Policing space in the overdose crisis: A rapid ethnographic study of the impact of law enforcement practices on the effectiveness of overdose prevention sites
Policing space in the overdose crisis: A rapid ethnographic study of the impact of law enforcement practices on the effectiveness of overdose prevention sites
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DOI：
10.1016/j.drugpo.2019.08.002
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发表时间：
2019-11-01
影响因子：
4.4
通讯作者：
McNeil, Ryan
中科院分区：
文献类型：
--
作者：
Collins, Alexandra B.;Boyd, Jade;McNeil, Ryan
北美正处于药物过量危机之中。在加拿大一些受影响最严重的地区，当地的对策包括建立低门槛的毒品消费设施，称为预防吸毒过量场所。在加拿大的温哥华，危机和应对措施发生在一个同时受到住房危机影响的城市，在这场危机中，以前“不受欢迎”的地区正在迅速中产阶级化，导致人们要求在过量用药危机的中心更密切地管理地区。我们研究了街头警务和中产阶级化的交叉点，以及这些做法是如何在温哥华市中心东区的OPS及其周围重新创造空间的。在2016年12月至2017年10月期间，对72名吸毒者（PWUD）进行了定性访谈，并在OPS及周边地区进行了超过200小时的民族志实地考察。对数据进行了专题分析，并根据结构脆弱性和社会地理要素进行了解释。虽然老年退休金计划是在PWUD现有的社会空间实践中建立的，但中产阶级化战略和相关的警察战术对老年退休金计划的服务造成了障碍。与会者强调，由于害怕被捕和警察介入，必须单独应对过量用药，而不是求助于紧急服务。难民专员办事处附近的例行警务以及执行区域限制和搜查令，往往使参加者不敢进入某些地点。进一步记录在案的是，在支付收入援助支票的那一周和接下来的那一周，附近的警察人数有所增加。我们的研究结果表明，一些执法实践，部分是由正在进行的中产阶级化的努力和支持的多种形式的刑事定罪存在于PWUD的生活，限制了获得所需的过量相关服务。有必要放弃基于地点的警务做法，包括由中产阶级化驱动的做法，以免在过量用药危机中破坏拯救生命的公共卫生干预措施的有效性。
North America is in the midst of an overdose crisis. In some of the hardest hit areas of Canada, local responses have included the implementation of low-threshold drug consumption facilities, termed Overdose Prevention Sites (OPS). In Vancouver, Canada the crisis and response occur in an urban terrain that is simultaneously impacted by a housing crisis in which formerly 'undesirable' areas are rapidly gentrifying, leading to demands to more closely police areas at the epicenter of the overdose crisis. We examined the intersection of street-level policing and gentrification and how these practices re/made space in and around OPS in Vancouver's Downtown Eastside neighborhood. Between December 2016 and October 2017, qualitative interviews were conducted with 72 people who use drugs (PWUD) and over 200 h of ethnographic fieldwork were undertaken at OPS and surrounding areas. Data were analyzed thematically and interpreted by drawing on structural vulnerability and elements of social geography. While OPS were established within existing social-spatial practices of PWUD, gentrification strategies and associated police tactics created barriers to OPS services. Participants highlighted how fear of arrest and police engagement necessitated responding to overdoses alone, rather than engaging emergency services. Routine policing near OPS and the enforcement of area restrictions and warrant searches, often deterred participants from accessing particular sites. Further documented was an increase in the number of police present in the neighborhood the week of, and the week proceeding, the disbursement of income assistance cheques. Our findings demonstrate how some law enforcement practices, driven in part by ongoing gentrification efforts and buttressed by multiple forms of criminalization present in the lives of PWUD, limited access to needed overdose-related services. Moving away from place-based policing practices, including those driven by gentrification, will be necessary so as to not undermine the effectiveness of life-saving public health interventions amid an overdose crisis.