Health, Crime, and Moral Order

A Frame and Positioning Analysis of Puerto Rico's Overdose Crisis Media Coverage

Bibliographic Data

ID17534653
AuthorsKenneth Martínez Lucena (0000-0003-1078-0680, Department of Psychology, Faculty of Social Sciences, University of Puerto Rico, San Juan, Puerto Rico, corresponding author)
Year2026
Publication date2026-05-05
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueContemporary Drug Problems (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0091-4509 • E-ISSN: 2163-1808
PublisherSAGE Publishing (PUBLISHER • US)
DOI10.1177/00914509261447916
OpenAlexW7160277321
LanguageEN
References cited22

This study analyzes Puerto Rico's digital media coverage of the overdose crisis through framing and positioning analyses of 129 articles from the top three newspapers between 2015 and 2024. Four frames were identified: Overdose and Public Health (14.7%), Health Policies and State Responsibility (23.3%), Criminalization and Morality (22.5%), and Health and Opioid Interventions (39.5%). The study found four main narratives that assign blame, risks, and solutions, shaping subjectivities and moral orders: Youth Positioning of Drug Initiation as an autobiographical account of starting opioid use; Combative Subject , representing the normalization of recovery as an ongoing effort; Police Hero , legitimizing punishment and externalizing blame; and Moral Pharmacist Entrepreneur , reinforcing surveillance practices and promoting the agenda toward benzodiazepines and tighter drug prescription and distribution controls. The findings reveal a hybrid discursive landscape in which health-related logics coexist with criminalizing rhetoric, reflecting tensions in how the overdose crisis is defined, governed, and morally negotiated in Puerto Rico

Blame · Critical discourse analysis · Discourse analysis · Drug overdose · Framing (construction) · Media coverage · Narrative · Newspaper · Normalization (sociology) · Opioid overdose · Crime, Deviance, and Social Control · HIV, Drug Use, Sexual Risk · Opioid Use Disorder Treatment

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