Extra-legal policing strategies and HIV risk environment: accounts of people who inject drugs in Nigeria

Challenges for drug checking services in Scotland: a qualitative exploration of police perceptions

Background

The impact of policing practices on the engagement of people who use drugs (PWUD) with harm reduction services is well evidenced. Although the police have traditionally taken an enforcement role in responding to drug use, it is increasingly clear that they can play an important part in multiagency delivery of harm reduction interventions. Despite this, there have been no studies exploring police officer perceptions of drug checking services (DCS), which provide analytical testing of client drug samples alongside harm reduction support and advice.

Methods

Semi-structured interviews were conducted with 10 police officers to explore the policing and legal challenges which could be encountered in the delivery of DCS in Scotland.

Results

Participants expressed general support for DCS and described this support as part of a wider organisational shift towards public health-oriented policing. Participants also discussed different potential approaches to the policing of areas surrounding DCS including: formal limits on police presence around the service and/or stop and search powers in relation to personal possession; the effective decriminalisation of personal possession within a specified boundary around the service; and informal agreements between local divisions and DCS outlining expected policing practices. Any formal limitation on the capacity of police officers to respond to community concerns was viewed as problematic and as having the potential to erode public confidence in policing. Participants also highlighted the potential for frontline officers to utilise discretion in ways which could undermine public health goals. Legislative change, or national strategic guidance from relevant stakeholders, was seen as a means of providing ‘cover’, enabling local divisions to support the operation of drug checking.

Conclusions

Despite a small sample of participants, this study summarises key challenges to be addressed in the implementation and operation of DCS in Scotland, and more widely. The paper concludes with suggested opportunities to develop approaches to policing that can facilitate rather than impede implementation and operation of these services.

Young People Who Use Drugs Views Toward the Power and Authority of Police Officers

Many young people who use drugs are structurally vulnerable to policing powers given the ongoing criminalization of drug possession. Police authority limits and the expression of that authority may play a significant role in police encounters among young people who use drugs. This qualitative study explores the views of young people who use drugs toward police power and authority in their recent encounters with police officers. Interviews were conducted with 38 young people who recently used illegal drugs in British Columbia, Canada. We found five interrelated themes related to perceptions of police authority: (1) skepticism and distrust toward authority; (2) paternalism and authority over drug use; (3) officer use of force; (4) police as power-hungry; and (5) officers above the law. Participants described police authority as limitless, unpredictable, untethered, easily abused, and lacking accountability. Participants feared holding police officers accountable to power abuses in a criminal justice system that they saw as stacked against them. Moving forward, institutional reforms may consider and account for the expression, limits, and use of police authority among young people who use drugs and other structurally vulnerable communities.

Rationalities of Space and Drug-Related Harms: Accounts of People Who Inject Drugs in Nigeria

BACKGROUND

Studies have examined how people who inject drugs (PWID) navigate public spaces for drug consumption, but little is known about consumption of drugs in private apartments. This study explores social, structural and physical environment factors influencing injecting practices and the rationalities shaping how PWID make decisions about where to consume drugs.

METHODS

The study is based on qualitative data from 41 in-depth interviews conducted with both homeless and housed PWID recruited through snowball sampling in Uyo, Nigeria. Thematic analysis, framed by the theoretical constructs of structural and everyday violence, and situated rationality theories, was undertaken on transcripts.

RESULTS

Analysis revealed different socio-spatial rationalities underlying decisions about where to use drugs: avoidance of police arrest, convenience and relaxation, avoidance of drug sharing, avoidance of drug-scene violence, and stigma and shame. These factors show the impacts of social, structural and physical environment factors on the lived experiences of PWID. Injecting in private apartments potentially offset the risk of stigma, police arrest and violence linked to public injecting, but increase the risk of overdose and sharing of drugs and needle-syringes based on social relations of trust.

CONCLUSIONS

Findings show that PWID chose between competing risks when deciding on where to inject drugs. Interventions should consider the situated contexts of risk, and adapt harm reduction measures to the risk profile of different populations of PWID.

Thirty Years of Human Rights Study in the Web of Science Database (1990-2020)

The study of human rights (HR) is vital in order to enhance the development of human beings, but this field of study still needs to be better depicted and understood because violations of its core principles still frequently occur worldwide. In this study, our goal was to perform a bibliometric performance and network analysis (BPNA) to investigate the strategic themes, thematic evolution structure, and trends of HR found in the Web of Science (WoS) database from 1990 to June 2020. To do this, we included 25,542 articles in the SciMAT software for bibliometric analysis. The strategic diagram produced shows 23 themes, 12 of which are motor themes, the most important of which are discussed in this article. The thematic evolution structure presented the 21 most relevant themes of the 2011-2020 period. Our findings show that HR research is directly related to health issues, such as mental health, HIV, and reproductive health. We believe that the presented results and HR panorama presented have the potential to be used as a basis on which researchers in future works may enhance their decision making related to this field of study.