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Name: Personal
Name: Personal
Name: Personal
Type of Resource: text
Genre (aat): posters
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Note (displayLabel="Scholarly concentration"): Global Health
Note: All rights reserved
Abstract: Stigma relating to drug-dependent individuals is one of the most significant barriers to seeking treatment for addiction. Research suggests that many addicts in America have difficulty admitting the need for treatment for fear of social and legal persecution. That addiction and drug use is detrimental to health and well-being is perhaps universal. However, policy and the approach to prevent addiction have differed from nation to nation with varying levels of success This paper draws on qualitative, key-informant interviews conducted with stakeholders in city-wide management of addiction in Lisbon, Portugal, where a shift to decriminalization of drug use in 2001 with concurrent efforts to expand access to treatment and to decrease stigma related to drug use and addiction have had marked success in 1) reducing incidence and prevalence of addiction, 2) reducing the incidence and prevalence of diseases related to drug use and 3) reducing crime. Interviews were conducted with 30 informants including the Coordinator of Drug Treatment of Portugal, policy influencers, psychiatrists (in and out of addiction treatment centers), general practitioners, psychologists, social workers, sociologists, anthropologists, harm-reduction providers, and police officials. Themes that arose include the rationalization of decriminalization, the influence of stigma as a barrier to care, the general public's conceptualization of addiction as a disease, the role of police in combating addiction, and the failure of opponents' criticisms of decriminalization to materialize.
Subject (LCSH)
Subject (LCSH)