‘Being human’ and the ‘moral sidestep’ in drug policy: Explaining government inaction on opioid-related deaths in the UK

Abstract

Members of economically 'residual' groups (including working class people who use heroin) are excluded from articulating their interests in 'late welfare capitalism' in a project of depersonalising 'class contempt' through which politicians cast the people most likely to die as passive, 'vulnerable' 'abjects'. Conservative politicians dismiss 'evidence-based' ideas on the reduction of drug-related death through a 'moral sidestep'. They defend policy on the basis of its relevance to conservative moral principles, not effectiveness. This is consistent with the broader moral and political pursuit of partial state shrinkage which Conservative politicians and the social groups they represent have pursued since the 1970s.

More-than-harm reduction: Engaging with alternative ontologies of ‘movement’ in UK drug services

“…We draw here then on qualitative data generated during a time (in 2014) when the policy rhetoric of recovery was just starting to take effect in service implementation, at the same time that drug-related deaths were rising dramatically (doubling between -2015, ONS, 2016, possibly as collateral (ACMD, 2016;Boyt, 2014;Stevens, 2019). While this data may be limited in understanding the specificity of current drug service practices in a fast-moving sector, we feel it is relevant for understanding an enduring focus on recovery in a context where drug-related deaths are continuing to rise (ONS, 2019).…”

Advocating for diamorphine: Cosmopolitical care and collective action in the ruins of the ‘old British system’

“…Therefore, in these changing times, defined by ever divisive patterns of stigma (where 'addicts' are unbelievable and underserving) and a political economy open to moral judgements (e.g. Stevens, 2019), advocacy is needed to embolden these subjugated peoples and modes of living with drugs.…”

The Politics of Being an "Expert": A Critical Realist Auto-Ethnography of Drug Policy Advisory Panels in the UK

“…Readers may worry that my writing of this article is motivated by resentment around the issues that led me to resign from the ACMD (as described below). They may also suspect, with some justification, that I was becoming increasingly frustrated by the government's failure to implement ACMD recommendations to which I had contributed (Stevens, 2019). There is perhaps another article to be written about the 'emotional labour' (Grandey, 2014) I should also note that I share a white, male, upper/middle-class, middle-aged sociodemographic status with many of those who were already on the ACMD.…”

“…They imported into our discussions presuppositions which many social scientists would describe as positivist. Stevens, 2019). Neither was the ACMD's recommendation that there be an evaluation of the Psychoactive Substances Act 2016 that was 'independent and adequately resourced' (ACMD, 2015a).…”