Under the bridge in Tehran: Addiction, Poverty and Capital

Abstract

The article provides an ethnographic study of the lives of the ‘dangerous class’ of drug users based on fieldwork carried out among different drug using ‘communities’ in Tehran between 2012 and 2016. The primary objective is to articulate the presence of this category within modern Iran, its uses and its abuses in relation to the political. What drives the narration is not only the account of this lumpen, plebeian group vis à vis the state, but also the way power has affected their agency, their capacity to be present in the city, and how capital/power and the dangerous/lumpen life come to terms, to conflict, and to the production of new situations which affect urban life.

Towards a cultural political economy of the illicit

“…This situation is somehow surprising, not only because of its empirical relevance but also for the significant theoretical implications that this rubric has for critical economic thinking. Illicit economies cover a broad range of scales, from global crime (Hall, 2018; Madsen, 2009) to everyday practices of urban survival (Ghiabi, 2018; Hubbard, 2019; Inverardi-Ferri, 2018b). Similarly, the emergence of organizationally fragmented and geographically dispersed production networks (Yeung and Coe, 2015) has widened the space for illegality (Gregson and Crang, 2016).…”

Arrestees Substance Abuse: Moving Toward Rehabilitation Camps or Prisons

“…Few countries offer opioid agonist therapy in detention centers, except for Iran, where methadone therapy is provided in compulsory treatment centers [30,31]. Arrestees sent by the police to compulsory camps are treated free of charge in Iran [15], however, policymakers have established a cohesive program to prevent relapse and re-entry into the addiction cycle after discharge. Individual, family, and group counseling is also an important part of camp services for the prevention of relapse after recovery and achieving complete abstinence.…”

“…the Police, besides fighting against drug-related crimes, is also involved in providing mandatory treatment programs for addictions [15]. For this purpose, homeless addicts are arrested and sent to rehabilitation camps by the Iranian Anti-Narcotics Force [16].…”

Coordination, cooperation, and creativity within harm reduction networks in Iran: COVID-19 prevention and control among people who use drugs

“…By 2014, opioid agonist therapy and needle exchange programs were available in more than 5000 clinics and nearly 500 centres, respectively ( National AIDS Committee Secretariat, 2015 ). The non-government sector has played a significant role in this trajectory, in promoting a sharper focus on harm reduction vs punitive/criminal justice approaches, and in providing access to care among the most marginalised PWUD ( Ghiabi, 2020b ). In recent years, the harm reduction infrastructure has been utilised to scale-up therapeutic interventions among PWUD ( Alavi et al., 2019 ; Mirzazadeh et al., 2019 ), and is well-positioned for provision of COVID-19 control measures too, given appropriate public health leadership in policy development and allocation of resources.…”