses the largest open drug scene in Scandinavia. Since the 1980s, the area has been a gathering point for people who use, buy, and sell drugs. During the last two decades, urban redevelopments have resulted in marked demographic changes amid concerns about processes of gentrification. The drug scene, however, remains, and the last 7 years have seen the implementation of a new police…
Withdrawn: Call for papers: Problematizations in drug use policy, practice and research
Withdrawn: Themed collection: “Comparing drug policies”
Drug policing assemblages: Repressive drug policies and the zonal banning of drug users in Denmark’s club land
The paper argues that a third-party policing perspective combined with assemblage theory is useful for highlighting how the enforcement of national drug policies and nightlife banning systems is shaped by their embeddedness in local 'drug policing assemblages' characterized by inter-agency relation-building, the creative combination of public and private (legal) resources and internal power struggles. It also provides evidence of how drug policin…
Drug policing in four Danish police districts
Results from a study of zero-tolerance drug policy in Denmark are presented. Database research shows that an increasing number of Danes are criminalized for possession of illicit drugs and that particular characteristics of offenders increase the chance of being criminalized. Qualitative case studies show ambiguous results. Criminal records do not indicate that particular people are singled out. Interviews with police officers indicate that appea…
Addiction, Drugs, and Experimentation: Methadone Maintenance Treatment Between “In Here” and “Out There”
In Denmark, outpatient substitution treatment has traditionally been associated with a great deal of ambivalence and control. Until the late 1990s, a condition for entering substitution treatment was that the user ceased using illicit drugs. Failure to comply would in many cases mean expulsion from treatment. However, since the late 1990s/early 2000s, a more liberal substitution treatment policy has developed, which recognizes continued attachmen…
Drug consumption rooms and the role of politics and governance in policy processes
From Zero Tolerance to Non-Enforcement: Creating a New Space for Drug Policing in Copenhagen, Denmark
The neighborhood of Vesterbro in Copenhagen has housed the largest open drug scene in Denmark since the 1980s. In recent years there has been a remarkable change in the police strategy towards this drug scene from zero tolerance to a non-enforcement strategy. This article presents a case study of this change in strategy and its implications for more general discussions about drug control and harm reduction. With inspiration from the governmentali…
Methadone, a contested substance: Danish methadone policy in the 1970s
The Political Pharmacology of Methadone and Heroin in Danish Drug Policy
This article uses the concept of “political pharmacology” to show that drugs are complex and mutable entities, the constitution of which is as much a political (power) issue as it is a technical one. The article analyzes the negotiations and struggles that have been involved in the constitution of methadone and heroin as maintenance drugs in Denmark. Danish drug policy on medical-maintenance treatment was for many years dominated by a medico-admi…
The Political Pharmacology of Methadone and Heroin in Danish Drug Policy
This article uses the concept of “political pharmacology” to show that drugs are complex and mutable entities, the constitution of which is as much a political (power) issue as it is a technical one. The article analyzes the negotiations and struggles that have been involved in the constitution of methadone and heroin as maintenance drugs in Denmark. Danish drug policy on medical-maintenance treatment was for many years dominated by a medico-admi…
From Zero Tolerance to Non-Enforcement: Creating a New Space for Drug Policing in Copenhagen, Denmark
The neighborhood of Vesterbro in Copenhagen has housed the largest open drug scene in Denmark since the 1980s. In recent years there has been a remarkable change in the police strategy towards this drug scene from zero tolerance to a non-enforcement strategy. This article presents a case study of this change in strategy and its implications for more general discussions about drug control and harm reduction. With inspiration from the governmentali…
Managing Coexistence: Resident Experiences of the Open Drug Scene and Drug Consumption Rooms in Inner Vesterbro, Copenhagen
The inner-city area of Inner Vesterbro in Copenhagen, Denmark, houses the largest open drug scene in Scandinavia. Since the 1980s, the area has been a gathering point for people who use, buy, and sell drugs. During the last two decades, urban redevelopments have resulted in marked demographic changes amid concerns about processes of gentrification. The drug scene, however, remains, and the last 7 years have seen the implementation of a new police…
Drug Consumption Rooms: Welfare State and Diversity in Social Acceptance in Denmark and in France
Drug consumption rooms (DCRs) have the potential to have a positive impact on the opioid overdose crisis. DCRs could also potentially change the political environment for public health because they can affect the distribution of responsibility for harm reduction between the individual and society by collectivizing responsibility for harm reduction through welfare regimes. The methodology is based on 2 case studies—1 in Copenhagen, Denmark, and 1 …
Care in an opioid substitution therapy daycentre
Care is getting increasing attention as important for harm reduction for people who use drugs (PWUD). As a contribution to the literature about the role that care can play in harm reduction, this article presents a study of the care provided at a daycentre for PWUD. Based on semi-structured interviews with PWUD and staff at the daycentre and field notes from researchers, the article shows how care is enacted through the social interaction between…
