Negotiating drug use and work: a poststructural analysis of construction workers who use drugs amid decriminalization

BACKGROUND: People who use drugs are embedded in complex systems and policy settings. In this study, we investigated how construction workers who use drugs negotiated their subject positions while navigating social and work demands in the context of British Columbia's recent decriminalization policy, which aimed to reduce stigma and increase access to health and social services. METHODS: Using poststructural interview analysis, we analyzed the 'things said' and the subject positions produced in 12 interviews with construction workers who use illicit drugs in British Columbia following the implementation of decriminalization. RESULTS: Throughout the interviews, participants produced and negotiated their subject position as people who use drugs alongside the position of the productive worker who aligned with the expectations of the responsible neoliberal subject. Within the existing decriminalization context, participants continued to be limited in how they positioned themselves and other people who use drugs by existing social and work policies and norms, which were not in line with decriminalization's objectives. However, in small and local ways, some participants navigated these tensions by defying taken-for-granted assumptions about work and drug use. CONCLUSIONS: Our analysis highlights the complex social structures in which drug policies are implemented and which may limit how people who use drugs position themselves and others. Policy reforms must consider how changes may align with the existing local context in which they are implemented. It is critical that people who use drugs are not categorized only as drug users in research and policy reform but considered in full, beyond narrow categories.