AI Article Synopsis
- The ongoing overdose crisis in North America has led to the rise of "safer supply" programs in Canada, aimed at providing safer alternatives to unregulated drugs.
- Concerns have surfaced from various stakeholders, including media, politicians, and addiction experts, claiming that these programs could spark a "new opioid epidemic," despite this being largely based on unverified claims.
- The essay critically analyzes media narratives and employs moral panic theory to examine public discourse about safer supply, connecting it to historical patterns of drug-related stigmas and their impact on healthcare for people who use drugs (PWUD).
Article Abstract
The ongoing overdose and drug toxicity crisis in North America has contributed momentum to the emergence of safer supply prescribing and programs in Canada as a means of providing an alternative to the highly volatile unregulated drug supply. The implementation and scale-up of safer supply have been met with a vocal reaction on the part of news media commentators, conservative politicians, recovery industry representatives, and some prominent addiction medicine physicians. This reaction has largely converged around several narratives, based on unsubstantiated claims and anecdotal evidence, alleging that safer supply programs are generating a "new opioid epidemic", reflecting an emerging alignment among key institutional and political actors. Employing situational analysis method, and drawing on the policy studies and social science scholarship on moral panics, this essay examines news media coverage from January to July 2023, bringing this into dialogue with other existing empirical sources on safer supply (e.g. Coroner's reports, program evaluations, debates among experts in medical journals). We employ eight previously established criteria delineating moral panics to critically appraise public dialogue regarding safer supply, diverted medication, and claims of increased youth initiation to drug use and youth overdose. In detailing the emergence of a moral panic regarding safer supply, we trace historic continuities with earlier drug scares in Canadian history mobilized as tools of racialized poverty governance, as well as previous backlashes towards healthcare interventions for people who use drugs (PWUD). The essay assesses the claims of moral entrepreneurs against the current landscape of opioid use, diversion, and overdose among youth, notes the key role played by medical expertise in this and previous moral panics, and identifies what the convergence of these narratives materialize for PWUD and healthcare access, as well as the broader policy responses such narratives activate.
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| http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.drugpo.2024.104423 | DOI Listing |
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