Negotiating drug use and work
A poststructural analysis of construction workers who use drugs amid decriminalization
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 21594823 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Naomi Zakimi (0000-0003-3582-3261, Simon Fraser University, corresponding author), Alissa Greer (0000-0002-8702-5694, Simon Fraser University), Alissa M Greer (0000-0002-2571-9690) |
| Year | 2026 |
| Volume | 154 |
| Pages | 105336 |
| Publication date | 2026-08-01 |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | International Journal of Drug Policy (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0955-3959 • E-ISSN: 1873-4758 |
| Publisher | Elsevier BV (PUBLISHER) |
| DOI | 10.1016/j.drugpo.2026.105336 |
| PMID | 42143788 |
| OpenAlex | W7161495499 |
| Language | EN |
| References cited | 21 |
BACKGROUND: People who use drugs are embedded in complex systems and policy settings. In this study, we investigated how construction workers who use drugs negotiated their subject positions while navigating social and work demands in the context of British Columbia's recent decriminalization policy, which aimed to reduce stigma and increase access to health and social services. METHODS: Using poststructural interview analysis, we analyzed the 'things said' and the subject positions produced in 12 interviews with construction workers who use illicit drugs in British Columbia following the implementation of decriminalization. RESULTS: Throughout the interviews, participants produced and negotiated their subject position as people who use drugs alongside the position of the productive worker who aligned with the expectations of the responsible neoliberal subject. Within the existing decriminalization context, participants continued to be limited in how they positioned themselves and other people who use drugs by existing social and work policies and norms, which were not in line with decriminalization's objectives. However, in small and local ways, some participants navigated these tensions by defying taken-for-granted assumptions about work and drug use. CONCLUSIONS: Our analysis highlights the complex social structures in which drug policies are implemented and which may limit how people who use drugs position themselves and others. Policy reforms must consider how changes may align with the existing local context in which they are implemented. It is critical that people who use drugs are not categorized only as drug users in research and policy reform but considered in full, beyond narrow categories
Decriminalization · Drug · Harm reduction · Negotiation · Construction Project Management and Performance · HIV, Drug Use, Sexual Risk · Occupational Health and Safety Research
Undocumented Migrants in Canada
Injection drug use in an affluent beachside community in Sydney
Biopolítica, Neoliberalismo e guerra às drogas
I am not a drug abuser, I am a drug user”
Ignored inequities
Producing the ‘problem of drugs’
Addiction stigma and the biopolitics of liberal modernity
The ‘risk environment’
Avoiding the stigma. A qualitative study of socially included women's experiences of drug use and dealing, health services and the police in France
Socioeconomic marginalization and risk of overdose in a community-recruited cohort of people who use drugs
Complex cases – Complex representations of problems
A spray bottle and a lollipop stick”
Status, stigma and stereotype
Drug Problematizations and Politics
Government and Control
Grew Up with a Silver Spoon in My Mouth, But it Ended Up the Nose
Criminalization and Drug “Wars” or Medicalization and Health “Epidemics
Dazzled by unity? Order and chaos in public discourse on illicit drug use
Putting at risk what we know
Patterns of socioeconomic marginalization and non-fatal overdose among people who use drugs
Cycling 'subjects' in ongoing-formation
| Highly cited | No |
|---|