The Textures of Heroin: User Perspectives on "Black Tar" and Powder Heroin in Two US Cities
The Textures of Heroin: User Perspectives on "Black Tar" and Powder Heroin in Two US Cities
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DOI：
10.1080/02791072.2016.1207826
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发表时间：
2016-01-01
影响因子：
2.8
通讯作者：
Ciccarone, Daniel
中科院分区：
文献类型：
--
作者：
Mars, Sarah G.;Bourgois, Philippe;Ciccarone, Daniel
自20世纪90年代以来，美国的海洛因消费者从各种可用产品中分离出来：在密西西比河以东，来自哥伦比亚的粉状海洛因(PH)主导着市场，而在西部，来自墨西哥的“黑焦油”(BTH)是可获得的主要海洛因。通过在费城(PH)和旧金山(BTH)两个示范城市进行定性研究，我们比较了吸毒者对海洛因来源类型、市场、健康后果和消费偏好的体验。随着旧金山出现新形式的粉状海洛因，海洛因市场的严格划分可能正在改变。我们的研究人员和受访者认为，仅因注射海洛因而导致的静脉丢失是BTH的一个特殊问题，而在费城的样本中，那些避免了附近可卡因销售的诱惑的人显示出更健康的注射部位，报告的静脉问题很少。脓肿在两个地点都很常见，费城的样本通常归咎于注射可卡因时丢失了一条静脉，旧金山的研究小组找到了几种解释，包括BTH的性质。消费偏好揭示了一种“效力鉴赏力”，知识的积累和利用可以获得最强的海洛因。我们讨论了他们的口味采取这种狭隘形式的原因，以及它与海洛因市场的结构性限制的关系。
Since the 1990s, U.S. heroin consumers have been divided from the full range of available products: east of the Mississippi River, Colombian-sourced powder heroin (PH) dominates the market while, to the west, Mexican-sourced "black tar" (BTH) is the main heroin available. By conducting qualitative research in two exemplar cities, Philadelphia (PH) and San Francisco (BTH), we compare users' experiences of heroin source-types, markets, health consequences, and consumption preferences. The strict division of heroin markets may be changing with novel forms of powder heroin appearing in San Francisco. Our researchers and interviewees perceived vein loss stemming from the injection of heroin alone to be a particular problem of BTH while, among the Philadelphia sample, those who avoided the temptations of nearby cocaine sales displayed healthier injecting sites and reported few vein problems. Abscesses were common across both sites, the Philadelphia sample generally blaming missing a vein when injecting cocaine and the San Francisco group finding several explanations, including the properties of BTH. Consumption preferences revealed a "connoisseurship of potency," with knowledge amassed and deployed to obtain the strongest heroin available. We discuss the reasons that their tastes take this narrow form and its relationship to the structural constraints of the heroin market.