Trade-offs in Substitution Treatment: A Qualitative Study of an Opioid Substitution Therapy Clinic as an Enabling and a Risk-Environment
This article presents results from a study of clients’ experiences of attending an opioid substitution treatment clinic in Copenhagen, Denmark. The study is part of a research project about the everyday lives of marginalized people who use drugs in Copenhagen, their risk environments, and their access to formal and informal resources. Thirty-eight clients participated in structured interviews, covering topics concerning drug use, income, housing,…
Addiction, Drugs, and Experimentation: Methadone Maintenance Treatment Between “In Here” and “Out There”
In Denmark, outpatient substitution treatment has traditionally been associated with a great deal of ambivalence and control. Until the late 1990s, a condition for entering substitution treatment was that the user ceased using illicit drugs. Failure to comply would in many cases mean expulsion from treatment. However, since the late 1990s/early 2000s, a more liberal substitution treatment policy has developed, which recognizes continued attachmen…
Different Paths and Potentials to Harm Reduction in Different Welfare States: Drug Consumption Rooms in the United Kingdom, Denmark, and France
Different Paths and Potentials to Harm Reduction in Different Welfare States: Drug Consumption Rooms in the United Kingdom, Denmark, and France, an article from American Journal of Public Health, Vol 112 Issue S2
The Political Pharmacology of Methadone and Heroin in Danish Drug Policy
This article uses the concept of “political pharmacology” to show that drugs are complex and mutable entities, the constitution of which is as much a political (power) issue as it is a technical one. The article analyzes the negotiations and struggles that have been involved in the constitution of methadone and heroin as maintenance drugs in Denmark. Danish drug policy on medical-maintenance treatment was for many years dominated by a medico-admi…
Methadone, a contested substance: Danish methadone policy in the 1970s
Drug consumption rooms and the role of politics and governance in policy processes
From Zero Tolerance to Non-Enforcement: Creating a New Space for Drug Policing in Copenhagen, Denmark
The neighborhood of Vesterbro in Copenhagen has housed the largest open drug scene in Denmark since the 1980s. In recent years there has been a remarkable change in the police strategy towards this drug scene from zero tolerance to a non-enforcement strategy. This article presents a case study of this change in strategy and its implications for more general discussions about drug control and harm reduction. With inspiration from the governmentali…
Addiction, Drugs, and Experimentation: Methadone Maintenance Treatment Between “In Here” and “Out There”
In Denmark, outpatient substitution treatment has traditionally been associated with a great deal of ambivalence and control. Until the late 1990s, a condition for entering substitution treatment was that the user ceased using illicit drugs. Failure to comply would in many cases mean expulsion from treatment. However, since the late 1990s/early 2000s, a more liberal substitution treatment policy has developed, which recognizes continued attachmen…
Drug policing in four Danish police districts
Results from a study of zero-tolerance drug policy in Denmark are presented. Database research shows that an increasing number of Danes are criminalized for possession of illicit drugs and that particular characteristics of offenders increase the chance of being criminalized. Qualitative case studies show ambiguous results. Criminal records do not indicate that particular people are singled out. Interviews with police officers indicate that appea…
Withdrawn: Themed collection: “Comparing drug policies”
Drug policing assemblages: Repressive drug policies and the zonal banning of drug users in Denmark’s club land
The paper argues that a third-party policing perspective combined with assemblage theory is useful for highlighting how the enforcement of national drug policies and nightlife banning systems is shaped by their embeddedness in local 'drug policing assemblages' characterized by inter-agency relation-building, the creative combination of public and private (legal) resources and internal power struggles. It also provides evidence of how drug policin…
Withdrawn: Call for papers: Problematizations in drug use policy, practice and research
Making up a new drug user from depenalization to repenalisation of drug users in Denmark
Problematisations in drug use policy, practice and research
Managing Coexistence: Resident Experiences of the Open Drug Scene and Drug Consumption Rooms in Inner Vesterbro, Copenhagen
The inner-city area of Inner Vesterbro in Copenhagen, Denmark, houses the largest open drug scene in Scandinavia. Since the 1980s, the area has been a gathering point for people who use, buy, and sell drugs. During the last two decades, urban redevelopments have resulted in marked demographic changes amid concerns about processes of gentrification. The drug scene, however, remains, and the last 7 years have seen the implementation of a new police…
Trade-offs in Substitution Treatment: A Qualitative Study of an Opioid Substitution Therapy Clinic as an Enabling and a Risk-Environment
This article presents results from a study of clients’ experiences of attending an opioid substitution treatment clinic in Copenhagen, Denmark. The study is part of a research project about the everyday lives of marginalized people who use drugs in Copenhagen, their risk environments, and their access to formal and informal resources. Thirty-eight clients participated in structured interviews, covering topics concerning drug use, income, housing,…
Different Paths and Potentials to Harm Reduction in Different Welfare States: Drug Consumption Rooms in the United Kingdom, Denmark, and France
Different Paths and Potentials to Harm Reduction in Different Welfare States: Drug Consumption Rooms in the United Kingdom, Denmark, and France, an article from American Journal of Public Health, Vol 112 Issue S2
Drug Consumption Rooms: Welfare State and Diversity in Social Acceptance in Denmark and in France
Drug consumption rooms (DCRs) have the potential to have a positive impact on the opioid overdose crisis. DCRs could also potentially change the political environment for public health because they can affect the distribution of responsibility for harm reduction between the individual and society by collectivizing responsibility for harm reduction through welfare regimes. The methodology is based on 2 case studies—1 in Copenhagen, Denmark, and 1 …
Data reuse across international contexts? Reflections on new methods for International Qualitative Secondary Analysis
This research note reports on five online workshops by an international team of scholars, the authors, with shared interests in drug (mis)use. The workshops comprise a novel form of collective international qualitative secondary analysis (iQSA) exploring the possibilities for, and value of, qualitative data reuse across international contexts. These preparatory workshops comprise the preliminary stages of a longer programme of methodological deve…
It has gotten a lot better, but it is still bad’: Experiences with the police among marginalized PWUDs in a context of depenalization
Based on a survey (n = 249) and qualitative interviews (n = 38) with marginalized people who use drugs (PWUDs) in Copenhagen, Denmark, we investigate the experiences of this group with the police in a context where drug possession had been depenalized in and around drug consumption rooms (DCRs). Our findings point to positive experiences with the police, especially with the local community police in the depenalization zone, who refrained from dru…
User perspectives on outreach opioid substitution treatment among street-entrenched people who use drugs in Denmark
Background The COVID-19 pandemic had many serious consequences for vulnerable populations, but it also gave rise to innovations and changes of established ways of providing services for such populations. In Copenhagen, Denmark outreach opioid agonist therapy (OAT) was such an innovation.Methods Based on qualitative interviews with 15 individuals who received outreach OAT this article describes this new service and presents OAT clients’ experience…
Sheltering the Drug Environment: An Ethnographic Study of Boundary Practices and Social Harms in a Partly Accepted Drug Market
People who use drugs and experience homelessness face disproportionate health and social harms and are often embedded in street-based drug markets. In welfare states, supported housing—including homeless shelters—is one strategy to address their needs. Yet such services typically prohibit drug use and supply, creating barriers for some potential clients. At times, however, homeless shelters allow certain drug-related practices, generating drug en…
Finally, We Had This Place That Was Ours: Micro-Territorialisations and Place-Belongingness Among Rural Young People in Denmark
This paper examines young people's 'micro-territorialisations' in rural settings, focusing on how they create and claim spaces within their communities. Based on 29 in-depth interviews with individuals aged 18-25, it builds on and extends Harris and Wyn's concept of 'micro-territories of the local' while incorporating Kärrholm's work on territorialisation to examine the relational and temporal dimensions of rural young people's place-making. The …
Care in an opioid substitution therapy daycentre
Care is getting increasing attention as important for harm reduction for people who use drugs (PWUD). As a contribution to the literature about the role that care can play in harm reduction, this article presents a study of the care provided at a daycentre for PWUD. Based on semi-structured interviews with PWUD and staff at the daycentre and field notes from researchers, the article shows how care is enacted through the social interaction between…
Young adults’ sourcing and supply of opioids in a changing drug market
The study shows that young adults access opioids from a variety of sources that often start with sourcing opioids through social networks, especially during the early stages of use. These insights call for nuanced prevention strategies that move beyond individual consumer models and address the complex social dynamics of non-prescribed opioid access and use
Between decriminalization policy and police practice: Implementation of warnings for marginalized people dependent on drugs in Denmark
The study highlights persistent challenges in implementing the decriminalization policy, indicating the need for legislative clarity, consistent enforcement practices, and targeted education for law enforcement. Future research should monitor the impact of recent legislative amendments and explore strategies to address systemic barriers in drug policy reform
How is Harm Reduction Policy Implemented in Local Contexts? Three Examples From Denmark
Harm reduction is an important public health factor for people who use drugs. It is recommended by United Nations agencies and implemented in many countries around the world. In this article, we present a study of local harm reduction policies in Denmark. Historically, harm reduction has developed at the local level due to local stakeholders’ concerns about the health of people who use drugs. Therefore, it is a key site for studying harm reductio…
HIV, Drug Use, Sexual Risk (14 works) · Medicine (12 works) · Political science (12 works) · Sociology (12 works) · Psychology (10 works) · Drug (9 works) · Psychiatry (8 works) · Substance Abuse Treatment and Outcomes (8 works) · Criminology (7 works) · Harm (7 works)